Petitions for Immortality: Scenes from the Life of John Keats [Paperback]

Robert Cooperman (Author), Arthur Wensinger (Editor)

Book Description

Publication Date: November 24, 2008

“Using the perfect metaphor and the finely crafted line, Bob brings us the pathos of the old English ballads, come to us through Appalachia, a tale of passion, betrayal, loyalty, jealousy, faithfulness, guilt , full of all we know of human faults and virtues. A great read!” – Carol Hamilton, Poet Laureate of Oklahoma 1995-1997, author of: Vanishing Point. “Monologues as dark and as crimson as a medieval folk song, Cooperman spins an old tale come to life, gone to death, and come to life again. The reader wants to push on …a tale of passion and tragedy, but can't help lingering over the poignant echoes of each and every individual poem.” – Robert King, Director, Colorado Poets Center. Author of: Stepping Twice into the River (2005). “Thickened with sex, violence, betrayal and liberal doses of moonshine – verses for people who like their poetry peppered with polecats, silver daggers, hanging judges and Voodoo Sallys. All told, a rich and satisfying pot of cruel ironies and bittersweet resignations, served up with all the classic ingredients – ignorant pride, misplaced passion and estranged notions of honor.” – George Wallace, Editor, Poetrybay.com

Editorial Reviews

From Booklist

With a life so short and an achievement so large, Keats is one of literature's most poignant figures, and the actual circumstances of his life--parents' early deaths; loss of their legacy to a mean-spirited, larcenous guardian; one brother's death and the other's immigration to America; critical savaging of his first books; incapacity, through poverty and illness, to wed his beloved--constitute as pathetic a biography as one could imagine, despite which only Wordsworth's best equals his best as the greatest English Romantic poetry. Cooperman's biography in poems presents Keats in a series of monologues by the poet and his acquaintances, starting with 14-year-old John at his mother's deathbed and concluding at the deathbed of the friend who attended the poet's demise some 11 years later. Musically managing a verse line that suggests blank verse but isn't, and employing a diction that echoes that of Keats' and his contemporaries' letters, Cooperman forges an ideal introduction to his tragic subject and entree (or afterword) to Andrew Motion's magnificent full-scale biography Keats (1998). Ray Olson
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Review

"...these wonderfully chosen "scenes" from a life teeming with family, friends and adversaries give the reader not biography, not history, but a glimpse into the life of John Keats the man . . . earthy; surprising and original."

Marie Harris, Poet Laureate of New Hampshire

"Robert Cooperman presents the human side of John Keats. Each scene is vividly created. You hate Fanny Brawne's mother, dread tuberculosis, and exult in the poets much-desired immortality!"

Penelope Scambly Schott, author of The Perfect Mother.

"Not a dreamy bard enamor ad of fairies end nymphs, but the ambitious hardworking poet whose aim was to join the ranks of Chaucer, Spenser, and Shakespeare, Cooperman's Keats is clear-eyed, earthy, mercurial, and achingly young, long suffering, and finally defeated."

Joseph Hutchison

"Once again, he has created a plethora of gritty characters, has made history live with us careful research, and gives us protagonists seeking to find a heroic stance in a tawdry World."

Carol Hamilton, Poet Laureate Emerita of Oklahoma, author of: Once the Dust

 

--This text refers to the Kindle Edition edition.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 82 pages
• Publisher: Higganum Hill Books (November 24, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 096351850X
• ISBN-13: 978-0963518507
• Product Dimensions: 8.5 x 5.5 x 0.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 3.8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #360,492 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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5.0 out of 5 stars Brought to life with realistic, human characterization, June 12, 2004

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Midwest Book Review (Oregon, WI USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Petitions for Immortality: Scenes from the Life of John Keats (Paperback)

Petitions For Immortality: Scenes From The Life Of John Keats is a work of free-verse poetry by Robert Cooperman and structured around chosen moments from the life of John Keats. Brought to life with realistic, human characterization, these impressive and original verses paint a solid picture of a transcendental literary figure of English literature. How Stephens Remembers John Keats From Their Days At Guy's Hospital: Why he ever attended a lecture/I'll never know: Poetry his shining Lady;/surgery, a serpent he handled/with thick gloves.//His opinion of his place in the pantheon/was huge as the stone dragon sculpting/the boundary of old London./His verses were no better/than my own green efforts,/but he barely let his eye rest/on the odes I showed him;/he yawned, "Stick to surgery,"/as if saving lives were not better than stuffing sausages...