by phillipw | Jan 8, 2020 | BR, KE, ST
So Keats was Wrong So Keats was wrong: a star is not so firm Or steadfast as a lover’s sonnet yearns For it to be. In fact, his urgent sperm Was probably more loyal and his tears For Fanny Brawne more strident than two bright, Twin stars. Besides, some stars...
by phillipw | Dec 14, 2019 | KE, RI, VE
Keats, Rimbaud, Verlaine Day after day I sit and write French verse Forms, villanelles and terzanelles. At noon I leave the British Library. “Much worse Existences,” I say, smugly, “are strewn Across the urban universe.” Today I noticed from the bus Paul...
by phillipw | Dec 13, 2019 | KE
Keats’ House before Arthur A meager air like dimmed eternity Pervades the scene. The purple of the spikes Of crocuses is like an undersea Phenomenon in coral depths the likes Of which John Keats could not have seen Or conjured in his poetry. But still This...
by phillipw | Oct 29, 2019 | KE, PO
The Political Poet I really LUV the way they try to see A poet’s politics. The latest life Of Keats puts forward a pitiful plea To think of him as if the loving strife Inside him isn’t quite the point. His heart And lungs were doomed and we’re supposed to care...
by phillipw | Sep 29, 2019 | GO, JO, KE
The Hard Truth The myth rides gently on that wasting death. Consumption weakened him as if a spell Were cast by Tories hating lines with breath For weaker ones among us. He was well In brain and soul, this little giant filled With all nobilities, this genius...
by phillipw | Sep 29, 2019 | JO, KE
John Keats ‘the last lineal descendent of Apollo’ ~ Arthur Hallam The inmost soul of poetry is Keats. Its spirit is derived from locks of hair And curls about his temples. Muse’s seats In heaven rock with wonder and despair When goddesses consider...
