Becs&Cass ArE ThE BeST =).. OuR FaV iS OdE On MeL = BeST

[Becs&Cass]

Hewwwoooo EvEryOnE =)...
OdE On MeL Is OuR Fav PoEm.. We ThiNk KeaTs is GaY Tho..?? Is THis TrU?? Do U aGreE??

We Are iN EnGLiSh aTm... StuDyn KeaTs... & CuM oNTo ThE SiTe To LeaRnnnnnn

byezzzz WuV u ALL

xox PEACE OUT[/b]

[Saturn]

Is this a joke??

Come on, who wrote it?

[Becs&Cass]

HeYyyyy

nooooo ... this isnt a joke!!! .. we are fully being serz..ME N BECS are always serious we are bein made study Keats in english...! .. hehe..

byezzz

[Saturn]

Your "English" is totally unintelligible, why don't you try writing real words first then we'll see if you are serious.

[Elli]

This may come as a surprise, but being a teenager myself, I know of many people who actually type like this on a regular basis.

It's a tragic degradation of the English language, but that's what texting and MSN does to us, I suppose.

[Saturn]

Welcome to john-keats.com Elli - it's alwasy a vital shot in the arm for us old-timers when a new contributer pops up.

Hope you're interested to stick with it and post some thoughts. We definitely need more women and teenagers on here - it's a bit of a male only club at the minute, so It would be interesting to hear a female perspective on Keats and poetry in general.

As the largest contributer here, I'd be interested to know how you came across Keats and the site itself.

Anyway, about texts - I agree it is a total pervertion of the English language and that it should not be used in writing, but it has it's place. It's fine for sending quick messages and calls for help in an emergency and all, but when it starts creeping into everday writing it's a bit annoying. I know from experience that text-speak is being used by primary school kids in their 11+ papers which just shows how prevalent mobiles are - T'wasn't like that in my day, etc....

Now I'm beginning to sound like my Dad or something - arrghhhh!!!

I'm not an old fuddy-duddy, honestly!!

[Elli]

I confess, I joined this forum out of spite. I originally found the site through Google (I was doing research in preparation for my A Level English Literature course... we're studying Keats!). My dad was lecturing me about my supposed over-usage of the computer (he's obsessive about these things) and joked that through doing my research, I'd probably just end up on a "John Keats chat room". Instead, I found the next best thing I'm sure if I told him I'd joined this forum, he'd have a seizure.

But I'd be happy to stick around, it's always good to belong to a forum where at least SOME of the members seem vaguely intelligent.

I discovered Keats in the classroom, hardly surprising. He featured in our GCSE course of pre-1914 poets. We studied To Autumn and La Belle Dame sans Merci. And I don't mind admitting that I liked both!

Now I'm doing him in a lot more detail for my A Level course.

Going back to the issues raised in the post... yes, texts are fantastic, but text-talk should be restricted to the neon screen of a phone. I always type emails and post on forums correctly... sloppy grammar and bad spelling aggravates me (yes, I really am that sad!).

[Saturn]

There's nothing sad about using correct spelling and grammar - it's quite a rare thing now, But I also try my best to spell and punctuate correctly - though grammar is a weak point and punctuation I find most difficult to do.

It's quite refreshing to see someone so young who is proud to say that they actually want to be able to spell things correctly.