John Keats Forum

by **dks** » Thu Apr 20, 2006 6:46 pm

Hmmm...I need to dig, dig, dig deeper and find out where his relatives might be...

by **Saturn** » Thu Apr 20, 2006 9:37 pm

dks wrote:Hmmm...I need to dig, dig, dig deeper and find out where his relatives might be...

..and stalk them?? :lol:

by **dks** » Thu Apr 20, 2006 9:39 pm

Saturn wrote:
dks wrote:Hmmm...I need to dig, dig, dig deeper and find out where his relatives might be...

..and stalk them??

No, unfortunately, I wouldn't have that kind of time! :lol:

by **Credo Buffa** » Thu Apr 20, 2006 11:20 pm

dks wrote:You know I asked this question because while I was in London in January we (my Lit. London group) went to Dickens' house and got to meet Lucinda Dickens (wonderfully nice lady)...his greatx4 granddaughter--the resemblance to Dickens himself was eerily uncanny and by the end of the evening just a few of us sat down in Dickens' wine cellar drinking and talking with the curators and Lucinda, his direct descendent!! It was unreal...

That sounds sort of like my being at Wordsworth's house at Rydal Mount. The house is still owned and run by the Wordsworth family, so it's very likely that the person who sold me my ticket and the person who chatted with me briefly about the rain was one of his direct descendents.

However, the fact that they still own the house sort of had the opposite effect on me. Unlike Dove Cottage, which was teeming with Wordsworthian energy, Rydal felt too lived-in, sort of tainted by the other minds and spirits to have passed through there. It felt more like just an old house rather than Wordsworth's house.

The garden, though, was another story :wink:

Perhaps that's the curse of being descended from greatness: you're always in it's shadow, always feeling the pressure to live up to it somehow, to continually portray that image to the rest of the world.

by **Saturn** » Thu Apr 20, 2006 11:26 pm

Hartley Coleridge....

Sean and Julian Lennon....

Lisa Marie Presely...

J.F.K Junior...

Need I go on :?:

by **Malia** » Thu Apr 20, 2006 11:37 pm

No famous people in my family--that I know of. But, I googled my name once and found that I share my full name with a lady who was tried as a witch back in the 1600's.

by **Credo Buffa** » Thu Apr 20, 2006 11:45 pm

Malia wrote:No famous people in my family--that I know of. But, I googled my name once and found that I share my full name with a lady who was tried as a witch back in the 1600's.

Hee hee, that's kinda fun :wink:

I'm related to Steve McQueen somehow. . . don't exactly know the particulars, but my dad's mother is a McQueen.

The first of my ancestors in America, at least that I'm aware of, was a McQueen sent to "the colonies" as a Jacobite prisoner in 1716. . . Not exactly famous, but sorta cool. Famous as a significant part of Scottish history, anyway.

by **Malia** » Thu Apr 20, 2006 11:45 pm

Credo Buffa wrote: Unlike Dove Cottage, which was teeming with Wordsworthian energy, Rydal felt too lived-in, sort of tainted by the other minds and spirits to have passed through there. It felt more like just an old house rather than Wordsworth's house.

The garden, though, was another story

I felt something similar when I visited Keats house--though it wasn't because the house had a lot of "lived-in" energy, but it seemed to me like people were trying desperately to cling to Keats the *man* so the energy seemed kind of 'forced'. But on the *heath* I felt a different energy--one that seemed to flow more freely and poetically and I could sense him there much better.

Which gets me on to another topic--if Keats were to haunt a place where would it be and how would he haunt?

I think Keats would probably be a boring ghost. Just sitting around reading much of the time. Maybe an unsuspecting visitor to his House would hear the odd disembodied cough every once in a while

Seriously, though, I don't think he'd haunt a house. . .he'd be more of a nature lover and haunt the woods or something like that. Frankly, he was so happy to die at the end, I don't think he'd have had the energy or inclination to haunt *anyone* anywhere!

OK, I'm obviously procrastinating and babbling at the same time. Back to work I go. . .

by **Credo Buffa** » Thu Apr 20, 2006 11:52 pm

Malia wrote:I felt something similar when I visited Keats house--though it wasn't because the house had a lot of "lived-in" energy, but it seemed to me like people were trying desperately to cling to Keats the *man* so the energy seemed kind of 'forced'. But on the *heath* I felt a different energy--one that seemed to flow more freely and poetically and I could sense him there much better.

Yeah, I felt the same way when I was there. I think part of it, at least considering that I was there just last fall, was that they've been doing so much continual work on the house that it still felt like "a work in progress". Rooms were very bare, a lot of things were missing, it was almost too quiet. It is nice, though, to have that mental image now of the place he lived, so I can imagine him sitting in those rooms, running into Fanny Brawne in the halls :wink:

But it definitely felt different being out walking through the streets and the Heath, though, just like you say

Malia wrote: Frankly, he was so happy to die at the end, I don't think he'd have had the energy or inclination to haunt *anyone* anywhere

I prefer to think of his spirit chatting with Homer's and Shakespeare's over tea :wink:

by **dks** » Fri Apr 21, 2006 2:31 am

I can tell you that Keats was at the Trilussa Palace Hotel at the Piazza Ippolito Nievo back on January 7, 2006--with me...

wanna know details??

by **dks** » Fri Apr 21, 2006 2:42 am

Wait. The above post didn't sound right--I didn't mean for that to sound provocative!! :lol:

What I meant was--aw, hell, you guys are attuned--you know what I meant...but I'll tell the short story--if you guys want to hear it...

by **Credo Buffa** » Fri Apr 21, 2006 2:43 am

Yes, yes, yes!!! Story!!!

by **dks** » Fri Apr 21, 2006 2:46 am

Credo Buffa wrote:Yes, yes, yes!!! Story!!!

Ok..yes...you guys MUST hear this. But I don't have time to type it just now...I've got my 11 and 7 year olds mesmerized by Harry and the Dementors on DVD, with their 3 year old little brother running at top speed in front of them and taking the remote... :lol:

It's not like this ALL the time...! But--wait for it--I'll type it in another hour or so... :wink:

by **Credo Buffa** » Fri Apr 21, 2006 2:51 am

dks wrote:Ok..yes...you guys MUST hear this. But I don't have time to type it just now...I've got my 11 and 7 year olds mesmerized by Harry and the Dementors on DVD, with their 3 year old little brother running at top speed in front of them and taking the remote...

Heaven forbid there should be any disruption of Harry!!! :shock:

(I can feel Despondence's eyes roll from here)

by **dks** » Fri Apr 21, 2006 3:43 am

Credo Buffa wrote:
dks wrote:Ok..yes...you guys MUST hear this. But I don't have time to type it just now...I've got my 11 and 7 year olds mesmerized by Harry and the Dementors on DVD, with their 3 year old little brother running at top speed in front of them and taking the remote...

Heaven forbid there should be any disruption of Harry!!!

(I can feel Despondence's eyes roll from here)

What?? Who doesn't like Harry??

Ahh... the story...ok--wait I'll need a snack--

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