BrokenLyre wrote:There is a definite feeling I get from the lines that makes me feel as though I had written it. I wonder if others in our Forum ever experience that unique feeling. As Keats said, reading a good poem "should strike the reader as a wording of his own highest thoughts, and appear almost a remembrance." That doubly fascinates me because I have thought the same thing. Keats's own statement here is a "remembrance for me" since I have thought the same, but I also get a sense of "remembrance" reading his poems, that's why it doubly fascinates me.
I don't know how other people read poetry, but I guess I read poetry with the anticipation of attachment - whether it be mental, emotional or experiential. I find more to "attach to" in Keats than any other writer. That's probably true for others as well.
I agree with you Raphael. Well said. I don't "literally" mean that I feel as though I had written it (that's just my shorthand style), since as you noted, we could never write so well. What I mean is that his words have a deep connection with me (and others) so that it feels as though he is saying what I have thought or felt - but in a much better way than I ever could.
For example: In his poem, "To one who has been long in city pent" he ends his ideal day by stating
"He mourns that day so soon has glided by
E'en like the passage of an angel's tear
That falls through the clear ether silently"
That conjures up remembrances I have as a little boy at my grandfather's house. I would sit in his chair, looking out the back porch onto a gorgeously bright summer day. I would watch the sunlight streak through trees and see and hear the shaking of the leaves as the wind blew. I listened intently to the cool water of the stream in the backyard. I can still see the brown poplar trees with their delicate yellow leaves creating rapidly shifting shadows from the cool breeze. My grandfather was blind and could not see the beauty I saw. So I didn't want the day to end and I was mournful that the day was passing (gliding by). So when I read Keats's words above it speaks in a way that reminds me of what I thought and felt, but not in his exact words. They are so apt to my experience that it just feels like I should have thought or written them, though obviously I never could. That's what I meant.
Petrarch wrote: Reminds me of what was her name in the beginning of Dante's [i]Inferno? [i] Was it Rebecca or hmmmm...can't remember. She was placed there due to reading romance novels, and had committed adultery with a young man who had been reading them with her.
I used to love "Ode to a Nightingale," until I heard Ben Whishaw reciting it in Bright Star. Now I absolutely ADORE it. I can't say it's my definite favourite because I'm still discovering some of Keats's poems--I am only 18--, but this Ode is beautiful!
I'm thinking about buying a recording of Keats's poems. Any recommendations?
I'm so glad I found this website, it's not easy to find someone in my environment who'll discuss Keats...
Thibaut wrote:
I'm thinking about buying a recording of Keats's poems. Any recommendations?
Saturn wrote:Thibaut wrote:
I'm thinking about buying a recording of Keats's poems. Any recommendations?
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Realms-Gold-Joh ... 964&sr=1-6
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