BrokenLyre wrote:Ok friends...The time has come.....
After many years of people asking me why I like John Keats, I decided to answer their questions in one evening: A formal lecture given by me on June 1st, 2012. It will be a 2 1/2 hour lecture over a 3 hour period. It will be called, "A Romantic Evening With John Keats." I have invited 18 guests, and we'll have English tea, English foods that Keats mentioned in his letters and poems, full English tableware (with spoons from 1819) claret, flowers, pictures, music, candles, etc.... all things Keatsian. The atmosphere is important of course. We'll set up the room according to the 19th century London tea-room layout (as I can best determine).
I could use your help. Here are my questions:
- What poem or idea would you want to communicate to those coming (all are curious, but none know literature, poetry or Keats....). A novice group of adults (nobody under 40 here).
- If you could tell them 1 thing that they should know about his poems, what would that be?
- What other elements can I add to the English ambiance? (I'm going for the 1819 look)
- What other suggestions can you give that might make the evening most memorable?
Gosh, I'd love to go, brokenlyre, but needless to say, it's been many years since I've "seen" 40!
Poems: all of them, but especially "Ode to a Nightingale" (the most beautiful thing written in any language, at any time - past, present, future, but it won't hurt to touch upon all the Odes, especially "Melancholy" and the "Urn." This is the season for them -- their composition that is); and the stylistic perfect "To Autumn"; and of course, "Bright Star." I also admire "This Living Hand," and both Hyperions. The opening stanza of Hyperion: A Fragment is, as you know, so gorgeous, so visual! But, I'm partial, but aren't we all??!! God, there are so many! How can we Keatsians limit it to just a few!? Oh, definitely "On Looking Into Chapman's 'Homer'" simply because Keats was 19 - 20 when he wrote it and the circumstances surrounding its composition is just remarkable: what? one edit? And of course, it's a huge precursor of what was to come from the super-gifted young man. I love all things about Keats. . . .
When I taught Keats to my eighth graders, I focused on his "living year," starting with the compostion of the first Hyperion (my "kids"[or at least those who "bought into" Keats, and there were more than one would think] were amazed he wrote most of that poem while nursing his dying younger brother. I believe that little tidbit of fact humanized Keats in the minds of some of my students) and concluded with the great "To Autumn."
My students were dumbfounded when they learned that most of what he is remembered for now was written in the span of one year, that he wrote no poetry after the age of 23, and that he died when he was only 25 years and 4 months old, and would have died alone in Rome, if dear Haslam hadn't convinced Severn to accompany Keats.
Read, if you haven't done so, the poetry of "Child of Woz" in the "Where's the Poet?" thread. She was a student of mine who was/is influenced by Keats.
It'd be great if you could present your lecture not only dressed as Keats, but as Keats!!
Any more plans for this summer for a get-to-gether?
'
Thanks for helping with this wonderful event.
Ennis wrote:BrokenLyre wrote:Any more plans for this summer for a get-to-gether?
Thanks for helping with this wonderful event.
Cybele wrote:Ennis wrote:BrokenLyre wrote:Any more plans for this summer for a get-to-gether?
Thanks for helping with this wonderful event.
I'm still in if you are. I've gotten a "<insert heavy sigh here> OK" from my spouse, altho' I do need a good bit of advance notice. We've got some excursions planned this summer, out-of-town visitors, etc, so some days are already spoken for.
BTW, there was an article in this morning's Sunday paper travel section about visiting Louisville. It talked mostly about Churchill Downs and the baseball bat factory. It didn't mention my favorite spots in the town, at all.
BrokenLyre wrote:Ennis, Cybele, Cath, Marwood (and all others) - thanks for reading my post and for your kind suggestions. You gave me some interesting ideas and where to go with it. I forgot celery - yes, a good suggestion. How could I forget this? There will be candles and other English touches. I will take these ideas along with my own - and see what I come up with. I must do a few sonnets, Chapman's Homer (easier for people to grasp), and Nightingale, To Autumn, some parts of his letters, but I know that people can only take so much information in one night. I'll have to keep it at a simple level with some depth here and there against the background of his life.
I will also include some comments from this forum to show Keats's relevance and importance to people today. So I appreciate your enthusiasm. If any of you were to come to this, you would enjoy it I am sure - but I doubt you would learn very much as my audience is uninitiated and so I must start with where they are at. It will be fun but also emotional for me to do this - so my son agreed to read the things I can't read. Oh well. Can't help my heart from feeling.
About this summer....my 20 year old daughter is getting married August 4th so I won't be heading to Louisville, unfortunately. The cost of travel got absorbed by the wedding. Bummer.
Return to Keats around the world
Users browsing this forum: No registered users and 5 guests