POP STAR SINGS KEATS

[Matt]

I just wanted to know if people had noticed/what they thought of the new Natasha Beddingfield single 'These Words' which contains the line 'read some Byron, Shelley and Keats...'

Do people feel cheated that a young pop star has the nerve to mention the three old masters in just another poppy tune or are people pleased and interested that this new girl, fresh on the pop scene, demonstrates the literary abilty (I dont know whether she wrote the song but she must know who they are if she is singing about them!) to mention Keats and his contemporaries in what is actually a simple but beautifully written song?

Let me know what you think guys!

[Saturn]

I haven't heard the song yet, but I have to say that I very much doubt that she wrote the song, or that she has even heard of Byron, Keats or Shelley.

I am willing to be proved wrong though.

Who cares what she's singing anyway when she looks so good?

[Matt]

Stephen your very last comment impressed me so much! Just because you hasve some sort of intellect doesnt mean you dont have to be a typical bloke! Wel done!0.

[Saturn]

I'm not sure that I deserve to be called a typical bloke - I'm not one of those neanderthal, knuckle - dragging morons, nor am I one of the lentile-eating hippy types.

I thought the idea that you can't be a proper man if you are any way intelligent was a bit old-fashioned. I though people were more tolerant than that.

Keats certainly appreciated fine looking laydeez, and Byron; a man of incredibly high intellect, was voracious in his appetite for women - he could no more not look at a beautiful woman than breathe.

What's wrong with the appreciation of a beautiful woman?

Without it, no man would ever have written poetry - discuss.

Here's the immortal Shakespeare's thoughts:

“…when would you, my liege, or you, or you,
In leaden contemplation have found out
Such fiery numbers as the prompting eyes
Of beauty’s tutors have enriched you with?
Other slow arts entirely keep the brain,
And therefore, finding barren practisers,
Scarce show a harvest of their heavy toil.
But love, first learned in a lady’s eyes,
Lives not alone immured in the brain,
But with the motion of al elements
Courses as swift s as thought in every power,
And gives to every power a double power,
Above their function and their offices.
It adds a precious seeing to the eye –
A lover’s eyes will gaze an eagle blind.
A lover’s ear will hear the lowest sound
When the suspicious head of theft is stopped.
Love’s feeling is more soft and sensible
Than are the tender horns of cockled snails.
Love’s tongue proves dainty Bacchus gross in taste.
For valour, is not love a Hercules,
Still climbing trees in the Hesperides?
Subtle as Sphinx, as sweet and musical
As bright Apollo’s lute strung with his hair;
And when love speaks, the voice of all the gods
Make heaven drowsy with the harmony.
Never durst poet touch a pen to write
Until his ink were tempered with love’s sighs.
O, then his lines would ravish savage ears,
And plant in tyrants mild humility.
From women’s eyes this doctrine I derive.
They sparkle still the right Promethean fire.
They are the books, the arts, the academes,
That show, contain, and nourish all the world.
Else none at all in aught proves excellent.”
Love’s Labour’s Lost IV, iii

Nuff said, I think?

[Richard]

Yes
Keats and Yeats are on my side

Richard

[dks]

Keats and Yeats--that combination of two poets has just struck me...someone out there knows exactly why...

[Saturn]

[dks]

:?:

Sorry. I know someone who loves Yeats, and, of course, I love Keats and so there have been many conversations and sharing of stories and whatnot. I have since been reading more Yeats and this other person has since been reading much more Keats...

Anyway...I've properly confused myself now...

[Saturn]

And the rest of us...

[Richard]

Meet you at the cemetary gates
by Morrisey
Its first left after Keats Close

Did you know there are 22 Keats thoroughfares in the A to Z of London?
Richard

[Saturn]

Meet you at the cemetary gates
by Morrisey
Its first left after Keats Close

Did you know there are 22 Keats thoroughfares in the A to Z of London?
Richard

Oh no - not a Morrissey fan. Can I never escape them?

[edwardkeenaghan]

Yes denise i know what you mean
I am like that person you mentioned i was always yeats inclined but since being introduced to keats it has opened a new door and i belive those two poets offer that if you started with keats at some stage yeats will open a door for you.

[dks]

And the rest of us...

[dks]

Yes denise i know what you mean
I am like that person you mentioned i was always yeats inclined but since being introduced to keats it has opened a new door and i belive those two poets offer that if you started with keats at some stage yeats will open a door for you.

You're a very smart young man, Edward.

[Saturn]

Yeats is too dense for me I can't feel him or love him the way I love Keats' work.

Call me a philistine but that's how I feel.

Yeats just doesn't grab me in the same way.

I recognise his greatness and indeed studied him for two years at school but he never touched my heart the way Keat's writing swallows you up and spits you out again, enriched with beauty.