Selected Poems: Keats - John Keats

Over the course of his short life, John Keats (1795-1821) honed a raw talent into a brilliant poetic maturity. By the end of his brief career, he had written poems of such beauty, imagination and generosity of spirit, that he had - unwittingly - fulfilled his wish that he should `be among the English poets after my death'. This wide-ranging selection of Keats's poetry contains youthful verse, such as his earliest known poem `Imitation of Spenser'; poems from his celebrated collection of 1820 - including `Lamia', `Isabella', `The Eve of St Agnes', `Ode to a Nightingale' and `Hyperion' - and later celebrated works such as `La Belle Dame sans Merci'.

Also included are many poems considered by Keats to be lesser work, but which illustrate his more earthy, playful side and superb ear for everyday language. n