The Complete Poems by John Keats: book review

The Complete Poems (1820, this edition 1994) is a full collection of one of the most famed Romantic poets in the world along with Percy Bysshe Shelley and Lord Byron.

John Keats (1795-1821) was an English Romantic poet who died in Rome at the age of 25 with tuberculosis.

I studied the poetry of Keats in high school and university, but, through this compilation I have re-discovered his works. Steering away from his most noted poems, such as Ode to a Grecian Urn, Ode to a Nightingale, On First Looking into Chapman’s Homer, and To Autumn, I turn to his poems that I had previously overlooked or forgotten.

I love his love of nature and beauty. I love Lamia and Bright Star. And many more.

I prefer footnotes near the poem rather than at the end of the book. However, there is a timeline at the front of the book, and a slight introduction that is quite useful. Other than that, this is a great collection.

MARTINA NICOLLS

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MARTINA NICOLLS is an international aid and development consultant, and the author of: The Paris Residences of James Joyce (2020), Similar But Different in the Animal Kingdom (2017), The Shortness of Life: A Mongolian Lament (2015), Liberia’s Deadest Ends (2012), Bardot’s Comet (2011), Kashmir on a Knife-Edge (2010) and The Sudan Curse (2009).

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