John Keats quotes - page 8

In Poetry I have a few axioms, and you will see how far I am from their centre. I think Poetry should surprise by a fine excess and not by singularity - it should strike the reader as a wording of his own highest thoughts, and appear almost a remembrance - Its touches of Beauty should never be halfway thereby making the reader breathless instead of content: the rise, the progress, the setting of imagery should like the Sun come natural to him - shine over him and set soberly although in magnificence leaving him in the luxury of twilight - but it is easier to think what Poetry should be than to write it - and this leads me on to another axiom. That if Poetry comes not as naturally as the leaves to a tree it had better not come at all. (John Keats)
To Sorrow I bade good-morrow, And thought to leave her far away behind; But cheerly, cheerly, She loves me dearly; She is so constant to me, and so kind: I would deceive her And so leave her, But ah! she is so constant and so kind. View quote
John Keats
Some think I have lost that poetical ardour and fire 'tis said I once had- the fact is, perhaps I have; but, instead of that, I hope I shall substitute a more thoughtful and quiet power. View quote
John Keats
And such too is the grandeur of the dooms We have imagined for the mighty dead; All lovely tales that we have heard or read: An endless fountain of immortal drink, Pouring unto us from the heaven's brink. View quote
John Keats
As when, upon a tranced summer-night, Those green-rob'd senators of mighty woods, Tall oaks, branch-charmed by the earnest stars, Dream, and so dream all night without a stir, Save from one gradual solitary gust Which comes upon the silence, and dies off, As if the ebbing air had but one wave. View quote
John Keats
And for her eyes: what could such eyes do there But weep, and weep, that they were born so fair? View quote
John Keats
No, no, go not to Lethe, neither twist Wolfs-bane, tight-rooted, for its poisonous wine; Nor suffer thy pale forehead to be kiss'd By nightshade. View quote
John Keats
Full on this casement shone the wintry moon, And threw warm gules on Madeline's fair breast, As down she knelt for heaven's grace and boon; Rose-bloom fell on her hands, together prest. View quote
John Keats
And still she slept an azure-lidded sleep, In blanched linen, smooth, and lavender'd. View quote
John Keats
Who are these coming to the sacrifice? To what green altar, O mysterious priest, Lead'st thou that heifer lowing at the skies, And all her silken flanks with garlands drest? View quote
John Keats
If poetry does not come as naturally as leaves to a tree, then it better not come at all. (John Keats)
Bright star, would I were steadfast as thou art-- Not in lone splendour hung aloft the night And watching, with eternal lids apart, Like nature's patient, sleepless Eremite. View quote
John Keats
To Sorrow I bade good-morrow, And thought to leave her far away behind; But cheerly, cheerly, She loves me dearly: She is so constant to me, and so kind. View quote
John Keats
--then on the shore Of the wide world I stand alone, and think Till love and fame to nothingness do sink. View quote
John Keats
When it is moving on luxurious wings, The soul is lost in pleasant smotherings. View quote
John Keats
Thou wast not born for death, immortal bird! No hungry generations tread thee down; The voice I hear this passing night was heard In ancient days by emperor and clown. View quote
John Keats
Feel we these things? - that moment have we stept Into a sort of oneness, and our state Is like a floating spirit's. View quote
John Keats
Ghosts of melodious prophesyings rave Round every spot where trod Apollo's foot. View quote
John Keats
Don't be discouraged by a failure. It can be a positive experience. Failure is, in a sense, the highway to success, inasmuch as every discovery of what is false leads us to seek earnestly after what is true, and every fresh experience points out some form of error which we shall afterwards carefully avoid. View quote
John Keats
Nothing ever becomes real till experienced – even a proverb is no proverb until your life has illustrated it. View quote
John Keats
Talking of Pleasure, this moment I was writing with one hand, and with the other holding to my Mouth a Nectarine -- how good how fine. It went down all pulpy, slushy, oozy, all its delicious embonpoint melted down my throat like a large, beautified Strawberry. (John Keats)
Touch has a memory. View quote
John Keats
The problems of the world cannot possibly be solved by skeptics or cynics whose horizons are limited by the obvious realities. We need men who can dream of things that never were. View quote
John Keats
My spirit is too weak - mortality Weighs heavily on me like unwilling sleep. View quote
John Keats
Season of mists and mellow fruitfulness, Close bosom-friend of the maturing sun; Conspiring with him how to load and bless With fruit the vines that round the thatch-eves run. View quote
John Keats