Keats clearly would have been a different kind of poet if he hadn't
known he was going to die young. (I think he must have known somehow
even before the blood on the pillow.) He may have been as good, but
different.
As for the Stevens poem, I don't think today you could get away with
calling one of your symbols a symbol. At least not in a creative
writing class.
Goodbye, Mrs. Papadopoulos, and thanks.
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Written on the day that Mr. Leigh Hunt left Prison
by John Keats
What though, for showing truth to flatter'd state,
Kind Hunt was shut in prison, yet has he,
In his immortal spirit, been as free
As the sky-searching lark, and as elate.
Minion of grandeur! think you he did wait?
Think you he nought but prison walls did see,
Till, so unwilling, thou unturn'dst the key?
Ah, no! far happier, nobler was his fate!
In Spenser's halls he strayed, and bowers fair,
Culling enchanted flowers; and he flew
With daring Milton through the fields of air:
To regions of his own his genius true
Took happy flights. Who shall his fame impair
When thou art dead, and all thy wretched crew?
--
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Jon Corelis www.geocities.com/joncpoetics/
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