English poetry -- 19th century; Keats, John, 1795-1821
But "men of genius," Keats himself has said, "are as great as certain
ethereal chemicals, operating in a mass of created matter: but they have
not any determined character." That indefiniteness of literary aim--that
want of willpower, without which genius is a curse, which have hampered
the young man all along--are now still further emphasised by the
restlessness of a passionate lover. John Keats cannot stay indoors this
fine May morning, "fitting himself for verses fit to live," when the
girl who is to him the incarnation of all poetry is visible in the
next-door garden. He throws down his pen and hurries out to join her.
Contemporary portraits of Fanny Brawne have not succeeded in representing
her as beautiful: and at first sight Keats has complained, that, although
she "manages to make her hair look well," she "wants sentiment in every
feature." Propinquity, however, has achieved the usual result; and now
the young poet believes his inamorata to be the very apotheosis of
loveliness: he is never weary of adoring her
Sweet voice, sweet lips, soft hand, and softer breast,
Warm breath, light whisper, tender semitone,
Bright eyes, accomplished shape!
If the truth be told, Fanny Brawne is a fairly good-looking young woman,
blue-eyed and long-nosed, her hair arranged with curls and ribbons over
her brow: she has a curious but striking resemblance to the draped
figure in Titian's "Sacred and Profane Love": and for the rest, she is
by no means poetic or sentimental, but a voluminous reader, whose strong
point is an extraordinary knowledge of the history of costume. She
accepts the homage of Keats, much as she accepts the fact of their tacit
betrothal, and the fact that her mother disapproves of it--without
taking it too seriously in any sense. And now, though not particularly
keen on open-air enjoyment, she accepts his daily suggestion of a walk
with her; and they go out into the beautiful meadows which were part of
Hampstead a hundred years ago.
Keats is in his glory in the fields. Always, the humming of a bee, the
sight of a flower, the glitter of the sun, have "seemed to make his
nature tremble: then his eyes flashed, his cheek glowed, his mouth
quivered." Peculiarly sensitive, as he is, to external influences, his
chief delight is to "think of green fields ... I muse with the greatest
affection on every flower I have known from my infancy." The man who
is so soon to "feel the daisies growing over him," takes one of his
intensest pleasures in watching the growth of flowers; and now, as an
exquisite music, "notes that pierce and pierce," descends through the
young green oak-leaves, the poet seizes this golden moment of the May
world and transmutes it into song.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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