Letters of John Keats to His Family and Friends

Name: Letters of John Keats to His Family and Friends
Author: Keats, John

Keats, John

Keats, John, 1795-1821 -- Correspondence; Poets, English -- 19th century -- Correspondence

You will be glad to hear, under my own hand (though Rice says we are like
Sauntering Jack and Idle Joe), how diligent I have been, and am being. I
have finished the Act, and in the interval of beginning the 2{d} have
proceeded pretty well with Lamia, finishing the 1{st} part which consists
of about 400 lines. I have great hopes of success, because I make use of
my Judgment more deliberately than I have yet done; but in case of failure
with the world, I shall find my content. And here (as I know you have my
good at heart as much as a Brother), I can only repeat to you what I have
said to George--that however I should like to enjoy what the competencies
of life procure, I am in no wise dashed at a different prospect. I have
spent too many thoughtful days and moralised through too many nights for
that, and fruitless would they be indeed, if they did not by degrees make
me look upon the affairs of the world with a healthy deliberation. I have
of late been moulting: not for fresh feathers and wings: they are gone,
and in their stead I hope to have a pair of patient sublunary legs. I have
altered, not from a Chrysalis into a butterfly, but the contrary; having
two little loopholes, whence I may look out into the stage of the world:
and that world on our coming here I almost forgot. The first time I sat
down to write, I could scarcely believe in the necessity for so doing. It
struck me as a great oddity--Yet the very corn which is now so beautiful,
as if it had only took to ripening yesterday, is for the market; so, why
should I be delicate?

       *       *       *       *       *




CIX.--TO CHARLES WENTWORTH DILKE.


Shanklin, Saturday Evening [July 31, 1819].

Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.

Opening the text

Letters of John Keats to His Family and FriendsKeats, John

General

Letters of John Keats to His Family and Friends

Keats, John

Keats, John, 1795-1821 -- Correspondence; Poets, English -- 19th century -- Correspondence

You will be glad to hear, under my own hand (though Rice says we are like
Sauntering Jack and Idle Joe), how diligent I have been, and am being. I
have finished the Act, and in the interval of beginning the 2{d} have
proceeded pretty well with Lamia, finishing the 1{st} part which consists
of about 400 lines. I have great hopes of success, because I make use of
my Judgment more deliberately than I have yet done; but in case of failure
with the world, I shall find my content. And here (as I know you have my
good at heart as much as a Brother), I can only repeat to you what I have
said to George--that however I should like to enjoy what the competencies
of life procure, I am in no wise dashed at a different prospect. I have
spent too many thoughtful days and moralised through too many nights for
that, and fruitless would they be indeed, if they did not by degrees make
me look upon the affairs of the world with a healthy deliberation. I have
of late been moulting: not for fresh feathers and wings: they are gone,
and in their stead I hope to have a pair of patient sublunary legs. I have
altered, not from a Chrysalis into a butterfly, but the contrary; having
two little loopholes, whence I may look out into the stage of the world:
and that world on our coming here I almost forgot. The first time I sat
down to write, I could scarcely believe in the necessity for so doing. It
struck me as a great oddity--Yet the very corn which is now so beautiful,
as if it had only took to ripening yesterday, is for the market; so, why
should I be delicate?

       *       *       *       *       *




CIX.--TO CHARLES WENTWORTH DILKE.


Shanklin, Saturday Evening [July 31, 1819].

Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.

Letters of John Keats to His Family and Friends

Letters of John Keats to His Family and Friends

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