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
That can never be if I continue a
dead lump. I shall be expecting anxiously an answer from you. If it does
not arrive in a few days this will have miscarried, and I shall come
straight to ---- before I go to town, which you I am sure will agree had
better be done while I still have some ready cash. By the middle of
October I shall expect you in London. We will then set at the theatres. If
you have anything to gainsay, I shall be even as the deaf adder which
stoppeth her ears.
* * * * *
CXX.--TO CHARLES BROWN.
Winchester, September 23, 1819.
* * * * *
Do not suffer me to disturb you unpleasantly: I do not mean that you
should not suffer me to occupy your thoughts, but to occupy them
pleasantly; for I assure you I am as far from being unhappy as possible.
Imaginary grievances have always been more my torment than real ones--You
know this well--Real ones will never have any other effect upon me than to
stimulate me to get out of or avoid them. This is easily accounted
for--Our imaginary woes are conjured up by our passions, and are fostered
by passionate feeling: our real ones come of themselves, and are opposed
by an abstract exertion of mind. Real grievances are displacers of
passion. The imaginary nail a man down for a sufferer, as on a cross; the
real spur him up into an agent. I wish, at one view, you would see my
heart towards you. 'Tis only from a high tone of feeling that I can put
that word upon paper--out of poetry. I ought to have waited for your
answer to my last before I wrote this. I felt however compelled to make a
rejoinder to yours. I had written to Dilke on the subject of my last, I
scarcely know whether I shall send my letter now. I think he would approve
of my plan; it is so evident. Nay, I am convinced, out and out, that by
prosing for a while in periodical works I may maintain myself decently.
* * * * *
CXXI.--TO CHARLES WENTWORTH DILKE.
Winchester, Friday, October 1 [1819].
My dear Dilke--For sundry reasons, which I will explain to you when I come
to Town, I have to request you will do me a great favour as I must call it
knowing how great a Bore it is. That your imagination may not have time to
take too great an alarm I state immediately that I want you to hire me a
couple of rooms (a Sitting Room and bed room for myself alone) in
Westminster. Quietness and cheapness are the essentials: but as I shall
with Brown be returned by next Friday you cannot in that space have
sufficient time to make any choice selection, and need not be very
particular as I can when on the spot suit myself at leisure. Brown bids me
remind you not to send the Examiners after the third. Tell Mrs. D. I am
obliged to her for the late ones which I see are directed in her hand.
Excuse this mere business letter for I assure you I have not a syllable at
hand on any subject in the world.
Your sincere friend
JOHN KEATS.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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