Poetry should surprise by a fine excess and not by singularity, it sho…

John Keats
228 citations
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. ✨ Letter to John Taylor, 27 February 1818, in H. E. Rollins (ed.) 'The Letters of John Keats' (1958) vol. 1, p. 238
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On a lone winter evening, when the frost Has wrought a silence. ✨ John Keats (1841). The poetical works of John Keats, p.228
We have oftener than once endeavoured to attach some meaning to that aphorism, vulgarly imputed to Shaftesbury, which however we can find nowhere in his works, that ridicule is the test of truth.
Nor do we merely feel these essences for one short hour no, even as these trees that whisper round a temple become soon dear as the temples self, so does the moon, the passion posey, glories infinite … ▶
Poetry should be great and unobtrusive, a thing which enters into one's soul, and does not startle it or amaze it with itself, but with its subject. ✨ Letter to J. H. Reynolds, 3 February 1818, in H. … ▶
And how they kist each other's tremulous eyes. ✨ John Keats (2010). Bright Star: The Complete Poems and Selected Letters, p.7, Random House

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. ✨ Letter to John Taylor, 27 February 1818, in H. E. Rollins (ed.) 'The Letters of John Keats' (1958) vol. 1, p. 238

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