Sunday, July 28, 2013

Sunday Poetry - John Keats

One of my favourite sonnets. It always makes me wonder what Keats would have done if he'd lived. It also provides the quotation for the crossword clue Fred is working on in Brief Encounter, one of my favourite movies. He asks Laura for help with the missing word in this quotation, Huge cloudy symbols of a high - something in seven letters. Laura knows it's Romance.
That might be an idea for a series of Sunday poems. Famous quotations from books & movies & the poems they came from.

When I have fears that I may cease to be
Before my pen has glean'd my teeming brain,
Before high-piled books, in charactery,
Hold like rich garners the full ripen'd grain;
When I behold, upon the night's starr'd face,
Huge cloudy symbols of a high romance,
And think that I may never live to trace
Their shadows, with the magic hand of chance;
And when I feel, fair creature of an hour,
That I shall never look upon thee more,
Never have relish in the faery power
Of unreflecting love;--then on the shore
Of the wide world I stand alone, and think
Till love and fame to nothingness do sink.

6 comments:

  1. Beautiful sonnet; great idea for a series! This one also always makes me think of Pamela Dean's fantasy novel Tam Lin.

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    1. It is a beautiful sonnet, isn't it? I don't know Pamela Dean, maybe another author to look for?

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  2. I'd forgotten that bit of Brief Encounter - what a classic weepy! I visited Carnforth Railway Station, where it was partly filmed, last year, and can now dry the dishes with my Brief Encounter (sort of apt for housework!) tea-towel.

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    1. I love tea towels so a Brief Encounter one would be lovely. I didn't realise the train station was still there & had a gift shop!

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  3. I love this one too. It has such a beautiful sound when read aloud.

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    1. Yes, it's one of my favourites even though it's so poignant.

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