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The Sonnets of John Keats

Gelesen von Bruce Kachuk

The superb poetic skill and exquisite sensitivity of John Keats is brilliantly illustrated in this collection of meticulously selected sonnets. Keats had a passion for poetry as he had for life itself. His own life, although cut short at an early age, was one of creativity, productivity and one ornamented with immense poetic skill. His was a life that left an indelible mark of wonder on the world, an enduring legacy, a mark of greatness. Keats would write of his heroes, "How many bards gild the lapses of time!" - other poets and writers whose plight he often lamented, whose talent he always praised and whose loss, should it occur, he grieved. Keats would describe great artistry and the unsparing nature of time, "The gradual sand that through an hour-glass runs,- / A woodland rivulet,- a Poet's death." Indeed, Keats would draw his poetic inspiration not only from gifted poets but also from the magnificence of the natural world around him, "The poetry of earth is ceasing never."

Keats's sonnets resound with a search for meaning and, where none seems probable, create a compelling vision of what may be to come. In Keats's work we witness the poetry of fascination, of hope, of gratitude, of uncertainty and of entreaty, "But when I am consumed in the Fire, / Give me new Phoenix wings to fly at my desire."

These sonnets reflect the heart of a man enraptured, albeit the heart of a man too soon to sound its final beat. But until that fateful day we behold a heart strong and determined with the perennial uncertainty foremost in mind, "O Darkness! Darkness! ever must I moan, / To question Heaven and Hell and Heart in vain."
- Summary by Bruce Kachuk (1 hr 10 min)

Chapters

Dedication of the Volume of 1817 to Leigh Hunt

1:14

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O Chatterton! how very sad thy fate!

1:21

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Byron! how sweetly sad thy melody!

1:20

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Spenser! a jealous honourer of thine

1:15

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To My Brother George

1:20

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As from the darkening gloom a silver dove

1:23

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Written on a Summer Evening

1:18

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To G. A. W.

1:10

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To --

1:18

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To a Friend Who Sent Me some Roses

1:19

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O Solitude! if I must with thee dwell

1:18

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Oh! how I love, on a fair summer's eve

1:24

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To a Young Lady who Sent Me a Laurel Crown

1:18

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Written on the Day that Mr. Leigh Hunt Left Prison

1:24

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To Kosciusko

1:17

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How many bards gild the lapses of time!

1:17

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On First Looking into Chapman's Homer

1:18

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Keen fitful gusts are whispering here and there

1:15

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On Leaving Some Friends at an Early Hour

1:16

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Happy is England! I could be content

1:19

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To My Brothers

1:25

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On the Grasshopper and Cricket

1:19

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Addressed to Haydon

1:13

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Addressed to the Same

1:13

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After dark vapours have oppress'd our plains

1:24

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On Seeing the Elgin Marbles for the First Time

1:11

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To Haydon (With the Foregoing)

1:12

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When I have fears that I may cease to be

1:09

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On Leigh Hunt's Poem, the "Story of Rimini"

1:13

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Written on a Blank Space at the End of Chaucer's Tale of "The Flowre and the Le…

1:18

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On a Picture of Leander

1:15

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On the Sea

1:21

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To the Nile

1:20

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On Visiting the Tomb of Burns

1:26

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Written in Burns' Cottage

1:20

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To Ailsa Rock

1:26

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Ben Nevis

1:11

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To one who has been long in city pent

1:11

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The Human Seasons

1:11

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Written before Re-reading King Lear

1:19

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From Ronsard, Fragment of a Sonnet

1:10

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Answer to a Sonnet by J. H. Reynolds

1:31

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To Homer

1:19

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To John Hamilton Reynolds

1:11

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To a Lady Seen for a Few Moments at Vauxhall

1:12

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To Sleep

1:18

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On Fame

1:19

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On Fame

1:20

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Why did I laugh to-night? No voice will tell

1:31

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A Dream, after Reading Dante's Episode of Paolo and Francesca

1:30

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If by dull rhymes our English must be chain'd

1:18

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The day is gone, and all its sweets are gone!

1:33

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To Fanny

1:26

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His Last Sonnet

1:24

Read by Bruce Kachuk