The Complete Poems: Second Edition

There are two editions of Keats's Complete Poems which Iadmire very much. This one edited by Jack Stillingerand published by The Belknap Press of Harvard University(ISBN: 0674154312) and the Penguin Classics, 3rdedition, edited by John Barnard (ISBN: 0140422102).I very much like the fuller notes and 6 Appendicesand the blunt, full, but suggestive chronology inthe Penguin, along with the complete writing andpublishing information fully written out ratherthan abbreviated into initials one might have tolook up. The importance of Jack Stillinger to Keats studies is citedby both John Barnard (Penguin classics edition of -TheComplete Poems-) and Elizabeth Cook (Oxford World'sClassics edition of -The Major Poems-, ISBN:0192840630). John Barnard says in his "Introduction":"Jack Stillinger's -The Poems of John Keats- (Cambridge,Mass., 1978) and his -The Text of John Keats- (Cambridge,Mass., 1974) now give the fullest available account ofKeats's text, and are based on a comparision of the printed texts with the wealth of manuscript material,now mainly in American libraries." And this edition compiled and edited by JackStillinger has it glories, too. The first of theseis the excellent "Introduction," which has meaningfulinsights in it concerning Keats, but which can alsobe related to one's own experiences in life, thoughStillinger does not himself so relate them. A fewof these I like very much are: "Obviously Keats hadan exceptionally keen sensitivity to the minute particulars of objects, sounds (as well as variousshades of silence), and motions in the world aroundhim." *** "He nursed his brother Tom in a lengthyillness that ended in death on December 1st of this year [1818], and as an added complication he met andfell in love with Fanny Brawne. More than anythingelse, I think, it is this combined experience ofsuffering, death, and love all at once, against abackground of serious conversation, reading, and thinking, that accounts for Keats's sudden rise toexcellence in his poetry." There is no way, of course, to share Keats'spoetry in a review of this sort. To read it,experience it, think about it, and realizethe Beauty -- and also the Truth -- in itis the reward. -- Robert Kilgore.

No personal library can be complete without at least a sampling of Keats, and this is the book that everyone should get. All the poems -- even the fragments -- are here, with line numbers included. The several appendices and letter excerpts make the collection even more valuable. If you are trying to decide which Keats collection to get, you have found the best.

Jack Stillinger devoted much of his professional life to establishing the definitive texts of Keats's poems. This painstaking work has resulted in a number of changes to the poems. As to the quality of the poetry itself, at his best Keats approaches Shakespeare, as in the Odes. Stillinger is also an excellent teacher; I had his course on Keats 26 years ago, and it was fascinating. While the other reviewers have done a very good job of describing the beauty of Keats's poetry, one point Stillinger made about Keats as a person is worth repeating: Keats was the one English romantic poet that you would want to ask for advice about a personal problem you had. All the rest, Blake, Wordsworth, Shelley (especially!), and Byron would have given you advice that, if followed, would have been wildly impractical. Keats, as shown by his letters, was not pretentious and had a large degree of human decency and common sense. While these characteristics are not one usually associated with romantic poets, I think that they contribute to the strength of his poetry.

...and he rivals Shakespeare as the most perfect lyrical poet, the most exquisite shaper of words. Passages in the Odes (Melancholy is my favorite) are about as good as this language can expect to get, at least from a descriptive and sensual standpoint. Keats doesn't achieve the meditative transcendence of Wordsworth, but he has his own meditations -- usually more modest in scope, but made noble by the perfection of their expression.

If you're sitting on a ledge overlooking a lush green valley on a gorgeous spring day, and you're reading Endymion, or Ode to a Nightingale, or The Eve of St Agnes, you could very well be so overwhelmed by the magnificence of creation that, without giving it a moment's thought, you would consign yourself to the breathtaking blue, to try to be one with it all, and because you've reached the absolute pinnacle of existence. How could you possibly top that?*ahem*This edition isn't annotated as well as it might be, but who cares? The poems are all there, and they're as heartbreakingly beautiful as ever. How can you--in all honesty--claim to have lived without having read Keats?