The complete poems of John Keats and Percy Bysshe Shelley Book

"The highest moral purpose aimed at in the highest species of the drama, is the teaching the human heart, through its sympathies and antipathies, the knowledge of itself." Shelley

John Keats and Percy Shelley had a lot in common. Not only were they friends and ran in the same social circles, but both suffered from consumption and died in their twenties (although Shelley, an avid sailer, ended up dying in a boating accident rather than from his illness). Both wrote extensively about nature and Greek mythology in their poems, both tried their hands at play-writing, and both were obsessed with death, perhaps due to their life long illnesses. They also both used the word "pinion" an inordinate amount. Reading their complete works side by side, it's hard not to compare them to each other. While they are very similar in many ways, they are also very different.

The main topics Keats dealt with were poetry, nature, Greek myth, and love. While Ode to a Nightingale and Ode on a Grecian Urn are undoubtedly masterpieces, most of his writing is rather frivolous. I couldn't help noticing some of the tricks he used to make his poems fit the meter. For example, if he needs two syllables in a line, he'll use "sighed", but if he only has room for one, the word becomes "sigh'd". Escape becomes 'scape, began becomes 'gan, among becomes 'mong, behaviour is changed into 'haviour, etc.

He'll also omit a letter in order to make words rhyme. Over doesn't rhyme with soar, but o'er does. He'll also occasionally rhyme a word with itself "They trembled to each other. - Helicon!/O fountian'd hill! Old Homer's Helicon!" (Endymion Book II:716-717) or repeat a word several times for the sake of meter "How he does love me! His poor temples beat/To the very tune of love - how sweet, sweet, sweet." (Endymion Book II:764-765)

He was definitely a breast man: "O sweetest essence! sweetest of all minions!/God of warm pulses, and dishevell'd hair,/And panting bosoms bare!" (Endymion Book III:983-985) Also, "Ah! I see the silver sheen/Of thy broider'd, floating vest/Cov'ring half thine ivory breast;/Which, O heavens! I should see,/But that cruel destiny/Has placed a golden cuirass there;/Keeping secret what is fair." (To Georgia Augusta Wylie 44-50) No doubt his most awkward reference to breasts is "Those dainties made to still an infant's cries" (Isabella; or The Pot of Basil: A Story from Boccaccio XLVII:6)

His epic 4,000 line poem Endymion is mostly filler and would have been much improved if it were a tenth as long. Due to its poor reception among critics, Keats was too discouraged to finish his follow up poem Hyperion, which is too bad, because Hyperion is actually quite good. Overall, his poems start getting much better in 1820. Other than his famous Odes, my favorite poem by him is Lamia.

Can man be free if woman be a slave?
Chain one who lives, and breathes this boundless air
To the corruption of a closéd grave!
Can they whose mates are beasts, condemned to bear
Scorn, heavier far than toil or anguish, dare
To trample their oppressors? in their home
Among their babes, thou knowest a curse would wear
The shape of woman -- hoary Crime would come
Behind, and Fraud rebuild religion's tottering dome.
-The Revolt of Islam Canto II, XLIII, 1045-1053

Shelley also wrote about poetry, nature, Greek myth, and love, however unlike Keats he also had an abiding interest in metaphysics and politics making his poetry much more abstract and philosophical. Shelley was opposed to slavery, kings, and organized religion and was a strong proponent of women's rights. He doesn't always rhyme, although I noticed he employed alliteration from time to time. I found the endless descriptions of scenery dull, but it's understandable one would want to preserve a mental picture of a beautiful scene in the era before cameras.

Shelley's epic 5,000 line poem The Revolt of Islam, which features a 126 line dedication to his wife, could have been much shorter, but the questions it deals with concerning the oppression of the lower class, the tyranny of religion, the horrors of slavery, and the inequality of the sexes, makes it much more substantive than Keats' frivolous descriptions of nature and Greek goddesses. Here, he expresses the futility of revenge:

Oh wherefore should ill ever flow from ill,
And pain still keener pain for ever breed?
We all are brethren -- even the slaves who kill
For hire, are men; and to avenge misdeed
On the misdoer, doth but Misery feed
With her own broken heart! O Earth, O Heaven!
And thou, dread Nature, which to every deed
And all that lives or is, to be hath given,
Even as to thee have these done ill, and are forgiven!
- The Revolt of Islam Canto V, XI, 1810-1818

Shelley's Tragedy, The Cenci, is truly a masterpiece. Although it was based on a true story, it was controversial when it was written as it deals with rape and incest. I wish Shelley focused more on plays than poetry as his political and philosophical ideas would be better expressed through drama. His best poems are Julian and Maddalo, Ozymadias, and Adonais which was written upon the occasion of Keats' death.

Shelley also had a proficiency with languages and translated the works of Homer, Goethe, and Dante amongst others. Also included in this collection are remarks from Mary Shelley which put her husband's poems into context and explain his motivation for writing them.

I found the writings of both Keats and Shelley boring for the most part, however, there were enough great lines to justify continued reading.