"In Poetry I have a few Axioms, and you will see how far I am from their Centre. [referring to his poem endymion] 1st. I think 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.
~ 2nd. Its touches of Beauty should never be half way ther[e] by making the reader breathless instead of content: the rise, the progress, the setting of imagery should like the Sun come natural to him ~ shine over him and set soberly although in magnificence leaving him in the Luxury of twilight ~ but it is easier to think what Poetry should be than to write it ~ and this leads me on to another axiom. That if Poetry comes not as naturally as the Leaves to a tree it had better not come at all. However it may be with me I cannot help looking into new countries with 'O for a Muse of fire to ascend!' ~ If Endymion serves me as a Pioneer perhaps I ought to be content."
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| John Keats by Wm. Hilton. National Portrait Gallery, London** |
** Wikipedia
~ Selected Poems and Letters by John Keats, Edited by Douglas Bush, Houghton Mifflin Company, 1959
