With an Introduction by
Paul Wright
'What the imagination seizes as Beauty must be truth'
So wrote the Romantic poet John Keats(1795-1821) in 1817.
This collection contains all of his poetry: the early work, which is
often undervalued even today, the poems on which his reputation rests
including the Odes and the two versions of the uncompleted epic Hyperion,
and work which only came to light after his death including his attempts
at drama and comic verse. It all demonstrates the extent to which he
tested his own dictum throughout his short creative life.
That life spanned one of the most remarkable periods in English history
in the aftermath of the French Revolution and this collection, with
its detailed introductions and notes, aims to place the poems very
much in their context. The collection is ample proof that Keats deservedly
achieved his wish to 'be among the English Poets after my death'.