Saturday, May 19, 2007

Just in time ...

...Clive James on Keats. (Hat tip, Joe of New York.)

"Kingsley Amis said in an essay that no English reader could know much about poetry who did not think at some time in his life that Keats, because of the initial impact of his verbal music, was the greatest poet in English after Shakespeare. But Amis definitely meant that an enthusiasm for Keats was a callow enthusiasm, because the poetry was callow poetry."

A judgment such is this may be why Amis was merely a competent poet, not a great one. Keats is the greatest poet in English after Shakespeare. Long before the French Symbolists came along, Keats was making music out of words:

Turn the key deftly in the oiléd wards,
And seal the hushéd casket of my soul.

He was the clearest and most authentic thinker among the romantics, and he had the most engaging personality of all of them. He is the one you would have wanted to meet and know. There is the chilling story of his asking for a candle after he had coughed up blood. 'I know the colour of that blood; - it is arterial blood; - I cannot be deceived in that colour; - that drop of blood is my death-warrant; - I must die.' Brave fellow, too.

4 comments:

  1. Anonymous2:05 PM

    I read this extract in the print edition earlier today. Most enjoyable. We've corresponded previously about the joys of newspaper book review sections: this piece illustrates the point perfectly. I'll probably not read Clive James's book and would never have read an essay on Keats in the normal run of things. Yet because it was in the book review section, I read it and very much enjoyed (and learnt from) it.

    I've just sent you a link to a post on the BookBlog which addresses the issue of book reviewing on blogs vs "print media" -- of tangential relevance to my comment above.

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  2. Anonymous4:17 PM

    Clive James on Wittgenstein

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  3. Anonymous5:31 PM

    Frank , here is a comment that I wrote on May 3, 2007. Maxine's comment made me think of it:

    Book Reviewing is an art, an important art. I cannot tell you how may times I have heard a person on a Sunday say to the person behind the counter, "I am just checking to make sure the book review is included." The Book Review section of the New York Times is the reason why many people buy that paper. Now, I am sure that this is true of book reviews throughout the country. People who love to read about books and talk about books enjoy book reviews from their newspapers. To paraphrase Milton, "To ban book reviewing is to kill reason itself." Now, I know that it may seem dramatic but there has to be a place namely the daily newspaper that provides a voice about books. There is nothing wrong with on line or "e" reviews that medium provides a useful and valid service for readers as well. The problem arises when papers decide that book reviewing is unnecessary and that you can go on line or elsewhere for a review. Should not the newspaper be the place where you go for information that matters? What a glaring contradiction? A newspaper that exists for reading the printed word bans the reviewing of books. When I think of the movement away from newspaper book reviews, Shakespeare's sonnet # 66 comes to mind: "And art made tongue-tied by authority

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  4. Anonymous5:43 PM

    Know just what you mean about checking, Joe -- the Saturday Times is very big (probably not as big as the NYT, but by our standards, big), and I always check with our local guy that he's included the book review supplement, as it has been known to be missed out in the plethora of free DVDs, glossy fashion extras, advertising inserts, etc.

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