The letter below is obviously an attempt to mimic the style of John Keats. My source for the Keatsean phrasing and vocabulary is The Letters Of John Keats, Edited by Maurice Buxton Forman,Third Edition, Oxford University Press, 1948. These letters show that Keats’s best biographer was Keats himself in the unrestrained letters to family and friends, and to Fanny Brawn whom he loved with a passion. To paraphrase Forman: Can anyone truly know the man until he has read the Keats letters “which pierce the sense and live within the soul?”
Hampstead Saturday Morning
My dear Williamson,
Your letter gave me great satisfaction. I have just returned from Chichester--Nothing worth speaking of happened there--I took down some thin paper and wrote on it a little Poem call’d “St Agnes Eve”--which I may send to you when it is finished. I decided yesterday that I would not run with that most vulgar of all crowds, the Literary--although I understand another Satire is expected from Byron call’d Don Giovanni. I was intrigued by your remark that many so-called scholars today question the legitimacy of Shakspeare. They feel that he lacked the Education and lofty Position to have written Hamlet or Lear or MacBeth. I wonder if I may look upon him hereafter with unmixed pleasure as I do upon my Stratford on Avon day with Bailey. -- I am drawn to Hazlitt and his Arguments for and against aristocracy and democracy, on the Privileges of the few and the claims of the many, on Liberty and slavery, power and the abuse of it, peace and war, which are very ably handled, with the spirit of a poet and the acuteness of a Philosopher. I affirm, Sir, that Poetry, that the imagination, generally speaking, delights in power, in strong excitement, as well as in truth, in good, in right, whereas pure reason and the moral sense approve only of the true and good. Shakspeare himself seems to have had a leaning to the arbitrary side of the question, perhaps from some feeling of contempt for his own origin.--You asked about Shelley. Ah, poor Shelley, he speaks of you frequently at Hunt’s literary gathering . I think he has his Quota of good qualities, in sooth, la!!--I trust this letter will inspire you to oblige me with a few lines that I may pass on to Hazlitt and Wordsworth concerning the grandeur of your tall Pines, the colorful fishing boats, and the amusing Casinos which I am assured, alas, outshine the Stars. I laught when I read your delightful description of lovely Anessa (of the magic quill) and the romantic Victoria (by the way where is Indiana?) and straightforward I put pen to paper to cry my love to beloved Fanny, in a Sonnet that includes these lines:
Ah! dearest love, sweet home of all my fears,
And hopes, and joys, and panting miseries,--
To-night, if I may guess, thy beauty wears
A smile of such delight,
As brilliant and as bright,
As when with ravish’d, aching, vassal eyes,
Lost in soft amaze,
I gaze, I gaze!
Please remember me kindly to Lofthouse and Flanagan--and of course sweet Sage--and others at the Den and urge them to send me copies of their latest songs and Sonnets.
This is high minded stuff Gene. I didn't know you had it in you. This reminds me how thin my own knowledge of literature and indeed of most erudite and scholarly pursuits are in comparision to those who seem to have been born with a quill in hand a quick silver wit like you Gene.
Great literature here from you. Reminded me that my oldest grandson Steve, Jr who lives in Washington DC has gone to England to see Shakespearian plays. He loves them from the time he graduated high school, is now 24 years old and plans to be a lawyer. His fiancee is great on Shakespeare too. I don't understand Shakespeare much myself but had to read in literature class.
Of course I'm flattered and honoured to be mentioned in the same breath as true notables. I love the style and the reserve and the good common sense in the writing and in the points of view. Thank you, Gene.
John
Life keeps us too busy sometimes. I just managed to reach this letter. Please let Keats know that I'm glad he hasn't forgotten me-- yet. After all, we only talked once. And when you write, let him know that I disagree with those so-called vulgar scholars questioning the legitimacy of Shakespeare. My wife has had this problem with Chinese PhD's that claim she couldn't have written her own books because she is a woman without a lofty education although she did earn an MFA at the Chicago Art Institute. Who ever said that one has to be a scholar to have talent. As a matter of fact, most PhD's have no talent. They wrap their diploma around them like armor to ward off the rest of "lowly" mankind incase reality might wear off on them and cause their eyes to open to the real world. We are probably better off keeping these scholars behind ivy covered walls where they can do less damage. Imagine if these people ran the world instead of that Texas cowboy in the White House.
Awwww...To Sweet! I Enjoyed Your Letter Gene!
Let Him Know Indiana Is Only A Hop Skip & A Jump From Anywhere Being Called "Crossroads of America".....but ahhh England....I have always wanted to visit there & go shopping :)
"Ah! dearest love, sweet home of all my fears,
And hopes, and joys, and panting miseries,--
To-night, if I may guess, thy beauty wears
A smile of such delight,
As brilliant and as bright,
As when with ravish’d, aching, vassal eyes,
Lost in soft amaze,
I gaze, I gaze!"
Simply-------> BEEE----U-----TEA-----FULL!!!
Much Love & Happiness
Embraced ~ Embrassé
Vickie
Reviewed by blue soplain
7/28/2008
egads! the very soul [of this and others] is an anachronism. .. i felt like i was both guilty and pleasured; that literary crowd and their swagger. . . God bless them. ... i wonder, might this Keats fellow knnow anymore poetica and mayhap to be persuaded to converse yet again with you?? the girl with the amgic quill is parched and needs paper vehemently for inspiration. ..
youve outdone and outlasted me here. .. a feast for the mind and a treat for the heart. . .and this is such a richful.l iamginative piece....a discourse on old circles. ..
do you happen to know Mr Thomas too??? the crazy Welsh adn thier infamous wordiness. .. .but i could listen to some ramlbe all nighht, at the foot of a fire. . ..
this was pure delight!!!
more more
ness
First, let's establish that Keats was one of the principal poets of the English Romantic movement. And that he received constant critical attacks from the periodicals of the day. And then the fact, regardless of this criticism, elaborate word choice and sensual imagery characterize Keats' poetry, including a series of odes that were his masterpieces and which remain among the most popular poems in English literature. And now on to which Keats' letters expounded on his aesthetic theory of "negative capability", are among the most celebrated by any writer. And now, my thoughts on Letter from England in short story by Gene Williamson in the role of Keats, is that he knows where he fits in the class of society.
Letter from England, I detect, has the informative verbiage of what correspondence should be, (and was at that time of Keats' life), to have a civil, gentlemanly, but yet engaging, refined conversation between letter writer (Williamson/as Keats) and his receiver played by himself. Evident is that the discussion of politics moves this letter, in my opinion, votable in the Smithsonian archives quality, further in the direction as relevant views of Williamson/as Keats. This piece offers the sense of a complex interaction amongst literary colleagues and the oft snobbery within the literary scene in which Williamson/as Keats seems to distance himself from...it is good to see my name Sage incorporated into the body of this letter. You know I adore it, and to be included in the present tense to a letter that would have been written in the era in which I write...this is a historical moment, Williamson...[Sage Sweetwater]
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