'I think I shall be among the English Poets after my death, ' John Keats
soberly prophesied in 1818 as he started writing the blankverse epic
Hyperion. Today he endures as the archetypal Romantic genius who
explored the limits of the imagination and celebrated the pleasures of
the senses but suffered a tragic early death. Edmund Wilson counted him
as 'one of the half dozen greatest English writers, ' and T. S. Eliot
has paid tribute to the Shakespearean quality of Keats's greatness.
Indeed, his work has survived better than that of any of his
contemporaries the devaluation of Romantic poetry that began early in
this century. This Modern Library edition contains all of Keats's
magnificent verse: 'Lamia, ' 'Isabella, ' and 'The Eve of St. Agnes';
his sonnets and odes; the allegorical romance Endymion; and the
five-act poetic tragedy Otho the Great. Presented as well are the
famous posthumous and fugitive poems, including the fragmentary 'The Eve
of Saint Mark' and the great 'La Belle Dame sans Merci, ' perhaps the
most distinguished literary ballad in the language. 'No one else in
English poetry, save Shakespeare, has in expression quite the
fascinating felicity of Keats, his perception of loveliness, ' said
Matthew Arnold. 'In the faculty of naturalistic interpretation, in what
we call natural magic, he ranks with Shakespeare.'