A Thing of Beauty is a Joy Forever

"La Belle Dame Sans Merci" by Sir Frank Dicksee (1853-1928) Today is the anniversary of the death of John Keats, one of the major poets of the Romantic era. He died of tuburculosis on this day in 1821 at the age of 25. In his brief life he wrote several poems that are considered major works in English literature such as "La Belle Dame Sans Merci," "Ode on a Grecian Urn," "Ode to Psyche," and "Endymion." Here is one of my favorite Keats poems: On First Looking into Chapman's Homer Much have I travel'd in the realms of gold, And many goodly states and kingdoms seen; Round many western islands have I been Which bards in fealty to Apollo hold. Oft of one wide expanse had I been told That deep-brow'd Homer ruled as his demesne; Yet did I never breathe its pure serene Till I heard Chapman speak out loud and bold: Then I felt I like some watcher of the skies When a new planet swims into his ken; Or like stout Cortez when with eagle eyes He star'd at the Pacific -- and all his men Look'd at each other with a wild surmise -- Silent, upon a peak in Darien.