Poetry Quotes by John Keats

I find I cannot exist without Poetry

— John Keats

The poetry of the earth is never dead.

— John Keats

They swayed about upon a rocking horse, And thought it Pegasus.

— John Keats

I think I shall be among the English Poets after my death.

— John Keats

What shocks the virtuous philosopher, delights the chameleon poet.

— John Keats

Poetry should... should strike the reader as a wording of his own highest thoughts, and appear almost a remembrance.

— John Keats

Verse, Fame and Beauty are intense indeed, But Death intenser - Death is Life's high meed.

— John Keats

If poetry does not come as naturally as leaves to a tree, then it better not come at all.

— John Keats

“Life is but a day; A fragile dew-drop on its perilous way From a tree’s summit.”

— John Keats

Neither poetry, nor ambition, nor love have any alertness of countenance as they pass by me.

— John Keats

How does the poet speak to men with power, but by being still more a man than they

— John Keats

A drainless shower Of light is poesy: 'tis the supreme of power; 'Tis might half slumbering on its own right arm.

— John Keats

“I do think the bars That kept my spirit in are burst - that I Am sailing with thee through the dizzy…

— John Keats

“I bade good morrow, And thought to leave her far away behind; But cheerly, cheerly, She loves me dearly; She is so…

— John Keats

“Wide sea, that one continuous murmur breeds Along the pebbled shore of memory! Many old rotten-timber'd boats there be Upon thy vaporous…

— John Keats

The poetry of earth is never dead When all the birds are faint with the hot sun, And hide I cooling trees,…

— John Keats

“When by my solitary hearth I sit, When no fair dreams before my “mind’s eye” flit, And the bare heath of life…

— John Keats

Poetry should surprise by a fine excess and not by singularity, it should strike the reader as a wording of his own…

— John Keats

The genius of poetry must work out its own salvation in a man; it cannot be matured by law and precept, but…

— John Keats

“That men, who might have tower'd in the van Of all the congregated world, to fan And winnow from the coming step…

— John Keats

Poetry should be great and unobtrusive, a thing which enters into one's soul, and does not startle it or amaze it with…

— John Keats

The genius of poetry must work out its own salvation in a man; it cannot be matured by law and precept, but…

— John Keats

“I still don't know how to work out a poem. A poem needs understanding through the senses. The point of diving into…

— John Keats

We hate poetry that has a palpable design upon us - and if we do not agree, seems to put its hand…

— John Keats

For Poesy alone can tell her dreams, With the fine spell of words alone can save Imagination from the sable charm And…

— John Keats

Season of mists and mellow fruitfulness, Close bosom-friend of the maturing sun; Conspiring with him how to load and bless With fruit…

— John Keats

“O Solitude! if I must with thee dwell, Let it not be among the jumbled heap Of murky buildings; climb with me…

— John Keats

“Brown and Dilke walked with me and back from the Christmas pantomime. I had not a dispute but a disquisition, with Dilke…

— John Keats

My passions are all asleep from my having slumbered till nearly eleven and weakened the animal fiber all over me to a…

— John Keats

“Souls of poets dead and gone, What Elysium have ye known, Happy field or mossy cavern, Choicer than the Mermaid Tavern? Have…

— John Keats

“When I have fears that I may cease to be Before my pen has glean’d my teeming brain, Before high piled books,…

— John Keats

“Think of my Pleasure in Solitude, in comparison of my commerce with the world - there I am a child - there…

— John Keats

With a great poet the sense of Beauty overcomes every other consideration, or rather obliterates all consideration.

— John Keats

“A poet is the most unpoetical of anything in existence because he has no identity-he is continually infirming and filling some other…

— John Keats

“This is a mere matter of the moment. I think I shall be among the English poets after my death.”

— John Keats

“I have clung To nothing, lov’d a nothing, nothing seen Or felt but a great dream!”

— John Keats

“Heard melodies are sweet, but those unheard Are sweeter; therefore, ye soft pipes, play on.”

— John Keats

It ought to come like the leaves to the trees, or it better not come at all.

— John Keats

I have met with women whom I really think would like to be married to a Poem and to be given away…

— John Keats

“Darkling I listen; and, for many a time I have been half in love with easeful Death...”

— John Keats