The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1895-11-03

That Other Expression 81 am Dying,
IshaIl die Easy, Don't DE Frightened,
Be Firm, and Thank God"
TRINITY COLLEGE, Nov. 2.
To the Editor of the News and Observer:
Last Tuesday was the one hundreth
anniversary of the birth of John Keats,
and men of literature are bringing fresh
flowers to the grave of beloved poet.
Seventy five years ago critic IN "Black
woods Magazine" dismissed Keats
poems by speaking of their 'phrenzy"
and characterized "EndymiOn" as
''calm, settled, imperturbable, driveling
idiocy." sit is better and wiser thing
to be starved apothecary than astarved
poet; so back to the shop, Mr.. John,
back to plasters, pills and ointment
boxes". Since Keats death Matthew
Arnold and Lowell have written their
appreciatiye criticisms of his poetry;
Tennyson probably voiced the opinion OF
the literary world Of tx day when e
said that if Keats had lived he would
have been the greatest Of all modern
poets.
A strong impression has existed as to
the character of Keats. Stimulated by
Shelley's vehement attacks on the critics
in his "Adonais", the public thought
that Keats died a broken hearted man,
because, fors0ooth, the critics said hard
things about him. They have, there
fore, pictured to themselves an efem-
mate and '1ovely" man, and expressed
their idea of the man by calling him
Johnny Keats. His brother George
has more truly character lied him; John
was the very soul of manliness and cour
age, and as much like the Holy Ghost as
Johnny Keats. The story of his short
life is an interesting one, though We can
not here rake it up. He had intended
to be surgeon, but one day during the
lecture, there came sunbeam into
the room, and with it whole troop
of creatures floating IN the ray;
and | was off with them to Ole
ron and fairy land''. Spenser was
the fact that inspired his first literary
efforts. ''In Spe4cer's falryland he was
enchanted, breathed in new world and
became another being" The following
passages from Keats will reveal his deyo
ton to true literature and his longing for
true poetry: There is but one way for
me. The road lies through application,
study and thought. / will pursue 1t. I"
1.-THE best sort of poetry that is all
care for; all live for. II have not the
slightest feeling Of humility towards the
pu0lic or anything in exit ence but the
Eternal Being, the Principle of Beauty,
and the Memory of Great Men" These
words reveal to US man before whom
a vast idea ever rolled There was con-
tinuous development IN Keats poetry,
and his own criticism was bringing his
work to higher and higher state of
perfection. A few more years would
have revealed greater poetry than he
ever wrote.
It was terrible disc Sc, and not harsh
criticism, that killed Keats. One of his
friends has told US of the sad night when
Keats fl st realized that consumption
had taken hold upon him. Il know the
color Of that blood-it is arteriaI blood
I cannot be deceived in that co'o--rnat
drop of blood is my death-warrant-I
must die" The remainder OF his life
was ''life-death." Finally, haunted by
disease, and agonized by passion of
love, he left England for the sunny
cline of Italy where he died in Rome
February 90, 1921. Just before he died
he said 81 feel the flowers growing over
men-a striking illustration of the fne-
ness of his nature-sense. Nature, that
had been the inspiration OF so much of
his poetry, was his sole joy in those last
sad hours. Severn lift me up-I
am dying-I shall die easy; don't be
frightened-be firm, and thank God it
has come" His tomb in Rome is now a
favorite resort Of travellers.
Matthew Arnold expressed the chief
characteristic of Keat poetry when he
said, 'In one Of the two great modes by
which poetry interprets, in the faculty
of naturalistic Interpretation, in what
we call natural magic, he ranks tn
Shakespeare. No one else in English
poetry, ave Shakespeare, has in express
sion quite the fascinating felicity of
Keats, his perfection of loneliness. :"
Unlike Wordsworth and Byron and
Shelley, Keats was not fuenced by the
great obems of his age-the French
Revolution made no impression upon
his soul unless it was to send him from
the horrors of the present to the past for
his ideals of life and beauty. In his
eve of st Agnes he finds a beautiful
romance Of the Middle Ages. He dis
covered his true home in the mythology
of Greece.
lie saw Phoebus in the morning,
Blushing Aurora in the roseAte dawning,
Or Il white Naiad in ripping stream,
Or a Tapt Seraph in a moonlight beam.
He speaks of these moments of rap
ture in a poets life when naught they
see in water, earth, or air, but poesy y
His poetry is full of that almost diyif c
perception of natures loveliness. He
could feel the air that plays about the
hills, and sips its freshne from the
lit rills," he loo ed upon the ocean
with its vastness, its voice mysterious,
| which, who hears mu think on what
will be, and what has been" There il
leaf, luxury about Keats poetry. lie
was a ''nature intoxicated" poet. His
/ Ode ia the Niohtinpale0 is probably