The daily silver state. [volume] (Winnemucca, Nev.) 1903-1907, 1903-06-27

good school and served his time as
an apprentice TO a surgeon. He was
early filed with ambition TO be a poet
He became intimate with a literary
and artistic set in London among
whom were Leigh Hunt and Hazlltt.
He received much encouragement in
his poetic aspirations from his
friends. He made the acquaintance
OF Shelley; Shelley seemed disposed
TO be very friendly to him; but heats
resented his offer Of kindness deem
ing him an "~aristOerat." Keats was
wrong in this matter for Shelley was
the reverse Of snobbish by nature,
while he was an entire believer in
social equality. In his younger years,
Keats inclined TO a life of dissipation
and excesses for a short time. He had
inherited a tendency t o lung disease
from his parents and he hardly be-
gun his life as a poet before the sha-
dow OF death from consumption Law
upon him a pail and his days were
numbered. He died on February 2Sd.
1921.
From the brief outline of these two
lives We can clearly see why there is
so much difference in their poetry.
Byron's life was early darkened BY a
cross. unsympathetic mother who did
not brighten his life, but helped TO
develop his intense sarcastic nature.
Later his separation from his wife
and the criticism of the English ma
ton made him bitter. His writings
from that time forward were full of
sarcasms and unkind cuts Dying, his
words were words of bitterness and
natred for his native land. Had BY
ron's home i~nnuenees been different
he would have lost much Of the bitter
ness and sarcasm of his nature. Keats
life was a quiet. peaceful one. His
disposition was sweet, patient. endur-
ing much for his art. Not like Byron.
who had all that wealth could buy and
pleasure was easy for him to and,
Keats was a poor boy, who had little
To brighten his saddened life. His i'll
health saddened his life and caused
the strains of sadness in his poetry
and the sad subject Of which he wrote.
In Keats early writing there was
little fOretaste of anything greatly or
genuinely good. He initiated Spencer
and Wordsworth. His second work.
Endymion' in its best passage is
much superior to his first efforts and
him secondary place only among
English poets and had he published
nothing more he would never have
been known. His third work raised
him at once to the foremost rank in
the hlghart class of English poets.
Keats, on high and recent authority
has been promoted to a place beside
Shakespeare" And some critics saw
as a painter of flowers his touch had
almost a Shakespearian accomplish
The faultless force and pro
found subtlety Of this deep and cum
ming instinct for the absolute express
sion Of natural beauty can hardly be
questioned or overlooked; and this is
doubtless the one main distinctive gift
or power which denotes him as a poet
among all his equals. and gives him
right TO a rank forever beside. Coler-
idge and Shelley" Keats best point
was the effect produced by his words.
His flow of words was easy, united but
forcible. Through his poetry is a pc
euliar strain of sadness which por-
trays his feelings. His ill-health
and knowing he was o TO die, ac-
count for the strain of sadness. In
his Eve of st. Agnes this is not so
strongly felt and its object is lust TO
beautifully tell the story OF the quaint
superstition. In his Ode to a Night
ingale his own feelings are most
strongly portrayed. In his sadness
he thought of the blithe happy bird
and compared it TO his own life. He
wanted TO go with il, forget his earthly
pain and trouble, fly to the place
where such things are not.
THAT | might drink, and leave the
world unseen.
And with thee fade away into tbs
forest dim;
Fade far away, dissolve. and quite for
get
What thou among the leaves hast
never known.
The WEAKNESS, the fever, and the fret
Here where men sit and hear each
other groan;
Were palsy shakes a few sad. lost,
gray hairs.
Where youth grows pale. speetre-thin
and dies;
Where but TO think is to be full Of
sorrow"
Just light enough TO see where he was
but not TO see distinctly.
But here there is no light.
Save what from heaven is with the
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