/lit/ - Literature

[Anonymous No.14912559]

Was Keats really the best of the Romantics?

[Anonymous No.14912562]

>>14912559
And if so, which poem is his strongest

[Anonymous No.14912636]

>>14912559
>I’m only willing to read one single poem by the romantics because I am a very busy man SO TELL ME WHO IS THE BEST AND TELL ME WHICH POEM TO READ, IM A FAGGOT ZOOMER PLEASE TELL ME, MY ATTENTION SPAN DOES NOT ALLOW ME TO READ MORE THAN ONE PAGE BEFORE I GO BACK TO MY PHONE, PLEASE AGHHHHH GOD HELP ME AGHHHHHHHH

[Anonymous No.14912644]

>>14912559
Keats is overrated because he died a young death.

[Anonymous No.14912650]

>>14912636
Nah, I'm OP and I've read at least some of all the British Romantics. Even took a few courses in the subject, and at my school at least, the specialists in the subject placed Keats well and above the rest. I always thought Shelley shined equally, though. Byron at times, too.

[Anonymous No.14912681]

>>14912559
Nope, Byron

[Anonymous No.14912701]

>>14912650
One of his odes then, or ‘Endymion,’ or ‘La Belle Dam sans Merci,’ or ‘When I Have Fears,’or ‘Bright Star.’ I wrote a long essay on Eve of St. Agnes’ and it’s a good poem, fun for a close reading, but I wouldn’t put it at first rate for him. I’m having a tough time deciding. His best stuff is actually in his letters tho.

[Anonymous No.14912709]

>>14912701
I remember reading his letters and being surprised by how much translates directly to poetry, especially with grecian urn

[Anonymous No.14912955]

>>14912559
Wordsworth is the best Romantic. That's been well-established.

[Anonymous No.14913005]

>>14912955
nononono that geezer sucks ass when he gets old

[Anonymous No.14913047]

>>14912559
Literally nobody says he is.

Keats is fun but didn't live long enough to do his best work
Byron hasn't aged well; pretty much unreadable nowadays
Shelley is esoteric to the point of complete opacity
Wordsworth has a good heart but most of his poetry is either bad or boring or both. Artistically there is nothing laudable about Tintern Abbey, and you can enjoy Daffodils, as I do, but you can't say it's a very good poem.
Coleridge doesn't count

Blake and Clare are the only ones who have any of my sympathy.

[Anonymous No.14913071]

>>14913047
>Clare
Careful Ash,
a wild WHO appeared!

[Anonymous No.14913102]

>>14913047
>Literally nobody says he is.
Literally Dickinson

[Anonymous No.14913103]

>>14912955
Wordsworth had Coleridge - the actual greatest of the Romantics - edit all his work. Sammy T is at the top, all the other shitters go at the bottom.

[Anonymous No.14913104]

I will always say, along with Empson and Bloom: "Back to Shelley!" Now, "To Autumn" is arguably more perfect than anything Shelley ever wrote. But the way I look at it, Keats remained always a Raphael figure, whereas Shelley had the visionary strength of a Michelangelo or a Milton, but combined with a more capacious sensuality than I think Milton ever had, even at his best. That sensuality causes some of Shelley's heirs, like Eliot, to denounce him as not a serious thinker, but I'd challenge you to find anything in Donne that is more "seriously" philosophical than Prometheus Unbound, when you read it beneath its shimmering surface.

But really I don't see why one should have to pick a "favorite" among the "Big Six." The world would have been so much poorer if any one of them had never lived.

[Anonymous No.14913110]

>>14913104
based

[Anonymous No.14913111]

>>14913102
She's nobody. Who are you?

[Anonymous No.14913116]

>>14913111
Damn bro you just posted cringe

[Anonymous No.14913135]

>>14913047
>Shelley is esoteric to the point of complete opacity
Retard detected. Blake is a legitimate choice for a "favorite" but putting Clare on his level is obviously just contrarianism

[Anonymous No.14913249]

Keats was a wonderful poet. His strongest poem is La Belle Dame Sans Merci. As for best romantic, that goes to Byron. Keats died sadly way too young.

[Anonymous No.14913909]

lol no

>>14911248