Write a comment

 

 John Keats

Born in 1795, Keats was the youngest of the First Fab Four

and could be considered to be ‘the quiet one’.

 

 His life was a quiet but determined journey to achieve

his potential, rising above the loss of his parents and dedicating himself to his art.

In one of the great feats in literary history he refined his skills

in a three year period to produce his final masterworks published in 1820.

These included 'To Autumn', with its famous opening line

'Season of mists and mellow fruitfulness' <

 

 

Available with 'On the Shore'  on

'John Keats's sublime single' 

 Stream from here

• Includes 2 song versions of John Keats poems
  
• 'To Autumn' as the ‘A-side’, 'On the Shore' as the B-side.

 

                                                                                                  

 

 See here for a discussion of Keats's influence on British war poet Wilfred Owen, 

and there is more commentary on 'To Autumn' and 'On the Shore' 

at the Lyrics and Schools pages.

(Of interest, this article 'A Keatsian Field Trip' argues that 

Keats's 'stubble-plain' is now to be found under a

Winchester car park).

 

---

Write a comment

NOW ON YOUTUBE

A unique way to discover - or rediscover -

 ‘the perfect poet for our turbulent era’.

Benjamin Zephaniah and John Webster

came together over 20 years ago to record a soundtrack

that would present Shelley in a modern format.

 

The video draws on that audio and augments it

with imagery that creates a revealing backdrop to Shelley’s life.

With songs that draw on about two dozen Shelley poems,

 Benjamin’s narration, and images charting the poet's restless travels

and matchless lyrics, Shelley's life becomes more understandable

- yet still mysteriously out of reach. 

 

Plus:

 

Listen to Benjamin chatting with John in

The 2022 BBC radio programme

Percy Shelley: Reformer and Radical

 

  Spend 40 minutes in the poet's company with

 

 

 

 

For more information click here

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

    

 

 

1 Comment

George Gordon Lord Byron 

'Between Suliote chiefs, German barons, English volunteers

and adventurers of all nations, we are likely to form as goodly an allied army

as ever quarrelled beneath the same banner...''    - Missolonghi, 1824

 

NEARLY TWO CENTURIES AGO LORD BYRON GAVE HIS LIFE IN THE STRUGGLE

to wrest Greece from an oppressive occupying Caliphate – the Ottoman Empire.

With narration by Benjamin Zephaniah, songs by Brindaband,

and dialogues from contemporary accounts. A great story of courage and perseverence,

shot through with Byron's unique personality which threw out witticisms,

profundities and noble sentiments in equal measure. Watch here

 

                                                                                                                                                                                                    Featuring songs

from 'Courageous Heart: seven Byronic songs'

   

1. Lord B in Motion 2. Half a Scot by Birth 3. Marathon

4.Setting Sail from Genoa 5. (Lord Byron's) Freedom song  

6.Epitaph 7.So we'll go no more a roving

Click on cover to download,

Stream from here

Find lyrics and commentaries here

 

Byron's residence in Pisa, the Palazzo Lanfranchi (centre).

'I have got into a famous old feudal palazzo, on the Arno, with dungeons below and cells in the walls,

large enough for a garrison, and so full of Ghosts that the learned Fletcher (my valet) has begged leave to change his room,

and then refused to occupy his new room, because there were more ghosts there than in the other'. (Letter to John Murray 4.12.1821)

 

 

See also the essay 'Byron and Islam' for some reflections on the poet's relationship with Islam and Islamic culture.

 

 

---

 

 

 

---