The Sonnets of John Keats


Read by Bruce Kachuk

The superb poetic skill and exquisite sensitivity of John Keats is brilliantly illustrated in this collection of meticulously selected sonnets. Keats had a passion for poetry as he had for life itself. His own life, although cut short at an early age, was one of creativity, productivity and one ornamented with immense poetic skill. His was a life that left an indelible mark of wonder on the world, an enduring legacy, a mark of greatness. Keats would write of his heroes, "How many bards gild the lapses of time!" - other poets and writers whose plight he often lamented, whose talent he always praised and whose loss, should it occur, he grieved. Keats would describe great artistry and the unsparing nature of time, "The gradual sand that through an hour-glass runs,- / A woodland rivulet,- a Poet's death." Indeed, Keats would draw his poetic inspiration not only from gifted poets but also from the magnificence of the natural world around him, "The poetry of earth is ceasing never."

Keats's sonnets resound with a search for meaning and, where none seems probable, create a compelling vision of what may be to come. In Keats's work we witness the poetry of fascination, of hope, of gratitude, of uncertainty and of entreaty, "But when I am consumed in the Fire, / Give me new Phoenix wings to fly at my desire."

These sonnets reflect the heart of a man enraptured, albeit the heart of a man too soon to sound its final beat. But until that fateful day we behold a heart strong and determined with the perennial uncertainty foremost in mind, "O Darkness! Darkness! ever must I moan, / To question Heaven and Hell and Heart in vain."
- Summary by Bruce Kachuk (1 hr 10 min)

Chapters

Dedication of the Volume of 1817 to Leigh Hunt 1:14 Read by Bruce Kachuk
O Chatterton! how very sad thy fate! 1:21 Read by Bruce Kachuk
Byron! how sweetly sad thy melody! 1:20 Read by Bruce Kachuk
Spenser! a jealous honourer of thine 1:15 Read by Bruce Kachuk
To My Brother George 1:20 Read by Bruce Kachuk
As from the darkening gloom a silver dove 1:23 Read by Bruce Kachuk
Written on a Summer Evening 1:18 Read by Bruce Kachuk
To G. A. W. 1:10 Read by Bruce Kachuk
To -- 1:18 Read by Bruce Kachuk
To a Friend Who Sent Me some Roses 1:19 Read by Bruce Kachuk
O Solitude! if I must with thee dwell 1:18 Read by Bruce Kachuk
Oh! how I love, on a fair summer's eve 1:24 Read by Bruce Kachuk
To a Young Lady who Sent Me a Laurel Crown 1:18 Read by Bruce Kachuk
Written on the Day that Mr. Leigh Hunt Left Prison 1:24 Read by Bruce Kachuk
To Kosciusko 1:17 Read by Bruce Kachuk
How many bards gild the lapses of time! 1:17 Read by Bruce Kachuk
On First Looking into Chapman's Homer 1:18 Read by Bruce Kachuk
Keen fitful gusts are whispering here and there 1:15 Read by Bruce Kachuk
On Leaving Some Friends at an Early Hour 1:16 Read by Bruce Kachuk
Happy is England! I could be content 1:19 Read by Bruce Kachuk
To My Brothers 1:25 Read by Bruce Kachuk
On the Grasshopper and Cricket 1:19 Read by Bruce Kachuk
Addressed to Haydon 1:13 Read by Bruce Kachuk
Addressed to the Same 1:13 Read by Bruce Kachuk
After dark vapours have oppress'd our plains 1:24 Read by Bruce Kachuk
On Seeing the Elgin Marbles for the First Time 1:11 Read by Bruce Kachuk
To Haydon (With the Foregoing) 1:12 Read by Bruce Kachuk
When I have fears that I may cease to be 1:09 Read by Bruce Kachuk
On Leigh Hunt's Poem, the "Story of Rimini" 1:13 Read by Bruce Kachuk
Written on a Blank Space at the End of Chaucer's Tale of "The Flowre and the Le… 1:18 Read by Bruce Kachuk
On a Picture of Leander 1:15 Read by Bruce Kachuk
On the Sea 1:21 Read by Bruce Kachuk
To the Nile 1:20 Read by Bruce Kachuk
On Visiting the Tomb of Burns 1:26 Read by Bruce Kachuk
Written in Burns' Cottage 1:20 Read by Bruce Kachuk
To Ailsa Rock 1:26 Read by Bruce Kachuk
Ben Nevis 1:11 Read by Bruce Kachuk
To one who has been long in city pent 1:11 Read by Bruce Kachuk
The Human Seasons 1:11 Read by Bruce Kachuk
Written before Re-reading King Lear 1:19 Read by Bruce Kachuk
From Ronsard, Fragment of a Sonnet 1:10 Read by Bruce Kachuk
Answer to a Sonnet by J. H. Reynolds 1:31 Read by Bruce Kachuk
To Homer 1:19 Read by Bruce Kachuk
To John Hamilton Reynolds 1:11 Read by Bruce Kachuk
To a Lady Seen for a Few Moments at Vauxhall 1:12 Read by Bruce Kachuk
To Sleep 1:18 Read by Bruce Kachuk
On Fame 1:19 Read by Bruce Kachuk
On Fame 1:20 Read by Bruce Kachuk
Why did I laugh to-night? No voice will tell 1:31 Read by Bruce Kachuk
A Dream, after Reading Dante's Episode of Paolo and Francesca 1:30 Read by Bruce Kachuk
If by dull rhymes our English must be chain'd 1:18 Read by Bruce Kachuk
The day is gone, and all its sweets are gone! 1:33 Read by Bruce Kachuk
To Fanny 1:26 Read by Bruce Kachuk
His Last Sonnet 1:24 Read by Bruce Kachuk