Zitate von John Keats

„Gib mir Bücher, französischen Wein, Obst, schönes Wetter und ein bisschen Musik, die von jemandem kommt, den ich nicht kenne.“

—  John Keats

„Now a soft kiss - Aye, by that kiss, I vow an endless bliss.“

—  John Keats

„I wish I was either in your arms full of faith, or that a Thunder bolt would strike me.“

—  John Keats

Quelle: Bright Star: Love Letters and Poems of John Keats to Fanny Brawne

„Give me books, French wine, fruit, fine weather and a little music played out of doors by somebody I do not know.“

—  John Keats

„Two souls with but a single thought,
Two hearts that beat as one!“

—  John Keats

„But strength alone though of the Muses born
Is like a fallen angel: trees uptorn,
Darkness, and worms, and shrouds, and sepulchres
Delight it; for it feeds upon the burrs,
And thorns of life; forgetting the great end
Of poesy, that it should be a friend
To sooth the cares, and lift the thoughts of man.“

—  John Keats, Sleep and Poetry

"Sleep and Poetry", st. 11
Poems (1817)

„I have good reason to be content,
for thank God I can read and
perhaps understand Shakespeare to his depths.“

—  John Keats

„Fairy Song
Shed no tear! oh, shed no tear!
The flower will bloom another year.
Weep no more! oh, weep no more!
Young buds sleep in the root’s white core.
Dry your eyes! oh, dry your eyes!
For I was taught in Paradise
To ease my breast of melodies,—
Shed no tear.

Overhead! look overhead!
‘Mong the blossoms white and red—
Look up, look up! I flutter now
On this fresh pomegranate bough.
See me! ’tis this silvery bill
Ever cures the good man’s ill.
Shed no tear! oh, shed no tear!
The flower will bloom another year.
Adieu, adieu—I fly—adieu!
I vanish in the heaven’s blue,—
Adieu, adieu!“

—  John Keats

„When I have fears that I may cease to be
Before my pen has glean’d my teeming brain,
Before high piled books, in charact’ry,
Hold like rich garners the full-ripen’d grain;
When I behold, upon the night’s starr’d face,
Huge cloudy symbols of a high romance,
And think that I may never live to trace
Their shadows, with the magic hand of chance;
And when I feel, fair creature of an hour!
That I shall never look upon thee more,
Never have relish in the faery power
Of unreflecting love!“

—  John Keats

then on the shore
Of the wide world I stand alone, and think
Till Love and Fame to nothingness do sink.
"When I have fears that I may cease to be" (1817)
Quelle: The Complete Poems

„I never was in love - yet the voice and the shape of a woman has haunted me these two days.“

—  John Keats

„I want a brighter word than bright“

—  John Keats

„Tis "the witching time of night", / Orbed is the moon and bright, / And the stars they glisten, glisten, / Seeming with bright eyes to listen —“

—  John Keats

„Heard melodies are sweet, but those unheard, are sweeter“

—  John Keats, Ode on a Grecian Urn

Stanza 2
Poems (1820), Ode on a Grecian Urn
Variante: Heard melodies are sweet, but those unheard
Are sweeter; therefore, ye soft pipes, play on.
Quelle: Ode on a Grecian Urn and Other Poems
Kontext: Heard melodies are sweet, but those unheard
Are sweeter: therefore, ye soft pipes, play on;
Not to the sensual ear, but, more endear’d,
Pipe to the spirit ditties of no tone.
Kontext: Heard melodies are sweet, but those unheard
Are sweeter: therefore, ye soft pipes, play on;
Not to the sensual ear, but, more endear’d,
Pipe to the spirit ditties of no tone.
Fair youth, beneath the trees, thou canst not leave
Thy song, nor ever can those trees be bare;
Bold Lover, never, never canst thou kiss,
Though winning near the goal — yet, do not grieve;
She cannot fade, though thou hast not thy bliss,
For ever wilt thou love, and she be fair!

„Do you not see how necessary a world of pains and troubles is to school an intelligence and make it a soul?“

—  John Keats

Quelle: Letters of John Keats

„I almost wish we were butterflies and liv'd but three summer days - three such days with you I could fill with more delight than fifty common years could ever contain.“

—  John Keats

Quelle: Bright Star: Love Letters and Poems of John Keats to Fanny Brawne

„A thing of beauty is a joy forever.“

—  John Keats

Quelle: Endymion: A Poetic Romance

„I am certain of nothing but the holiness of the heart's affections and the truth of imagination — what the imagination seizes as beauty must be truth — whether it existed before or not.“

—  John Keats

Letter to Benjamin Bailey (November 22, 1817)
Letters (1817–1820)

„Nothing ever becomes real till it is experienced“

—  John Keats

Even a proverb is no proverb to you till your Life has illustrated it.
Letter to George and Georgiana Keats (February 14-May 3, 1819)
Letters (1817–1820)
Variante: Nothing ever becomes real till it is experienced

„Touch has a memory.“

—  John Keats