10 Comments
User's avatar
John Howes's avatar

Such a lovely piece. I didn't know this sonnet and know next to nothing about Keats, though I love to explore poems and poetry lately. More pieces like this would be very welcome. Thank you.

Expand full comment
Suzie Grogan's avatar

Thank you. Poetry means such a lot to me. You may find a few more from me on here in the future. It’s good for my soul.

Expand full comment
Emma Darwin's avatar

This is a lovely meditation on a favourite poem. Quite apart from the pleasures of that, I'm a big fan of what reading/writing/listening to/thinking about poetry can do for one's prose, fiction, storytelling. Thank you!

Expand full comment
Suzie Grogan's avatar

Thanks Emma, so pleased you like it. I agree - poetry can teach us so much about using words carefully for the greatest impact. Some fiction can feel truly poetic in its brevity and immediacy.

Expand full comment
Ellie King's avatar

I love To Sleep and agree with you about the “delicious drowsiness” of the language Keats uses in it. I should read more Keats poems but for now this is probably my favourite and the one I’m most familiar with.

Expand full comment
Suzie Grogan's avatar

Thanks Ellie. Just to have one favourite Keats poem is a treat!

Expand full comment
Ursula Whakamoe's avatar

I Loved reading this thank you Suzie🥰

What a beautiful reminder of that wonderful poet..I live in New Zealand..but when in London..fifty five!years ago.. I managed to find a room to rent in the next street to Keats home in Hampstead..

and sat on the Spanish steps in Rome..

Thank you for the memories.. and his beautiful words♥️

Expand full comment
Suzie Grogan's avatar

I’m so pleased this brought back happy memories, Ursula. I have always considered Keats to be a real poet of place - Hampstead, Winchester, the Lakes and Scotland etc and Rome - he is present in the landscape through his poems and descriptions in his letters.

Expand full comment
Helen Barrell's avatar

Keats is a fabulous poet and one of my favourites, too. I still love "La Belle Dame sans Merci". It really gives the feeling of the knight hopelessly wandering about under the woman's spell, as well as *telling* us that's what he's up to.

Expand full comment
Suzie Grogan's avatar

Yes I love that poem too, and can’t walk the hills of the Lake District, with their cold, wind-blown tarns, without thinking of that wither’d sedge and pale warriors…

Expand full comment