Reading Experience Database
1450-1945

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Record 22613

Reading Experience:

Evidence:
[Marginalia in Keats's annotated copy of "Paradise Lost", Book 4, lines 1-5] Keats underlines the lines: "O for that warning voice, which he who saw/ The Apocalypse heard cry in Heaven aloud,/ Then when the Dragon put to second rout,/ Came furious down to be revenged on men,". He writes: 'A friend of mine says this Book has the finest opening of any - the point of time is gigantically critical - the wax is melted, the seal is aobut to be applied - and Milton breaks out, "O for that warning voice," etc. There is moreover an opportunity for a Grandeur of Tenderness - the opportunity is not lost. Nothing can be higher - Nothing so more than delphic.'
Century: 1800-1849
Date: unknown
Country: unknown
Time: n/a
Place: n/a
   
Type of Experience (Reader):
silent aloud unknown
solitary in company unknown
single serial unknown
Type of Experience (Listener):
solitary in company unknown
single serial unknown

Reader/Listener/Reading Group:

Reader:John Keats
Age Adult (18-100+)
Gender Male
Date of Birth 31 Oct 1795
Socio-economic group: Professional / academic / merchant / farmer
Occupation: poet
Religion: atheist
Country of origin: England
Country of experience: unknown
Listeners present if any:
(e.g. family, servants, friends, workmates)
n/a
Additional comments: n/a

 

Text Being Read:

Author: John Milton
Title: Paradise Lost
Genre: Other religious, Poetry
Form of Text: Print: Book
Publication details: n/a
Provenance: owned

 

Source Information:

Record ID: 22613  
Source - Print  
  Author: John Keats
  Editor: John Barnard
  Title: John Keats: The Complete Poems
  Place of Publication: London
  Date of Publication: 1988
  Vol: n/a
  Page: 524
  Additional comments: The marginalia is transcribed in Appendix 4 of this edition

Citation: John Keats, John Barnard (ed.), John Keats: The Complete Poems  (London, 1988), p. 524, http://can-red-lec.library.dal.ca/Arts/reading/recorddetails2.php?id=22613, accessed: 29 March 2024

Additional comments:

The "friend" mentioned is probably Benjamin Bailey.

 

 

Reading Experience Database version 2.0.  Page updated: 27th Apr 2016  3:15pm (GMT)