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the experience of reading in Britain, from 1450 to 1945...

Reading Experience Database UK Historical image of readers
 
 
 
 

Record Number: 17370


Reading Experience:

Evidence:

[Marginalia in Keats's annotated copy of "Paradise Lost" in Book 1, lines 53-75]. Keats underlines the following phrases and lines: 'round he throws his baleful eyes'; 'At once, as far as Angel's ken, he views/ The dismal situation waste and wild'; 'sights of woe,/ Regions of sorrow, doleful shades, where peace/ And rest can never dwell; hope never comes/ That comes to all'. He writes after line 75: 'One of the most mysterious of semi-speculations is, one would suppose, that of one Mind's imagining into another. Things may be described by a Man's self in parts so as to make a grand whole which that Man himself would scarcely inform to its excess. A Poet can seldom have justice done to his imagination - for men are as distinct in their conceptions of material shadowings as they are in matters of spiritual understanding: it can scarcely be conceived how Milton's Blindness might here ade [for aid] the magnitude of his conceptions as a bat in a large gothic vault'.

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:

Unknown

Gender:

Male

Date of Birth:

31 Oct 1795

Socio-Economic Group:

n/a

Occupation:

poet

Religion:

atheist

Country of Origin:

England

Country of Experience:

unknown

Listeners present if any:
e.g family, servants, friends

n/a


Additional Comments:

n/a



Text Being Read:

Author:

John Milton

Title:

Paradise Lost

Genre:

Poetry

Form of Text:

Print: Book

Publication Details

n/a

Provenance

owned


Source Information:

Record ID:

17370

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:

518

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. 518, http://www.open.ac.uk/Arts/reading/UK/record_details.php?id=17370, accessed: 28 March 2024


Additional Comments:

None

   
   
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