Tony Harrison: A Kumquat for John Keats

Allusion to Classical figure Flora, dehydrated Naiads, Dryad amputees, Nessus, Proserpine

Relationship to Classical text Keats’ Romantic Classicism (e.g. Ode on a Grecian Urn, Ode on Melancholy) becomes part of a bleakly comic meditation on the poet’s premature death. There is a passing reference to John Lemprière, author of the Bibliotheca Classica or Classical Dictionary Containing a Full Account of all the Proper Names Mentioned in Ancient Authors (T. Cadell, 1788).

Note First published as a pamphlet by Bloodaxe Books (1981).