I highly recommend this audio tape, Treasury of John Keats, read by Robert Spaeight and Robert Edison. The audio readings are quite exceptional.

Although I have read a wide range of poetry for some years, I am rather new to listening to poetry on audio tapes. As I much prefer to read rather than listen to tapes, I only by chance bought this tape of selected poems by Keats.

I was rather familiar with the better known poems of Keats and thought that I had a resonable appreciation of his poetry. But these superb readings by Spaeight and Edison added an entirely new demension to my understanding and enjoyment. On longer road trips I find that I cycle through the tapes two or three times, much as I repeatedly replay favorite music.

The readings include The Eve of St. Agnes, La Belle Dame San Merci, On First Looking into Chapman's Homer, To Sleep, "When I have fears that I may cease to be", the short song "I had a Dove", and the classic Keatsian Odes - Nightingale, Autumn, Melancoly, Grecian Urn, and Psyche.

Overall this book is a great value, as would any book be that contains so many of Keats poems and puts them in a durable binding at an attractive price. However, I'm puzzled by the first two lines in the poem, " La Belle Dame Sans Merci" that read, " Ah, what can ail thee, wretched wight,/ Alone and palely loitering; ". In every book I've ever seen this poem in, or these two lines quoted , including my college Literature Text book, they read, " O what can ail thee, knight at arms,/ Alone and palely loitering ? " There is no information to tell us what the text of the poems for this volume are based on. And, I seem unable to find an e-mail address from The Modern Library's Web Site so I can ask. I would accept a response from The Modern Library if they cared to comment( e-mail at: stephenmccoy@cbnnow.com )

Next to Shakespeare I can not think of a Brittish poet who inspired me more than John Keats. His lyrical phrases, his sense of music and metaphor, and his visionary splendor dazzles one and leaves a reader in awe of his gift. My favorites are the Odes, especially the Ode To Psyche, and the Ode To A Nightingale. One can only wonder what great works might have come into existence from this great literary genius had he lived beyond the age of twenty six. Still, he did manage to distill from the heavens some of the finest poems of the English language.

The miniscule and sickly John Keats may not have been long for this world but he is an immortal of English language poetry. The accesibility of Keats's great poems is the reason he continues to be read while those who dismissed him in his own day have been swept into the ashcan of literary history. What's great about this complete edition is right there in the title: It's complete, allowing the Keats enthusiast to travel through all of Keats's romantic attempts, ranging from great to mediocre to poetic fumbles... The Keats novice can start with the major poems and odes and marvel, as I once did, how one so young created such a vast quantity of work. This edition also features valuable notes and the trajically short biography of Keats.

Two years ago (9/99), I took "They Fought Alone" with me to a very large but remote mining site in the Philippines. I had met Col. Fertig numerous times nearly 40 years ago, but I had never read his book. I thought that his book would give me insight to the Filippino people and it did not disappoint me. It quickly became the "best read book in camp". After the Western employees read the book, it made the rounds of the Filippinos. I donated "They Fought Alone" to the newly built camp library when I left the Philippines.

Col. Fertig said a number of times that you only need to fear the bullet with your name on it. We, Americans, need to take a page from his book and start filling airliners and go back to our normal lives after 9/11.

I recently reread "They Fought Alone" after finding that two of W.E.B. Griffin's best-selling WWII fiction books were about Colonel Wendell Fertig's guerrilla campaign in the Philippines. These two books--"The Fighting Agents" and "Behind the Lines"--mix a little fact with a lot of fiction, but include some material from the John Keats book. I reread Keats to separate the fact from the fiction. I also stumbled upon a fall 2002 article on the Special Forces in "American Heritage" magazine, which mentioned Fertig's follow-up role in helping to organize the Green Berets in the 1950s--a story I did not know until reading Griffin. What a small world!

Griffin knew Fertig at Fort Bragg, which is where Fertig helped found the Special Warfare School and, interestingly, where Fertig's great-grandson, Dave Hudson, wrote his review of the Keats book. Griffin stated that Fertig's lack of promotion to general-officer rank, after commanding 30,000 guerrillas--the equivalent of an Army Corps, was one of the great travesties of justice perpetrated by a jealous MacArthur staff after the war.

Having known a by-then grandfatherly Colonel Fertig in the early 1960s when he was at the Colorado School of Mines, I would agree with Griffin's assessment. Wendell Fertig was one of a very select group of real heroes, not the instant, media-manufactured, post-9/11 kind.

I hope Hollywood and Brad Pitt can bring Colonel Fertig some very belated, posthumous justice, although I am not optimistic based on Keats' and Griffin's lack of success. However, the two authors must be given considerable credit for keeping this remarkable story alive for 40 years from the publication of "They Fought Alone" and 60 years after the actual events so that Hollywood could finally "discover" it.

"They Fought Alone" is an excellent book. It tells the story of COL Wendell W. Fertig and the United States Forces in the Philippines during World War II. USFIP, as it was known, fought guerrilla warfare against the occupying Japanese forces from the surrender of American forces in the Philippines (i.e. the Bataan Death March) until GEN MacArthur's return. If you have any interest in military history and/or guerrilla warfare, this book would be of interest to you. There is presently a movie script based on this book and in talks for production for a big-screen adaptation. Incidentally, COL Wendell W. Fertig was my great-grandfather.

Doing a review of Keats' work is impossible, his merit has already been established, his work is mastery. Now the question is this, is the book well done? For a small sample of the genius's work, this is a great edition, for a more experienced poet, this one isn't for you. The poetry is genius, the book is not great.

Doing a review of someone like Frost, Keats, Rilke, or Shakespeare is like reviewing the Bible, it is impossible. It has already been established that this man's poetry is mastery. Now the question is thus, what book should you purchase? If you want a small taste of his work at a good price, this is it. With this small, under $... edition, you can decide if you want to purchase anymore of his books. I say it is a great book for a poetry shelf in anyone's library.

What a wonderful anthology of John Keats' poetry. The selections in this book range from his well known and loved pieces like "Lamia" and " To Autumn" to less familliar but still gracefully written "On the Sea" and "To Leigh Hunt, Esq." The timeline in the front of the book is helpful, giving an overview of what the world was like in Keats' short lifespan. Many critics wonder what he would've accomplished had he lived longer, and by reading this collection of his poems, one can only image the brilliant works he might have given us to further his powerful legacy.

......this intro to John Keats is no exception to the Dover Thrift Edition collection of poetry books that introduce readers to certain poets or movements within poetry for a great price. Many of Keats' most famous are included in their entirety here (except for the longer ones such as "Hyperion" and "Lamia"): "Ode on a Grecian Urn", "Ode to a Nightingale", "Isabella", and "On Seeing the Elgin Marbles" for a total of thirty poems. In each, his stunningly beautiful descriptions and amazing lyrics are evident. It becomes evident to the reader why Keats was one of the foremost poets of the Romantic era. My only regret is that this collection doesn't tell us more about the poet himself, which surely would have enriched the experience of his poetry for first time readers.

Lyric Poems is a small book containig several beautiful writings about the world. It seems to plant ideas and imagination into even the most un-imaginative people. There are a few poems I didn't care for, but don't let that stop you from purchasing this book. I liked it (and I'm pretty picky!) ... I bet you'll ike it too!

The poetry of John Keats is a remarkable discovery for the reader unfamiliar with his works. His poetry is timeless. I have read this small Dover edition innumerable times and with each reading I gain further pleasure from his works. I find it almost inconceivable that Keats only lived 25 years. His early death, due in part to an extended hiking tour, is almost without parallel. It is as though Shakespeare had died after producing only a few plays.

The Dover edition, priced only at a dollar, represents much of Keats' better known, shorter poems. They are arranged chronologically (the best are not at the beginning) and illustrate his growth as a poet. If you are new to Keats, I suggest that you skip around, maybe focusing on the shorter poems in the beginning. But don't wait too long to delve into the longer The Eve of St. Agnes. And sample the Odes of Keats, possibly his best lyric poetry.

I found it helpful to make a few notes in the margin for unfamiliar words and expressions, particularly archaic terms. My notes assisted me considerably in second and third readings.

I knew of John Keats, but had not read his poetry. But some time ago I happened to read Perinne's Sound and Sense, an excellent guide to reading poetry, and developed some interest in Keats. You might find this text a useful reference.

I also recommend an audio tape (ISBN 0-8045-0868-2), Treasury of John Keats, read by Robert Spaeight and Robert Edison. The readings are quite exceptional. I especially enjoyed The Eve of St. Agnes.

This is a very sympathetic record of Keats' letters and poems, and anyone interested in his thoughts/personality is likely to find themselves pleased.

I'm glad my father had a copy of this book in his library - I'm sorry to see that it's gone out of print. It's a really good biography of Mrs. Parker - and, one of the best features, has an extensive bibliography at the end, rife with other titles that simply beg to be read.

We learn in this book that Dorothy Parker's great talent was the ability to see both the tragic and comic in any situation simultaneously. She abhorred pretense and skewered pretenders mercilessly, herself included.

During the good times, she fell into bouts of despair and tried to commit suicide a couple of times. During the bad times, later, she drank too much and allied herself with progressive causes, facing the McCarthy inquisition with courage and grace.

This book is at its best when it allows us to feel the constant strain of contradictions in Ms. Parker's life, at its worst when it occasionally strays into preachiness at her excesses, hardly necessary, as the excesses carried with them their own punishments.

All in all, an enlightening glimpse of a thoroughly unique lady.

I purchased this book based on the editorial reviews.
Well, I've been fooled again and again by glowing MOVIE reviews, but this is a first for me in literature. This is a badly written book. My one star recommendation is for you to purchase the book (it is inexpensive) to make your own judgment.

This is a memorable and illuminating book, making accessible to the general reader the treasures to be found in Keats's letters as well as his poetry. One of the remarkable things about this book is its emphasis on Keats's understanding of the healing powers of imagination and of poetry. Many, many years ago, my favorite English teacher told me that she hoped to write a book about Keats's letters. I remember wondering how a book about anyone's letters could be interesting, and hoped someday to see her book. She never wrote it, alas-- so it was a wonderful discovery to find in Andres Rodriguez's book some of the depths that my long-ago mentor had hoped to plumb. Don't be fooled by the negative review titled "fooled again"-- this is an unusual and beautiful book.

I read this book because it won a Pulitzer Prize, and because I so greatly enjoyed the biographies of Keats by Aileen Ward and by Robert Gittings. But I found much of this book tough going. The study of some of the longer poems simply did not interest me. But the account of Keats' last year is very well-done and absorbing.

I have a copy of the Oxford University Press "Keats Poetical Works" edited by H. W. Garrod in 1956. (I have the 1970 paperback version.) The paperback edition is inexpensive, but its availability is increasingly limited. As I began to read longer poems like "Endymion", I found the small font size distracting. Garrod's commentary and footnotes are rather limited. I rate this Oxford edition as only 3-stars as better editions are readily available.

Oxford University Press has a newer Keats collection titled "Selected Poetry (Oxford Poetry Library)" that is edited by Elizabeth Cook. There is both a 1996 and 2000 edition. To confuse matters a bit, there is now a 2001 version, also edited by Elizabeth Cook, titled "John Keats: The Major Works (Oxford World's Classics)". I have not used these versions, but I believe that they contain more extensive commentary and footnotes than the earlier Garrod edition and should be considered.

However, I do have two recommendations with which I am quite familiar. Both are available in softcovers.

The first is a newer publication, "Complete Poems and Selected Letters of John Keats", published by Modern Library Paperback Classics in 2001. It contains an excellent introduction by Edward Hirsh and good footnotes by John Pollock. My other recommendation is "The Complete Poems", Penguin Classics, edited by John Bernard. This Penguin Classics edition has been a standard Keats text for several years. I rate both as 5-stars.