Hyperion a Fragment by John Keats
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Disclaimer: Keats is my favourite poet in the whole wide world (and that's saying a LOT!) I am naturally biased to him because he's the only poet known to have soothed me in the greatest of sadness merely by the power of the words he wrote over two centuries ago. I write this review, thus, as a lover and not as a critic.



Hyperion:A Fragment is a result of Keats' desire to write something that would include him 'among the mighty dead' but it wasn't something he completed because of his failing health and also because he lost the inspiration. Despite that, it did become a poem that perhaps takes us the closest to Keats as a poet.

I think all of Keats' poetry can be said to revolve around a few common themes:

1. The first one marks the beginning of Endymion but is present in all his works- A thing of beauty is a joy forever.'

2. All that is true is beautiful and worthy of being written about. Since human sufferings and emotions are true, hence, they, too, are beautiful because of their depth, their poignancy and their intensity and can equally move another human being.

3. Change is an inevitable truth. It may be unpleasant at first but simce it's inevitable, and marks the end of the old and rings in the new, there must be some sort of profound beauty in the state of newness as well.


Hyperion, so far, is that one poem, which allegorically portrays all of these sentiments.

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