tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21999805.post347897371346800828..comments2024-03-28T19:56:32.848-05:00Comments on Anecdotal Evidence: `Things Which Cannot Be Laugh'd At in Any Way'Patrick Kurphttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08436175583386298032noreply@blogger.comBlogger1125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21999805.post-10235522231416095732012-09-23T11:18:27.923-05:002012-09-23T11:18:27.923-05:00In "John Keats: The Complete Poems," the...In "John Keats: The Complete Poems," the editor John Barnard says, "To Autumn" is often regarded as the most achieved of Keats's odes." And then he quotes Bate: "The 'Ode to a Nightingale' is less 'perfect' though a greater poem."<br /><br />I have never thought so, though it's daunting to disagree with the great scholar W. Jackson Bate. <br /><br />"To Autumn" to me has always been the reconcilation with with the mortality and transience of the human predicament Keats talks about in the previous three great odes, vexing problems neither art nor nature can resolve. It is a poem of serene acceptance.Bruce Floydnoreply@blogger.com