A Romantic Love Letter by John Keats to Fanny Brawne
Keats and Brawne were introduced to each other in 1818 in Hampstead. Keats who was twenty-three at that time fell in love with the sixteen-year-old Brawne.
He started writing her love letters that reflected the amount of love he had for her. He quoted in one of his letters “I have been astonished that men could die martyrs of religion. I have shuddered at it”. The famous poet died at the age of 25. His last poem is named as “Fanny”, written in the memoirs of the love of his life.
“Wednesday Morning.
My Dearest Girl,
I have been a walk this morning with a book in my hand, but as usual, I have been occupied with nothing but you: I wish I could say in an agreeable manner. I am tormented day and night. They talk of my going to Italy. ‘Tis certain I shall never recover if I am to be so long separate from you: yet with all this devotion to you I cannot persuade myself into any confidence of you….
You are to me an object intensely desirable — the air I breathe in a room empty of you in unhealthy. I am not the same to you — no — you can wait — you have a thousand activities — you can be happy without me. Any party, anything to fill up the day has been enough.
How have you pass’d this month? Who have you smil’d with? All this may seem savage in me. You do not feel as I do — you do not know what it is to love — one day you may — your time is not come….
I cannot live without you, and not only you but chaste you; virtuous you. The Sun rises and sets, the day passes, and you follow the bent of your inclination to a certain extent — you have no conception of the quantity of miserable feeling that passes through me in a day — Be serious! Love is not a plaything — and again do not write unless you can do it with a crystal conscience. I would sooner die for want of you than —
Yours for ever
J. Keats"
Keats and Brawne were introduced to each other in 1818 in Hampstead. Keats who was twenty-three at that time fell in love with the sixteen-year-old Brawne.
He started writing her love letters that reflected the amount of love he had for her. He quoted in one of his letters “I have been astonished that men could die martyrs of religion. I have shuddered at it”. The famous poet died at the age of 25. His last poem is named as “Fanny”, written in the memoirs of the love of his life.
“Wednesday Morning.
My Dearest Girl,
I have been a walk this morning with a book in my hand, but as usual, I have been occupied with nothing but you: I wish I could say in an agreeable manner. I am tormented day and night. They talk of my going to Italy. ‘Tis certain I shall never recover if I am to be so long separate from you: yet with all this devotion to you I cannot persuade myself into any confidence of you….
You are to me an object intensely desirable — the air I breathe in a room empty of you in unhealthy. I am not the same to you — no — you can wait — you have a thousand activities — you can be happy without me. Any party, anything to fill up the day has been enough.
How have you pass’d this month? Who have you smil’d with? All this may seem savage in me. You do not feel as I do — you do not know what it is to love — one day you may — your time is not come….
I cannot live without you, and not only you but chaste you; virtuous you. The Sun rises and sets, the day passes, and you follow the bent of your inclination to a certain extent — you have no conception of the quantity of miserable feeling that passes through me in a day — Be serious! Love is not a plaything — and again do not write unless you can do it with a crystal conscience. I would sooner die for want of you than —
Yours for ever
J. Keats"
No comments:
Post a Comment