I was send this link and article and thought there may be some among you interested to hear and read about Keats.
This article, An Evening of Keats Art and Poetry, was prepared for publication for the Society of Women Writers NSW, Australia for 2023.
An Evening of Keats: Art and Poetry
A dreamy evening in an old house, a community centre, with a huge garden and enchanting Sydney Harbour views. A Keatsian atmosphere, but Australian Keatsian. It was a night to come together and celebrate poetry and art, and especially the Romantic English Poet, John Keats (1795-1821).
Why?
It’s just over 200 years since John Keats, the outrageously talented young poet, died in a small house on the Spanish Steps in Rome (now a marvellous museum) (1). The Keats Shelley House, in the arms of his painter friend, Joseph Severn. He was 25 years old and his published work in 1821 had only been available to readers for a few years.
It’s just over 200 years since John Keats penned the words of poems that have resounded around the world. His letters, including his love letters, ballads, odes and poems have since then captured the minds and hearts of so many, from budding poets and writers to academics and multifarious readers.
Best known poems
It was in the spring of 1819, a prolific Keats produced many of his great works making him recognised in the international second-generation of English Romantic poets and writers, which includes, P.B Shelley and Lord Byron and Mary Shelley. (2)
Works like, Ode to A Nightingale, Ode on a Grecian Urn, Ode to Melancholy and narrative poems, like La Belle Dame Sans Merci still continue to thrill with their lyricism. The love of the natural world and his worship of nature and beauty are critical to his works.
‘I shall learn poetry here and shall henceforth write more than ever, for the abstract endeavour of being able to add a mite to that mass of beauty which is harvested from these grand materials, by the finest spirits, and put into ethereal existence for the relish of one’s fellows.’ (3)
His often-quoted comment on negative capability is often used in understanding poetry. He first used the term in an 1817 letter, exploring the fleeting moment of beauty, without attempting to analyse it.
‘negative capability, a writer’s ability, “which Shakespeare possessed so enormously,” to accept “uncertainties, mysteries, doubts, without any irritable reaching after fact and reason’ (4)
The curator and the artists
Writer, Libby Hathorn, (5) best known for her work in Australian children’s literature and for her lifelong enthusiasm for poetry, decided to ask a variety of Australian artists to respond to Keats’ poetry; and if they chose, respond to her own poem outlining the poet’s short life, Keats Crimson. (6)
The works were skilfully arranged and hung in the two-room gallery at Woollahra by artist Patricia Granville-Smith with an accompanying specially treated parchment sheet, specially prepared, detailing the lines of a particular poem that inspired in the art. The diversity and styles, along with several live recitations, resulted in a novel ‘Keatsian experience’, that was a unique evening in Sydney.
The organization, the actor and the recitations
When Libby secured the Woollahra Community Galleries as a space to show these works, she planned a night filled with art and poetry readings. Since Woollahra Council charged by the day for the venue, the event was mounted by volunteer labour and was hung in a single day. Sponsorship was difficult but Libby managed to have Big Wave Digital kindly sponsor supper.
It proved a lot of work to mount such an exhibition for one evening, especially from volunteers, arranging tables and chairs, glasses and pot plants. They did it professionally, and what a night and what a satisfying outcome for the arts.
Writer Nell Jones, a Keats enthusiast had followed the 200-year celebration with Keats Shelley House in Rome, that celebrated, ‘The bicentenaries of Keats’ and Shelley’s deaths in 2021 and 2022. (7) There were inspiring events in both Italy and the UK. She was eager to be part of the Australian event. Nell purchased the art of Lisa Stewart who was inspired by Ode to A Nightingale.
Listening to Keats’ poems, performed in the gallery by actor, Elliot Mitchell, in the role of Keats, and later on the veranda outside in the garden, the appreciative audience were immersed in poetry. Supper and further surveying of the paintings and purchasing followed.
The outcome and the afterglow
Several of the exhibited paintings were sold and spontaneous donations also made. Given the difficult times coming out of a world pandemic, more than three thousand dollars raised that night went to support an important cause.
The cause was a fine one, with money raised specifically through UNICEF for Ukrainian children; artists loved the opportunity to show their work in an evocative setting; but the opportunity to come together to celebrate the arts was important, too.
Through art and literature, we are always able to reflect more deeply; on the joy of the sublime, on life and death and loss, and on all our human frailty. So, it was hoped, that by immersing ourselves with a keen small audience that evening, in the world of Keats, it would provide us with a measure of joy and hope. Especially after long CoVid restrictions. It is through John Keats’ genius that we hope to inspire and be inspired.
Libby Hathorn and Nell Jones, 2022
Left to right: Margaret Beale, Liz Bowring, Kim Carpenter, Gaye Chapman, Virginia Cuppaidge, Amelia Fell, Adrian Gilbert
Left to right: Patrick Granville-Smith, Sandra Gross, Sandra Hall, Rosie Handley, Sadami Konchi, Parisa Rezanejad, Bethany Tucker
Acknowledgements
Rachael Bailey for overall exhibition organisation
Pat Granville-Smith and Son for the hang.
Big Wave Digital, (Keiran Hathorn) for their supper sponsorship support.
Australian Children’s Poetry 
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