Abstract
The importance of Keats's impromptu verses written to J.H. Reynolds in March 1818 has long been recognized, but the emphasis in these discussions is often on Keats's changing attitude toward imagination rather than the spiritual issues which I contend are the poet's major concern. The conflict between the harmonious vision imaginative art should create—the "material sublime"—and his growing mistrust in vision is the focus of lines 67-85, but in the subsequent passage, Keats goes on to describe a "mysterious tale" in which he confronts the perplexing presence of evil and suffering in a world of natural beauty.
Recommended Citation
Johnston, Mary Susan
(1988)
"The ‘Epistle to Reynolds’ and the ‘Burden of the Mystery',"
University of Dayton Review: Vol. 19:
No.
2, Article 6.
Available at:
https://ecommons.udayton.edu/udr/vol19/iss2/6
