“We are now on the point of leaving [Livorno] for Florence, where we have taken pleasant apartments for six months, which brings us to the first of April, the season at which new flowers and new thoughts spring forth upon the earth and in the mind. What is then our destination is yet undecided. I have not yet seen Florence, except as one sees the … Continue reading The Shelleys in Florence
Composed after a walk in the countryside, Keats’s ode ‘To Autumn’ is regarded as “one of the most nearly perfect poems in English”. How did John Keats reach such a stylistic achievement in writing on a quite banal subject—Nature’s bounties in Autumn? Autumn has always been my favourite season for its display of Nature’s splendours, especially the rich palette of colours offered by the trees … Continue reading Essay on ‘To Autumn’
The eternal student - anglophile version 