Excerpt from The Poets and the Poetry of the Nineteenth Century, Vol. 3: John Keats to Edward, Lord Lytton Early in 1817, through a friendly publisher, Charles Ollier by name, Keats put forth his first volume. In spite of the crudities and mannerisms, which evoked much contemptuous ridicule in certain quarters, it showed plenty of incipient grace. In the opening piece, I stood tip-toe upon a little hill, composed after a delightful summer day's ramble over Hampstead Heath, and also in the closing poem, Sleep and Poetry, the abounding wealth of expres sion and play of imagery are already noticeable. Such sonnets as the one composed after looking into Chapman's Homer have all-the abrupt rush of an inspiration, and there is a sprightly charm about another, On the Grasshopper and Cricket, written in Leigh Hunt's little cottage on Hampstead Heath, one frosty December evening. Even in the Epistles, with their colloquial prattle, Keats slid instinctively into allusions to natural objects, dashing off hastily, but with the skill of a master-hand, little vignettes as truthful as they are delicate. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.