boykeats:

In 1817, John Keats, 22 years old and starting to come into his poetic own, fell deeply in love with the poetics of Shakespeare and purchased several volumes of the bard’s writings. For the remaining three years of his life, Keats would spend hours reading, re-reading, and writing all over his copies of Shakespeare.

Pictured in order are:

-Annotations in The Tempest, his most heavily annotated play. Keats’ annotations placed an emphasis on important moments of character development and the emotionally descriptive poetics that come with those. The slightly darker area on the middle of the far right is his thumb marks

–Annotations in A Midsummer Night’s Dream, his second most annotated play. These annotations focused particularly on Shakespeare’s descriptions of nature and sensuality

–A decided opinion on Johnson’s criticism of As You Like It, featuring a quote from the play in Keats’s handwriting  /  A draft of ‘On Sitting Down to Read King Lear Once Again,’ written on the end page after Hamlet, next to the opening page of King Lear

-Draft of ‘Bright Star,’ written on the blank page next to the poem ‘A Lover’s Companion’