extract from Keats's letter to George and Georgiana Keats, 14 February 1819

This extract from one of John Keats's more important letters ("the vale of Soul-making") contains another of Keats's few mentions of the Gothic.

Text: from Selected Poems and Letters by John Keats, ed. Douglas Bush. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1959. P. 283

TO GEORGE AND GEORGIANA KEATS


[14 February--3 May 1819]
Sunday Morn Feby 14th


My DEAR BROTHER & SISTER -

**I am still at Wentworth Place - indeed I have kept in doors lately, resolved if possible to rid myself of my sore throat - consequently, i have not been to see your Mother since my return from Chichester - but my absence from her has been a great weight upon me - I say since my return from Chichester - I believe I told you I was going thither -I was nearly a fortnight at Mr John Snook's and a few days at old Mr Dilke's - Nothing worth speaking of happened at either place - I took down some of the thin paper and wrote on it a little Poem call'd 'St. Agnes Eve' - which which you shall have as it is when I have finished the blank part of the rest for you . . .

. . . .

In my next Packet as this is one by the way, I shall send you the Pot of Basil, St Agnes eve, and if I should have finished it a little thing called the 'eve of St Mark' you see what fine mother Radcliff names I have - it is not my fault - I did not search for them . . .