ROME - KEATS-SHELLEY MEMORIAL

"Bright star, would I were stedfast as thou art-
Not in lone splendour hung aloft the night
And watching, with eternal lids apart,
Like nature,s patient, sleepless Eremite,
The moving waters at the priestlike task
Of pure ablution round earth's human shores,
Or gazing on the new soft-fallen mask
Of snow upon the mountains and the moors-"

The wonderful film by Jane Campion has renewed Keats's memory.

In the Piazza di Spagna, at the corner on the right as one begins to climb the steps, is the house where English poet John Keats lived and died on the evening of 23 February 1821; it is now a musaeum dedicated to his memory, full of memorabilia of the English Romantic generation.

The room where Keats died is tiny, but it faces out on to the sunlit spaces of the Spanish Steps. He would have had to be a very rich man now to rent such a room.

His death-mask, which is preserved there, has a gentle tranquil smile, showing that peace came to him in the end after the agony of the last terrible months.

Apart from the relics of the romantic poets, the apartment contains a remarkable library composed of works devoted not only to himself, Shelley and Byron, but also affording a mine of information on the period and world in which they lived.

John Keats's Tombstone (Foto di Piero - Licenza Creative Commons Attribuzione)

La locandina del film di Jane Campion

Fanny Brawne, interpretata da Abbie Cornish

Fanny Brawne, interpretata da Abbie Cornish, con John Keats

Ben Whishaw nel ruolo di John Keats nel film di Jane Campion

Il film narra il folle e disperato amore di Fanny Brawne per John Keats. Il poeta è gravemente malato e oltre tutto in condizioni economiche disastrose. Pur innamorato di lei, rifiuta di sposarla.

Quando Keats parte per Roma, la ragazza si taglia i capelli e si veste come una vedova.

See also: 

ROME - SPANISH STEPS

http://johncristiani.blogspot.com/2011/07/rome-spanish-steps.html



PALESTRINA - IL TEMPIO DELLA FORTUNA
http://cristigianni.blogspot.it/2016/11/palestrina-il-tempio-della-fortuna.html