Feb 2021
"....MARRIED TO GREEN IN ALL THE SWEETEST FLOWERS..."
"Keats? Sure
I remember the fella.
Emigrated from
that there England.
Buried up there in
Cave Hill Cemetery.
Louisville was mighty
proud of him.
Always said he never expected
to be living on the banks of the Ohio.
Went from rags to riches and
back again.
Did some business with
Audubon...you know the bird guy?
But it sank quicker
than a stone.
Became then
a big *** in the saw mill
took to it faster
than a squirrel.
But then lost it all
in the Panic of 1837.
Very brainy guy more books
than you could shake a brain at.
We called his house
'the Englishman's Palace.'
One of his daughters met
Oscar Wilde one time.
That was another of them
English fellers.
Another daughter it was rumoured
committed suicide.
Always went on about
his elder brother John.
You know...the poet guy.
Would recite by heart
"Blue! 'tis the Life of Heaven"
always made me cry.
But that's all I can remember
now.
"Keats? Sure
I remember the fella.
Emigrated from
that there England.
Buried up there in
Cave Hill Cemetery.
Louisville was mighty
proud of him.
Always said he never expected
to be living on the banks of the Ohio.
Went from rags to riches and
back again.
Did some business with
Audubon...you know the bird guy?
But it sank quicker
than a stone.
Became then
a big *** in the saw mill
took to it faster
than a squirrel.
But then lost it all
in the Panic of 1837.
Very brainy guy more books
than you could shake a brain at.
We called his house
'the Englishman's Palace.'
One of his daughters met
Oscar Wilde one time.
That was another of them
English fellers.
Another daughter it was rumoured
committed suicide.
Always went on about
his elder brother John.
You know...the poet guy.
Would recite by heart
"Blue! 'tis the Life of Heaven"
always made me cry.
But that's all I can remember
now.
George Keats (28 February 1797 – 24 December 1841) was an English businessman and civic leader in Louisville, Kentucky, as it emerged from a frontier entrepôt into a mercantile centre of the old northwest.
He was also the younger brother of the English poet John Keats.
Emma Speed met Oscar Wilde when he lectured in Louisville in 1882, and later sent him an autograph manuscript by her uncle John Keats of his poem 'Sonnet on Blue'.
Isabel Keats died, a likely suicide, in the family home months after her mother's remarriage.
The descendants of Georgiana, Emma, Ella, and Alice ultimately numbered over 500.
Blue! ‘Tis the life of heaven, the domain
Blue! ‘Tis the life of heaven,–the domain
Of Cynthia,–the wide palace of the sun,–
The tent of Hesperus and all his train,–
The bosomer of clouds, gold, grey and dun.
Blue! ‘Tis the life of waters–ocean
And all its vassal streams: pools numberless
May rage, and foam, and fret, but never can
Subside if not to dark-blue nativeness.
Blue! gentle cousin of the forest green,
Married to green in all the sweetest flowers,
Forget-me-not,–the blue-bell,–and, that queen
Of secrecy, the violet: what strange powers
Hast thou, as a mere shadow! But how great,
When in an Eye thou art alive with fate!
He was also the younger brother of the English poet John Keats.
Emma Speed met Oscar Wilde when he lectured in Louisville in 1882, and later sent him an autograph manuscript by her uncle John Keats of his poem 'Sonnet on Blue'.
Isabel Keats died, a likely suicide, in the family home months after her mother's remarriage.
The descendants of Georgiana, Emma, Ella, and Alice ultimately numbered over 500.
Blue! ‘Tis the life of heaven, the domain
Blue! ‘Tis the life of heaven,–the domain
Of Cynthia,–the wide palace of the sun,–
The tent of Hesperus and all his train,–
The bosomer of clouds, gold, grey and dun.
Blue! ‘Tis the life of waters–ocean
And all its vassal streams: pools numberless
May rage, and foam, and fret, but never can
Subside if not to dark-blue nativeness.
Blue! gentle cousin of the forest green,
Married to green in all the sweetest flowers,
Forget-me-not,–the blue-bell,–and, that queen
Of secrecy, the violet: what strange powers
Hast thou, as a mere shadow! But how great,
When in an Eye thou art alive with fate!
