...Axioms": "Poetry should surprise by a fine excess"; "its touches of Beauty should never be half way"; "if Poetry comes not as naturally as the leaves to a tree it had better not come at all" to Taylor, 27 February 1818 (1.238-39) "every mental pursuit takes its reality and worth from the ardour...

...seem miraculous and therefore a natural rather than a human accomplishment. Remembering Keats' advice 'that if Poetry comes not as naturally as the leaves to a tree it had better not come at all' (to John Taylor, 27 February 1818), can we not diffidently apply the thought to Britain's growth in...

...depends on two emendations in the Folio text — looks forward to Keats' aphorism that ' if poetry come not as naturally as the leaves to a tree, it had better not come at all '. The ensuing dialogue brings out the Poet's genuine interest in the Painter's work and the latter's...

...consciousness. Early poetry was kept fresh by daily contact with its legend-material and with nature: "if Poetry comes not as naturally as the Leaves to a tree it had better not come at all" (Letters 1: 238-9). Therefore legend and its vernal decoration—content and style—are interwoven,...

...need to force the mind or the soul in any direction' — both owe something to romantic vocabulary — 'if Poetry comes not as naturally as the Leaves to a tree it had better not come at all' — and subvert the pure literariness and aestheticism of such a romantic statement into an evocation...

...does not startle or amaze it with itself, but with its subject. " (3 February, 1818) "If poetry come not as naturally as the leaves to a tree it had better not come at all." (27 February, 1818) "I feel more and more every day, as my imagination strengthens, that I do not live...

...you seem to be led by your declared little confidence about your writing to Keat's axiom that if it "comes not as naturally as the leaves to a tree, it had better not come at all." Has your confidence in planning your fictional construction increased? JU: I think it has a little...

...of twilight. But it is easier to think what Poetry should be than to write it, and this leads me on to another axiom. That if Poetry comes not as naturally...the Leaves to a tree it had better not come at all. However it may be with me I cannot help looking into new countries with "O for a Muse of fire to ascend!"2...

...'uncertain path with green". The Romantic principle of natural inspiration is summed up in Keats's axiom that 'if Poetry comes not as naturally as the Leaves to a tree it had better not come at all'.21 In other words, poetry must originate as naturally as leaves or flowers. Relevant here are...

...Acknowledgements 245 Index of genres 248 fa a tree This On< a tree Edited by Robin Malan ©davidphilip 'If Poetry comes not as naturally as the Leaves to a tree, it had better not come at all.' -John Keats, in a letter to his publisher John Taylor, First published in 2005 in southern Africa by...