Quotation by

John Keats

Poetry should surprise by a fine excess and not by singularity, it should strike the reader as a wording of his own highest thoughts, and appear almost a remembrance.

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Understanding this quote AI Analysis

Keats believes poetry works best when it expresses ideas that deeply resonate with the reader, going beyond ordinary language to capture their most profound feelings. Instead of being strange or unusual, poetry should feel familiar, as if it is recalling thoughts the reader already holds inside.

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A poem begins as a lump in the throat, a sense of wrong, a homesickness, a lovesickness.