Endymion: A Poetic Romance

“The First Edition of Endymion” by John Keats (1818)

The British Library website offers digital scans of the first six pages of Endymion’s first edition. This includes the title page, dedication, and preface (which is not included in many poetry websites, such as the Academy of American Poets website, which includes all of Book 1). The first few stanzas of the poem itself are also included. Keats’s prefatory material offers more context for his work.

“Hymn to Apollo” by John Keats (1815)

This poem by Keats focuses on the Greek god Apollo, who appears in Endymion. Both works mention him as the charioteer of the sun, as an archer, and as a musician. However, “Hymn to Apollo” is a short lyric poem—a very different style than the long epic romance Endymion.

“Ode to a Nightingale” by John Keats (1815)

The nightingale briefly appears in Endymion, near the end of the poem. Endymion tells his sister, “the nightingale, upperched high, / And cloister'd among cool and bunched leaves– / She sings but to her love, nor e'er conceives / How tiptoe Night holds back her dark-grey hood” (Lines 829-832). In Keats’s “Ode to a Nightingale,” the bird takes center stage.