English at Heart
Heathrow Airport, on a February Sunday evening has a cold greeting for me.I emerge from it's exit and make my way for the place of my stay in London for the following week at Primrose Garden - a short walk from the famous Hampstead Heath which Keats,Shelley,and Oscar Wilde, among other renowned writers, frequented.
Hampstead Heath is a wonder place for a nature lover, it becomes almost impossible not to break out into free abandon on seeing so much natural beauty, each turn of the head creates a picture -if you use your mind as a picture frame. It is a seven acre of open area - an attractive moorland of open spaces, meadows and slopes and ponds. Part heath and part woodland, it stretches along a ridge in north London just four miles from Central London. It is a place that has been favored by literary artists seeking rest and relaxation, for no artist or painter's heart can remain untouched by the splendorous beauty of the Heath - consisting shrubs and trees, steps and pathways, lakes and lanes, benches and bridges. Frequented in the late eighteenth century by Wordsworth and Coleridge and in early nineteenth century by Keats and Shelley the Heath is a literary '''mine'' into which the minds of these great English romantic poets dug and produced the most soul - stirring gems of poetry of that Age. Keats writes - ''... if poetry comes not as naturally as the leaves to a tree, then it had better not come at all.'' He further writes ( in one of his letters to his brother George )- that he views the world as '' a vale of soul - making'' -anticipating the great Odes, that he would write some months later. No doubt he found his imagination taking flight when it was fed by the natural beauty of his surroundings. He later wrote - " I'm certain of nothing but the holiness of the heart's affections and the truth of Imagination. "
To his best friend Shelley he wrote "if my Imagination is a monastery and I'm a monk ".
He writes elsewhere-''Beauty is truth , truth beauty...
English at Heart
Heathrow Airport, on a February Sunday evening has a cold greeting for me.I emerge from it's exit and make my way for the place of my stay in London for the following week at Primrose Garden - a short walk from the famous Hampstead Heath which Keats,Shelley,and Oscar Wilde, among other renowned writers, frequented.
Hampstead Heath is a wonder place for a nature lover, it becomes almost impossible not to break out into free abandon on seeing so much natural beauty, each turn of the head creates a picture -if you use your mind as a picture frame. It is a seven acre of open area - an attractive moorland of open spaces, meadows and slopes and ponds. Part heath and part woodland, it stretches along a ridge in north London just four miles from Central London. It is a place that has been favored by literary artists seeking rest and relaxation, for no artist or painter's heart can remain untouched by the splendorous beauty of the Heath - consisting shrubs and trees, steps and pathways, lakes and lanes, benches and bridges. Frequented in the late eighteenth century by Wordsworth and Coleridge and in early nineteenth century by Keats and Shelley the Heath is a literary '''mine'' into which the minds of these great English romantic poets dug and produced the most soul - stirring gems of poetry of that Age. Keats writes - ''... if poetry comes not as naturally as the leaves to a tree, then it had better not come at all.'' He further writes ( in one of his letters to his brother George )- that he views the world as '' a vale of soul - making'' -anticipating the great Odes, that he would write some months later. No doubt he found his imagination taking flight when it was fed by the natural beauty of his surroundings. He later wrote - " I'm certain of nothing but the holiness of the heart's affections and the truth of Imagination. "
To his best friend Shelley he wrote "if my Imagination is a monastery and I'm a monk ".
He writes elsewhere-''Beauty is truth , truth beauty... breakfast his attention was caught by the song of a nightingale and been drawn by it he sat below the blossom tree and penned those famous lines: ''My heart aches and a drowsy numbness pains My sense, as though of hemlock I had drunk, Or emptied some dull opiate to the drains.....and liethwards has sunk...''
The Encyclopedia Britannica describes the poem ''Nightingale'' as one of the finest masterpieces of human work in all time. His closeness to nature and all its creatures is reflected in the inner intensity with which he wrote.
At this very house also Keats wrote the beautiful poem-''Bright Star''- a love sonnet- lauding his 18year old love, Fanny.
The tone of melonchly in his poems owes to the fact that while nursing his brother Tom he fell victim to tubercolosis and this was the reason why he left England and Fanny Brown for the warmer climes of Rome, where after a short spell of illness he passed away at the tender age of 25.He was much loved by Shelley who mourned him in his elegy ''Adonis''.
Shelley wrote :
''He is made one with nature; there is heard His voice in all her music; from the moan of thunder to the song of night's sweet bird; He is a Presence to be felt and known....''
Darkness, disease and depression surrounded him and are reflected in works like ''The Eve of St. Agnes'' and ''La Belle Dame Sans Merci'' etc.
Spiritualism and love of nature go hand in hand because nature is an experience which lead to intense personal expression. And, because of the effect nature has over man, often uplifting the emotions- it allows for a deep spiritual connection with itself. Wordsworth so poetically has put it-
''Nature never did betray a heart that loved her.'' All poetic works which find their source in nature can be described as''art with a heart'' , thus turning poets into prophets...
On a personal level, experiencing nature for me is an integral part of the development and completeness of the soul. According to me, nature, because its beauty is awe-inspiring. has the capacity to teach love, joy, freedom and piety as these are characteristics for a worthy , developed individual.
For those who are ardent travelers who travel not just for travelling sake,but who ''seek to find'' may take the tube to Hampstead or Belsize Park and be prepared to walk to the Keats House.There are numerous shops and restuarants along the way. The House is open daily from noon till 5 p.m., except
for holidays and the admittance fee is GBP 3 and for children below 16yrs is free.There is no charge for entering the garden. From November to March the House is open from noon till 4 p.m..
Organised walks start at Hampstead tube at 1p.m.and the stroll takes you through old Hampstead,a visit to the Vale of Heath,dip into the Heath (the specific attraction are the three bathing pools-Men's pools and Women's pools that lie on the eastern edge of the Heath)-the swimming hours being seasona and age dependent. It is a trip worth checking out and costing about GBP 1-2.It is a 6-mile walk and this activity is organised and run by Keats House.
Website: www.keatshouse.cityoflondon.
Warm Regards,
