The poem shows a human speaker in the vulnerable act of changing their mind. Keats doesn’t want to be in the sky, eternally (and probably uncomfortably) unblinking, or even to be an “Eremite,” — which is just a fancy word for hermit. Keats doesn’t want to be distant at all, it turns out. It was the poem’s role to change its mind out loud, by setting out one way and then changing course. I’m not saying that poetry doesn’t have a place to hold our rage.

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Persons: Tess Taylor, John Keats, Tess Taylor Adrianne, Keats, Keats doesn’t, he’d, He’s, what’s, certainties, ”, —, WB Yeats, I’m Organizations: “, CNN, Hulton, Twitter, WB Locations: absolutes