The Keats-Shelley Blog

7 April 2020

Week 2: Keats-Shelley Synchronised Reading Group - Keats’ To Solitude

8th April, 12 noon GMT: we read John Keats' first published poem - the sonnet, 'O Solitude! if I must with thee dwell'

The second meeting of the Keats-Shelley Per Tutti Synchronised Reading Group will take place at 12 noon GMT, Wednesday 8th April. 

This week, we are reading John Keats' first published poem - the sonnet 'O Solitude! if I must with thee dwell' - and would love you to join us for say 15 minutes.

If work, family or time zones make this difficult - John and George would have been four hours apart - read at your own 12 noon. Or whenever you can - the important part is the reading. Perhaps you can follow the example of Caroline Newns and read the poem down the phone to a friend or relative.

We would love to hear where in the world you are reading. If you want to send us a video or recording of your reading - or your thoughts and feelings - please do so. Get in touch on Twitter or Facebook. You can email us too: ksmafriends@hotmail.com.

The idea was inspired by John Keats who in December 1818 wrote this from London to his brother George and Georgiana Keats in Kentucky:

‘I shall read a passage of Shakespeare every Sunday at ten oClock – you read one at the same time and we shall be as near each other as blind bodies can be in the same room.’

Keats wrote the poem around October 1815, shortly after he entered Guy's Hospital. His first published poem, it appeared as 'To Solitude' in The Examiner, 5 May 1816.

Read the poem here.

James Kidd