KEEP THE DATES......with the POETS
The Keats-Shelley Memorial House Museum in Rome is launching the second part of its two-year bi-centenary programme commemorating the poets John Keats and Percy Bysshe Shelley, who both died in Italy within two years of each other and who are both buried in the Non-Catholic Cemetery of Rome.
The celebration programme was launched in February 2020 at the British Ambassador's residence in Rome, followed by the launch of the video- documentary “The Death of Keats”, premiered on the 23rd February 2021.
Despite the problems presented by pandemic restrictions, a series of online presentations, documentaries and readings have continued to be broadcast on YouTube over the past year by the Keats-Shelley House, in preparation for the main events programmed for this year.
John Keats died of tuberculosis on February 23rd 1821 in what was a modest inn that has now become the Museum dedicated to the two poets on the Spanish Steps. He was only twenty-five. Percy Bysshe Shelley was 29 when he was drowned in the Gulf of La Spezia on July 8th 1822. Both poets, although not popular in their lifetimes, subsequently achieved unparalleled fame and recognition, leaving an indelible mark on poetry in the English speaking world and beyond.
Shelley will be the focus of the Lerici Shelley Poetry Festival to be held between the 16th-19th June 2022. Special guest will be UK Poet Laureate and Keats-Shelley Ambassador200, Simon Armitage. The Festival will feature contemporary poetry in both English and Italian, with main venue the splendid setting of the 19th century Villa Marigola, whose English-style gardens are listed among the Most Beautiful Gardens of Italy.
The Bicentenary Commemorative day follows on the 8th July 2022 in collaboration with the sister Keats-Shelley Association of America with a global online reading of “The Triumph of Life,” Shelley's last, unfinished work, translations of which will be recited in various languages, followed by a debate on the last days of the poet's life.
From the 8th July until the 10th December 2022, the focus will be on “Adonais”, the poem-elegy that Shelley dedicated to Keats, as a double tribute with a special exhibition in the KS House.
Celebrations are still in the air, however, with Lord Byron's Bicentenary events starting in 2023, so keep in touch.....
Info: YouTube: TheKeatsShelleyHouse www.ksh.roma.it
