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Working in a Technical College in Australia many years ago, my duties involved sitting around in an office, killing time. I would drift off, dreaming of travels past and adventures to come. One day I awoke with a line from a Keats’ poem in my head. This is not a usual occurrence, but we had studied Keats at school and a half-remembered line from one of his poems must have popped into my sleep. At work, over coffee, I drifted back to my school days, picturing my teacher ranting on about poetry and language, us students sitting there listening, our fat Penguin copy of The Complete Poems of Keats in our hands. I could even remember the cover – a painting of a shepherd sleeping against a tree.
An urge overcame me to find a copy of the poem. This being before the days of the internet, I thought a library would be my best bet. Never having visited the College Library, I asked a colleague where it was before making my way across the campus. This being a technical college, I wasn’t holding out much hope of finding any poetry in the library, so imagine my surprise as I walked through the door, and the first thing I saw poking out towards me from an over-stuffed returned book slot in the counter was a copy of The Complete Poems of John Keats; the same Penguin edition, the same shepherd on the front. I picked it up, obviously, as it was there waiting for me, flicked through and found the poem that was in my head, read it through and replaced the book where I had found it. I had barely entered the library, but had found exactly what I was looking for instantly. |
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