Ecstasy & Death: Keats and Shelley in Rome

Jack Ramey, poet and spoken word artist, brings to life the poems of Keats & Shelley and the revolutionary times in which they lived, with parallels to his own life in the late ‘60s at Kent State. Rome was of special importance to these two poets. Shelley wrote some of his greatest works in Rome, Keats died there, and they both are buried there in the Protestant Cemetery. This film shows how they live on as bright stars in the poetic firmament, as beacons for humanity, for truth, and for beauty.
Part 1: Shelley
Mask of Anarchy, Ode to the West Wind, Prometheus Unbound
Part 2: Keats-Shelley House
Ozymandias, Bright Star, Endymion, Ode on a Grecian Urn
Part 3: The Final Act - The Protestant Cemetery
Ode to a Nightingale, This Living Hand, Adonais
Director’s Statement: I have always been fascinated by the Romantic poets and the rock star status of poets during their time period. They didn’t need a guitar; they used the power of words. I made this film so that the audience can experience what they did. I knew that Jack Ramey was the perfect artist for this film because I had worked with him on his highly acclaimed one-man show on Dylan Thomas, which ran at the Odyssey Theatre in LA and the 13th Street Theater in NYC for two years, and I saw the enthusiastic comments he received on his RUclips videos about Keats and Shelley:
“The best thing one can find on the internet regarding Shelly's Ode to the West Wind.”
“That was such a mesmerizing performance. Thank you for sharing,”
“Appreciate your explanation on this fascinating poem. Love your reading!”
To get a more personal insight into Keats, we shot at the sites in England where he lived and worked, including Hampstead Heath and his home in Hampstead where he wrote some of his greatest poems. The film, though, focuses on his last days in Rome at the Keats-Shelley house. In addition to giving a reading at the Keats-Shelley house, Jack does a private reading in Keats’ bedroom where he died.
We visit Shelley’s favorite sites in Rome, the Pantheon, Forum, and Baths of Caracalla. The film ends by their tombstones in the Protestant Cemetery with Keats’ “Ode to a Nightingale” and Shelley’s “Adonais,” his elegy on the death of Keats, with his uplifting view of death:
Peace, peace! he is not dead, he doth not sleep,
He hath awaken'd from the dream of life . . .
Shelley’s hatred of tyranny and his love of freedom and Keats’ search for truth and beauty still resonate deeply in these troubled times. We need the words of these poets now more than ever, which is why I made this film. The depth of feeling and the haunting tone of contemporary pain and suffering evoked by Ramey’s readings brings the words of these bicentennial poets to life.