[layman]

"How fevered is the man who cannot look Upon his mortal days with temperate blood, Who vexes all the leaves of his life's book, And robs his fair name of its maidenhood..."

Am I the only one who doesn't know what the hell this means?

[AnAmericanMother]

Don't feel bad. C.S. Lewis wasn't sure what Keats meant either (another poem). You can read about it in The Great Divorce. His guide (George MacDonald) replied that he didn't think Keats was sure what he meant either.

Keats is not as impenetrable as, say, Gerard Manley Hopkins, but he's pretty dense.

[AnAmericanMother]

And I don't like the English Romantics very much, so I'm certainly not going to waste my time trying to figure out what Keats DID mean.

Although if you want to have some fun with Keats's poetry, read this short story by Kipling: Wireless.

I DO like Kipling. Very much.

[Miss Marple]

Keats was saying that an overwrought person cannot look or behave with moderation, that he ruins his life constantly with intemperate and ill-advised behavior, and loses his innocence in all things.

(My mother was an English lit teacher.)