Keats, known as a poet, was also one of history’s great letter writers.  He loved life and seized it even as it slipped away from him, embracing moments of joy centuries before anyone talked about ‘mindfulness’. He was also immensely playful, contrary to the image we often have of Romantic poets.

And as a lifelong pebble-pusher, I love this quote.

‘I have a few scotch pebbles for you from the Island of Icolmkill.’

Source: John Keats, 19 Aug 1818, Selected Letters, ed. Robert Gittings (Oxford World Classics, 2002/2009), p. 142