Quotation by Richard Harter Fogle

Keats is minute in observation, with an eye to every particular of every object; Shelley, usually working on a panoramic scale, generalizes and reduces, in order that the details of his scenes may fit within a unity of the whole. Keats is naturalistic and representative, whereas Shelley more noticeably imposes his subjective conceptions upon what he sees. Shelley's vision is usually directed either up or down, while Keats looks out before him, horizontally; he glances at the sky casually, albeit observantly, while Shelley's gaze is earnest and painful, as if he strove to pierce the atmosphere and arrive at some ultimate vision above the air itself.