Essay Two – John Keats’ Poetry

INTRODUCTION

Literature draws from the conventions of its immediate context to reflect on enduring values. John Keats’ oeuvre contains a certain Romantic spirit that governs the character of his poetry and our experience engaging with it to a great extent. Notably, his poems Ode to a Grecian Urn (1820), To Autumn (1820), and Bright Star (1838)² exemplify the influence of Romantic thought, providing a window into the conditions that shaped the nineteenth-century and which inform the principles of the literature created in his time. Through his thematic investigations into knowledge, time and love, we are transported into, and are able to adopt the sensibility, of the poet’s era to better understand our own¹

1. This success of this introduction can be seen in how it integrates the key concepts of the questions and expands on them in varied ways. In particular, it really orients the reader to the idea of ‘literary conventions’ and ‘context’ which emphasises their importance in the analysis to come. I also suggested in the introduction that Keats’ poetry is not only a great example of Romantic literature, but that is also has a profound impact on readers across time due to the universality of the themes he explores. This adds a layer of judgement to the question that makes it uniquely my own and is central to my arguments later on in the essay.

2. If you do happen to know when the poems were first published, do include them in the introduction. It just shows you know it without diving into a deep historical retelling of how and when the poems were created.

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Central to Romantic liberation and individualism is the acquisition of knowledge through the imagination. Written in a context which reacts against and abandons the rationality of the preceding Enlightenment, Keats’ Ode to a Grecian Urn explores the potential an individual has within themselves to activate critical and intellectual faculties³. The personification of the urn as a “Sylvan historian” presents the subject of the poem as a source of wisdom from its portraits “of deities, or mortals, of both.” Juxtaposing the divine with the earthling, Keats illustrates the Romantic fascination with the imagination, acting as a repository⁴ which can grant individuals the ability to possess knowledge. An emotionally charged endeavour, the venture towards finding personal enlightenment is further depicted in the figures “all breathing human passion far above.” This hyperbolically conveys the transcendence we may experience from embracing the intuitive and primitive, a driving philosophy in nineteenth century belief.⁵ Keats celebrates antiquity in the epode⁶ and exclaims in an adoring tone “o Attic shape!” whereby the urn serves as a deeper reflection of the possibilities individuals have for accessing upper realms of abstraction. It is in this artefact, symbolic of human creation, that there is “all ye need to know.” The chiasmus⁷ at the conclusion, “beauty is truth, truth beauty,” encompasses the personal pleasure of knowledge for the individual. The Romantic qualities within this poem awaken and empower the audience’s inner desire to pursue an ongoing pursuit for meaning. Hence, the poem has been significantly shaped by the prevailing conventions of the period Keats lived in, continuing to inspire a timeless message on individual agency and the rewards of knowledge.⁸

3. I have combined authorial intent and context in this same sentence. Effective writing is able to integrate these concepts so that they flow, as opposed to separating them into individual sentences.

4. Repository: a place where or receptacle in which things are or may be stored.

5. References to context are incorporated here to link back to the ‘literary conventions’ aspect of the question. When referring to context, it is important to address more of the characteristics and significant views held at the time that may have influenced the poet, rather than giving an entire recount of the events and historical background of the poem.

6. Epode: the third section of an ancient Greek choral ode, or of one division of such an ode. Since this is an ode, I used this term which signals to the reader that I am discussing the closing segment of the poem. This is highly recommended since it demonstrates a more thorough acknowledgement of the text’s form and how the content of the poem is reflective of the characters of that section.

7. Chiasmus: a technique in which words, grammatical constructions, or concepts are repeated in reverse order. When choosing less common and obvious techniques, make sure you understand their function and consider how this would affect the meaning of the text.

8. To finish this paragraph off nicely, I discussed here the impact of Romantic aesthetics on literary conventions and how those features have been transferred into Keats’ writing. Audience impact is really developed in these last sentences to achieve this successfully.

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Moreover, the complexities that inform our conception of time are gestured in Romantic writing. With a declining health and increasing financial burdens, life’s fleetingness was a key concern in the poet’s personal context and expounded by the ideologies of the period.⁹ To Autumn muses on the “seasons of mist and mellow fruitness” with visual imagery to illustrate the passage of time. In “later flowers for the bees, / Until they think warm days will never cease”, Autumn deceives us, as it does the “bees”, on the truly fragile nature of time in the first stanza. This temporality is contrasted with Autumn’s cyclical visits in time, personified for having a “patient look, / Thou watchest the last oozings hours by hours.” Through the repetition of “hours,” Keats creates tension by acknowledging the unchanging nature of the seasons, continuing to recur beyond our lifetime. The paradox of time being both passing and eternal is proposed within the question “where are the songs of spring?” Although asked in an anguished tone, the persona orients us to a more holistic interpretation of the timelessness that exists in the ephemeral.¹¹ Within this sublime experience, the aural imagery “in a wailful choir the small gnats mourn” and “sinking as the light wind lives or dies” echoes the conflicting nature of time’s transience and permanence,¹² compelling us to a more mindful approach in our own contemporary context. Evidently, Keats’ poetry moulds these conventions to foster a greater awareness of the delicacy of time we have on earth and urges us to appreciate each moment of it.

9. The theme of time and its importance to Keats’ oeuvre is contextualised here in light of both his autobiography (being in debt and facing financial hardship, all the while battling with tuberculosis) and his placement in broader history.

10. To reflect the paradox being analysed, I also had a paradox in my own writing with “the timelessness that exists in the ephemeral.” This generates a more self-referential approach to writing and can allow your personal voice to shine through. As mentioned in the guide, this takes time to really start developing but incorporating techniques in your own analysis can elevate its quality by tenfold.

11. Ephemeral: lasting for a very short time.

12. This analysis not only builds from the analysis previously but proposes the impact of Keats’ writing in contemporary society. As with referring to context, I avoided allusions to things like social media or anything along those lines. Instead, I suggested more generally the reason why his poetry resonates with our times and this can be understood just from that.

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Finally, love is elevated in the poetic medium to reflect its significant effect in human emotions.¹³ Keats’ Bright Star, as with the literature in his time, was guided by personal sensations that were evocatively represented in order to generate those reactions in us. Though undeniable in its grandeur, the persona challenges initial assumptions we may have come into the poem with on the importance of the titular bright star by rejecting its solidarity, “not in lone splendour hung aloft the night.”¹⁴ While enabling him to admire it from a distance, the persona finds the unattainable isolation of the star unfulfilling. This is contrasted with the brief, but nevertheless gratifying in Romantic standards, experience of being “pillow’d upon my fair love’s ripening breast.” Visual and tactile imagery combine to simulate the softness and humble comfort the persona has found, an intimacy which is etched within his lasting memory and awe of love as he is able to “to feel forever its soft fall and swell.”¹⁵ It is in the ending rhyming couplet of this sonnet which confirms that he has chosen to deviate from the lonely lifestyle of the star, that it is in the passing nature of this embrace that his love is given true meaning; “Still, still to hear her tender-taken breath, / And so live ever—or else swoon to death.” The syllabic balance in the final line’s iambic pentameter equates the love he feels to a greater narrative on life and death.¹⁶ Therefore, the poem encourages us to search for, and strive towards, a kind of love that is everlasting, a prominent aesthetic goal and aspiration in Romanticism.

13. I would argue that love is quite a risky theme to choose for analysis just because it can very easily fall into a cliché interpretation of the text. If you do decide to look at love, try and approach it from either a less common angle (perhaps the absence of love or the representations of unhealthy love) or to connect it with another concept which I have done in this case with the idea of emotions.

14. From my first analysis, I discuss how Keats challenges any preconceptions the reader might have had coming into the poem about him comparing his love to a bright star. In fact, this poem shows him actively rejecting the star’s lonely lifestyle and finding what he considers to be eternal love later on in the poem.

15. There are also more carnal, sexual readings of this poem, but I have opted for a more innocent interpretation of the reflection on the nature of love. Hence, my analysis uses words like “softness” and “humble comfort” to demonstrate to the reader that I am aware of potential interpretations but ultimately looking at it as a pure and romantic scene, rather than a vulgar and promiscuous one.

16. Here, I use terminology relevant to the sonnet form to demonstrate my awareness of the rhyming couplet’s function and significance to this poem. I also determine the effect of iambic pentameter on how we receive those final lines, even though it is used for the entire sonnet. This is to emphasise its importance to how the poem ends and our sense of relief as it comes to a close.

CONCLUSION

In essence, Keats’ poetry first adheres within his contextual boundaries before creating literature which converses universally with us. Exploring the notions of knowledge, time and love within his poems can enable us to discern the conventions of the literary movement that he not only was influenced by, but that he also came to shape. Thus, his poetry will continue to transcend beyond the confines of the nineteenth century, inspiring us to look to Romantic ideologies for direction and wisdom to navigate our current world.¹⁷