English Essays

Poetry: John Keats

John Keats presents abstract ideas in a style that is clear and direct. To what extent do you agree or disagree with this assessment of his poetry?

John Keats' poetry is challenging and not always direct. Reading and understanding his work requires time, patience and effort. That is why Keats is one of my favourite poets. I found the abstract ideas in Keats' work both thought-provoking and stimulating, and relevant to my life. His poetry extols and celebrates the individual and the beauty of nature, and is notable for a powerfully expressed awareness of death and mortality. He mastered the ballad, sonnet, and ode forms and constructed beautiful poems. However, it takes several readings of his poems to fully understand his meaning behind certain metaphors and other figurative language techniques.

One of the most demanding aspects of Keats' poetry is the abstract idea of negative capability. At first, I was confused by this idea, as I was by his celebration of art. However, when I read, "On First Looking into Chapman's Homer," these ideas became clear to me, and the theme became much less difficult to understand, and much more interesting. The key, for me, was to understand that Keats writes in figurative language. The, "Realms of gold," and the, "Goodly states and kingdoms," referred to in the octet are metaphors for great art. Keats says that reading amazing books makes him feel, "Pure serene," This is then precisely captured when his simile compares Chapman's translation of Homer to being, "Like some watcher of the skies when a new planet swims into his ken," The conceit of the poet as an adventurer and traveller in the wonderfully exciting world of literature runs throughout the poem, and helped communicate to me the awestruck feelings of the poet when reading this version of Homer. Personally, in this poem, I did not feel as though Keats' style was immediately clear, but after a little thought, his point is very direct and intelligible. Life is a tough, life is a struggle, but despite this, human beings are capable of creating magical, immortal pieces of art, and this is exactly what negative capability means. This is proof that Keats' abstract ideas cause his poetry to be less clear, but the effort required to decode these conceptual ideas is rewarding.

I feel that John Keats' poetry does present abstract ideas, however I disagree that his style is clear and direct. Keats, as a true romantic poet, believed that nature brought humans great happiness and solace in difficult times. In, "To One Who Has Been Long In City Pent," he utilises personification to highlight his relationship with nature. He describes nature as the, "Open face of heaven," He also employs complex similes to compare his sadness at leaving the countryside to that of an angel weeping. "E'en like the passage of an angel's tear / That falls through the clear ether silently," This remarkable and striking image is an extremely philosophical reflection on the struggles that accompany creating and appreciating timeless pieces of artwork. However difficult the language Keats uses may be, his message is simple and clear. The poet believes that one can escape from the dull reality of urban life in two ways, through literature and through nature.

Another aspect of Keats's poetry which should not be overlooked is his employment of strong, potent imagery in order to represent and develop his abstract ideas. "La Belle Dame Sans Merci," differs in both its ballad structure and narrative form. Not only does this poem deal with concepts, such as death, transience, and the inexplicable power of love, it also contains powerful imagery that is initially unclear. Within the opening lines, Keats describes a knight, "Alone and palely loitering," and subsequently establishes the setting as dark and ominous through his description of nature's sickly state, with the lines, "The sedge has withered from the lake, and no birds sing," The use of natural imagery is continued throughout the poem, with vivid descriptions of, "Roots of relish sweet," and, "Honey wild, and manna dew," This marks a distinct change in mood from the gloom created by the earlier imagery, to magical, romantic imagery, as the Belle Dame tempts the knight. Keats recognises that love has the capability to cause pain. The knight is, "Lulled," to sleep, bewitched, and dreams of kings, princes and warriors who are, "Pale," have, "Starved lips," their mouths, "With horrid warning gaped wide," The reason for the beautiful woman being described as, "Sans Merci," is now apparent and with it, the poem becomes clear. Keats' ability to express his abstract ideas is impressive, conveys them through a style that is clear and direct after thought.

Keats was very concerned with poetic inspiration and ambition, and similarly, the imagination and it's presence as a means of escaping life. This abstract concern is evident in, "When I Have Fears," where Keats describes his fears of death before he is able to fully express all that his mind holds, "When I have fears that I may cease to be / Before my pen has gleaned my teeming brain," This shows to me a great poetic ambition within Keats, and a self-realisation of his potential as a writer of poetry. He goes on to contemplate his grief if he were never given the chance to capture the beauty of, "Huge cloudy symbols of a high romance," and describes the process of their description in his poetry as tracing, "Their shadows with the magic hand of chance," This seems to show a recognition that his poetry, and the beauty that inspires it, is something magical and other-worldly, and this realisation adds to his distress, were he to die and never fully reach his poetic potential. In this way, Keats' ideas are most certainly abstract, and, in my opinion, are expressed clearly and directly in this poem.

In, "Ode on a Grecian Urn," Keats once again contemplates the abstract ideas of permanence, eternity and perfection as he examines a scene on a Grecian urn. In the opening line, he admires the "Still unravished bride of quietness," of the urn, and observes that beauty remains intact for years, and in his view, is immortal. The sibilance in this line gives the poem a slow rhythm and creates a clear and direct sense of awe. The poem's tone of celebration becomes ecstatic in the third stanza, and we truly see Keats' enthusiasm for great art. He is completely immersed and is celebrating a world without change, "Ah, happy, happy boughs! That cannot shed / Your leaves, nor ever bring the Spring adieu," This idea is communicated clearly and directly through positive language. However the following stanza contrasts this, presenting a sombre and haunting note. The people going to the sacrifice on the urn must come from a, "Little town," or, "Citadel," However, since they will never make the sacrifice, they will never return, and the streets of the town will remain empty, deserted for eternity. The final two lines of the poem, "Beauty is truth, truth beauty - that is all / Ye know on earth, and all ye need to know," are ambiguous, and although abstract, their meaning can be simply understood. Wherever there is truth, there is beauty, therefore, truth, intrinsically, is beautiful.

Through the study of John Keats' poetry, I found that all of his poems explored abstract and philosophical ideas, such as love, mortality, beauty, nature and escapism. Even though some of his poems are somewhat obtuse due to his use of complex metaphors and symbols, once his figurative language is understood, his poetry is clear, direct, and very much enjoyable.