Firstly, all the poets
of Keats’s time were influenced by the ideas and ideals of the French
Revolution. The ideas of the French Revolution had awakened the youthful nature
of both Wordsworth and Coleridge; they had moved the wrath of Scott; they had
worked like Yeats on Byron and brought forth new matter for Shelly. There was
only one poet, Keats, of that age whom they could not affect on any way
whatsoever.
Secondly, Keats longed to
escape from the realities of life in a mood that seized him when he was
contrasting the lot of man with that of the nightingale. Sorrows and sufferings
were expected in life and he had fully realized that escape from the realities
of life was neither possible nor desirable. Keats’s lifelong creed was: “A
thing of beauty is a joy forever.” He wanted to plunge into. ”the realm of
Flora and Pan …. Sleep And Poetry. Keats was so preoccupied with beauty that he
turned a deaf ear to the actualities of life around him.
Pure
poet: Keats
always tried to attain peacefulness of mood in the midst of all the sufferings
which he was undergoing in his own life and which he saw all around him in
life. For Keats the world of beauty was an escape from the boring and painful
effects of life. Keats was not a Revolutionary idealist like Shelley, nor had
the Shelley’s reforming zeal. Keats was a pure poet. He had aesthetic taste in
the masterpieces of the past.
The
artist’s vision of beauty: Every great poet must follow the bent of his
genius: ---he has his own vision of life, and he expressed it in his own way.
Wordsworth has a spiritual vision and he expresses it in simple style; Shelley
has an idealistic vision and he expresses it in musical verse; Keats had the
artist’s vision of beauty, and he expresses it in picturesque style.
‘Beauty
is Truth and Truth Beauty’, that is well known on the earth, ad all ye need to know.
A
process of gradual development: The poetry of Keats shows a process of
gradual development. His earlier experiments in verse are products of youthful
imagination, immature and overcharged with imagery. The youthful poet has
abnormal sensibility, but lacks experience of life.
Thus he longed to escape from the
realities of life. But it was a passing mood that seized him when he was
contrasting the lot of man with that of nightingale.
Sorrows
and sufferings:
Sorrows and sufferings were inevitable in life and he fully realized that
escape from the realities of life was neither possible nor desirable. Keats was
trying to attain peacefulness of mood in the midst of all the sufferings which
he was undergoing in his own life and which he saw all around him in life. This
mood of serenity is expressed in the Ode to Autumn.
The
fundamental truths of life: Keats remained untouched by the ideas of the
Revolution which filled the atmosphere of Europe at the time: at least from his
poetry we do not find any indication of his interest in the Revolution. Though
the contemporary facts of history have not left any impression on his poetry,
he deeply realized and expressed in his poetry the fundamental truths of life.
Keats was a pure poet, would not allow any extraneous things like politics or
morality to disturb the pure waters of poetry. And poetry is the expression of
the poet’s own experience of life
In the Ode to Melancholy, he points out how sadness inevitably accompanies joy and beauty. The rose is beautiful indeed but we cannot think the importance of the beauty without its thorn. It is therefore impossible to escape from inevitable pain in life.
Melancholy arises from humanity of joy, and joy is transient by its nature. Therefore, Keats accepts life as a whole—with its joy and beauty as well as its pain and despair. The Ode on Grecian Urn is not a dream of unutterable beauty nor is the urn itself the song of an impossible bliss beyond mortality. It has a precious message to mankind, not as a thing of beauty which gives exquisite delight to the senses, but as a symbol and prophecy of a comprehension of human life to which mankind can attain. Keats was not an escapist from life, as he is sometimes supposed to be.
Edited by: Mahbub Murad. Dhaka, Bangladesh. Cell: +8801919879309, +8801761519111. Email: Mahbub_murad@yahoo.com
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