jhon keats
An overview:
John Keats is considered to be one of the greatest poets of English literature. Although he died at so tender an age, he has produced such masterpieces in poetry that have kept him alive even today amongst us. Basically he belonged to the “Romanticism” school of thought. Romanticism is a literary movement, a kind of revolt of the senses or passions against intellect or wit and individual against consensus. Romantic poetry is all about imagination, nature, unusualness, about common people, fascination for the past, relationship between man and nature etc. As it is about rustic life and common people, the language used is also simple rather beautiful. The first stirrings of the romanticism may be seen in the works of William Blake, Samuel Taylor Coleridge and William Wordsworth etc. John Keats is considered one of the later romantics. He made an attempt to make the language beautiful by an interest in remote history and unusual places.
Keats’s Characteristics as a Romantic Poet:
John Keats in his poetry presented many issues. One of them is a desire to abandon the real world and take refuge into the self-created world of imagination. He separates present from past and future. That’s why he is known as an “Escapist” because he avoids the hard and harsh realities of the real world through his power of imagination. This is so because he, along with many of his family members, died of T.B. very early in his life. Another of his many prominent qualities is his “Negative Capability”. In many of his poems, he negates his own self and assumes the persona of the object chosen. Keats is also considered as a very “sensuous” poet and much of his poetry involves and appeals to all the five senses.
Next, John Keats has beautifully fused pain with imaginary relief. To escape from the pain of reality, he moves to the world of imagination. When he hears the nightingale, he desires fine wine in order to achieve a state of mind, and if not wine, then chooses the route of flying through his poetry. “Away! Away! For I will fly to thee, Not charioted by Bacchus and his pards, But on the viewless wings of poesy, though the dull brain perplexes and retards: already with thee! Tender is the night, and haply the Queen-Moon is on her throne, Cluster’d around by all her starry fays;” In addition, this poem also appeals to all the five senses. For instance, “in some melodious plot/ of beechen green”, the sense of hearing and sight are combined respectively, and in line “nor what soft incense hangs upon the boughs”, he combines the senses of touch, and weight at the same time.
By Atique (183/10)
