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Themes of mortality and transient in an ode to a nightingale
A essay about john keats
Theme of death in keats poetry
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John Keats
Like many poets, John Keats had a very troubling and traumatic life which is seen in his poetry. Death and many other troubles caused him to have a life that would make anyone would feel horrible in. John Keats’ poetry has many dark recurring themes. One speculation was that his poetry was an escape from his melancholy life. There were many aspects to Keats’ life that seemed to motivate him to write his poetry. Therefore there were clear connection between his works of poetry and the events of his life.
John Keats was on born October 31 1795 in Moorgate, London. His parents were Thomas and Francis Keats. He was the oldest of four children. Keats’ was described as a volatile character, "always in extremes",(Delaney 17), and
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There are many themes, such as depression and death that are found in this poem. In the line 1 it reads, “My heart aches, and a drowsy numbness pain” (Keats). This quote shows Keats’ depression and how he is numb to the pain now. This shows that since he has endured so much pain in his past he is numb to the hurt and heartbreak, he considers this pain an everyday thing. Critic, Bill Delaney feels that he is very depressed as well. In his analysis he writes, “In Ode to a Nightingale, Keats is really only talking about the beauty of nature and how painful it is to think of dying and having to leave it. An aspiring writer can learn from Keats that the secret of creating important work is to deal with basic human emotions.” (Delaney). Delaney has the right idea about natures’ beauty and Keats’ feeling about having to leave it one day. Since so many of Keats’ close relatives have died and left nature to it made him think about how he is going to die soon and how sad that makes him feel. These thoughts could have been a factor to his early downfall and death at 25. …show more content…
His brother Tom had just died of tuberculosis. He himself had premonitions of his own death from the same disease, which turned out to be true. He was in love with young Fanny Brawne but found it impossible to marry her because he had rejected the career in medicine for which he had been trained; he was finding it impossible to make a living as a writer...” (Delaney). This quote shows that Keats is experiencing many more obstacles than just the death of his family members. He rejects his profession in medicine because of his love of poetry and he is essentially shunned from his community. This rejection also makes it impossible for Keats to be with his love,Fanny Brawne which is heartbreaking in itself. In addition to that he was struggling to make money with the salary of a writer. If one experienced even half of these troubles he would become depressed or distraught or even suicidal. In Keats’ “Ode to a Nightingale” he writes, “I have been half in love with easeful Death” (Keats). This line of poetry shows how Keats’ state of mind is reflected poetry.This stanza alone shows hints of depression and desire for death. Keats was more than just depressed. One can say he feels that is done with his life on earth and that he wants to die because everyone else in his family has. Keats wants an “easeful death”. He wants to die quickly and easily; some may even say he
Time is endlessly flowing by and its unwanted yet pending arrival of death is noted in the two poems “When I Have Fears,” by John Keats and “Mezzo Cammin,” by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. Keats speaks with no energy; only an elegiac tone of euphoric sounds wondering if his life ends early with his never attained fame. He mentions never finding a “fair creature” (9) of his own, only experiencing unrequited love and feeling a deep loss of youth’s passion. Though melancholy, “Mezzo Cammin,” takes a more conversational tone as Longfellow faces what is commonly known as a midlife crisis. The two poems progressions contrast as Keats blames his sorrow for his lack of expression while Longfellow looks at life’s failures as passions never pursued. In spite of this contrast, both finish with similar references to death. The comparable rhyme and rhythm of both poems shows how both men safely followed a practiced path, never straying for any spontaneous chances. The ending tones evoking death ultimately reveal their indications towards it quickly advancing before accomplish...
John Keats’s illness caused him to write about his unfulfillment as a writer. In an analysis of Keats’s works, Cody Brotter states that Keats’s poems are “conscious of itself as the poem[s] of a poet.” The poems are written in the context of Keats tragically short and painful life. In his ...
and fame within his self-predicted short lifespan. The majority of Keats’s odes, letters, and poems focus on the theme of death and Keats’s concern of dying before fulfilling his promise, however, “When I Have Fears” paints a more complex, personal, direct and introspective portrait of Keats’ anxiety (Brotter) . The reader should be aware that Keats suffered tragedy after tragedy as he watched his family disappear, some from battling tuberculosis and others for varied causes. On January, 31st of 1818, having already lost his mother and uncle to tuberculosis, caring for his dying brother Tom, and developing symptoms of the disease himself, John Keats writes a letter to his friend J.H Reynolds that includes his sonnet ,“When I Have Fears”. Keats mentions that the letter was meant to be a “serious poetical letter”, however, apologizes to Reynolds and carries on with incessant panic about his condition. Faced with realization of his own mortality, he also includes in his letter a fifty-line toast to golden sunshine, to friendship, and to getting poetically drunk on "the glory and grace of Apollo" (King). Evidently, Keats gets the chilling feeling that his that life, like his mother‘s, father‘s, uncle’s and brother’s, would end soon. In fact, he requested the words, “Here lies one whose name was writ in water” to be in scripted on his tombstone and an engraved broken lyre to symbolize his unfulfilled aspirations (Stillinger 211). With two fears, the fear of his life being cut short and the fear of never receiving love, Keats, boosted with motivation, devo...
Keats’ poetry explores many issues and themes, accompanied by language and technique that clearly demonstrates the romantic era. His poems ‘Ode to a Nightingale’ and ‘Bright Star’ examine themes such as mortality and idealism of love. Mortality were common themes that were presented in these poems as Keats’ has used his imagination in order to touch each of the five senses. He also explores the idea that the nightingale’s song allows Keats to travel in a world of beauty. Keats draws from mythology and christianity to further develop these ideas. Keats’ wrote ‘Ode To A Nightingale’ as an immortal bird’s song that enabled him to escape reality and live only to admire the beauty of nature around him. ‘Bright Star’ also discusses the immortal as Keats shows a sense of yearning to be like a star in it’s steadfast abilities. The visual representation reveal these ideas as each image reflects Keats’ obsession with nature and how through this mindset he was able
A. E. Houseman and John Keats are two poets who have wrote many poems about death. In particular, I will be speaking about Houseman’s “To An Athlete Dying Young,” and John Keats “When I have fears that I may cease to be.” Houseman speaks about a young athlete who died shortly after winning a race. Many people would think that this was a life that was short lived; however, Houseman believes this is the best way to go. If you die at your prime, that is how people will remember you, and no one will break your record. Keats speaks about some things that he wants in life: success, face, love, etc. He believes these things are crucial to the value of one’s life, and he realizes his death is coming soon, and he will not be able to fulfill these things.
In William Butler Yeats' poem, An Irish Airman Foresees His Death, Yeats adds a very distinct mood to the clay that creates this airman. This man, who very obviously sees no meaning in either his life or his death, speaks carelessly about his non existent self-worth. This creates a dark and depressing atmosphere for the reader. In the finishing lines of this poem, Yeats writes...
Throughout Keats’s work, there are clear connections between the effect of the senses on emotion. Keats tends to apply synesthetic to his analogies with the interactions with man and the world to create different views and understandings. By doing this, Keats can arouse different emotions to the work by which he intends for the reader to determine on their own, based on how they perceive it. This is most notable in Keats’s Ode to a Nightingale, for example, “Tasting of Flora, and Country Green” (827). Keats accentuates emotion also through his relationship with poetry, and death.
Imagery and symbolism merged to express his imagination, he became a unique poet in an evolving world where Romanticism was quickly expanding globally, not into a movement, but a way of thinking. Keats’ mother and brother, and eventually he too, passed away of tuberculosis. At the time of his brother 's passing, he developed ‘La Belle Dame sans Merci’. ‘La Belle’ expressed Keats’ intellect and creativity, although at the same time he himself expressed his angst and depression for the loss of his brother. His poem ‘Bright Star’ was written in a part of his life in which a woman had influenced Keats’ greatly, so much in fact that he was driven to write ‘Bright Star’ in appreciation and celebration of the love of his life. These poems reflect Keats’ intellect, originality, creativity, and his ability to merge the contextual aspects of his life and his imagination with the ideals and concepts of Romanticism to create powerful
How could he not when he was faced with it so young? His views on mortality help shape his theodicy and why he thinks that the world is a vale of soul making. In “Ode to a Nightingale,” he discusses the idea of mortality in relation to immortal things. He talks about the nightingale and its ease with which it sings and lives as though he envies it: “My heart aches, and a drowsy numbness pains/ My sense, as though of hemlock I had drunk/ Or emptied some dull opiate to the drains/ One minute past, and Lethe-wards had sunk:/ Tis not through envy of thy happy lot/ But being too happy in thine happiness/ That thou, light winged dryad of the trees/ in some melodious plot/ of beechen green and shadows numberless/ singest of summer in full throated ease” (Keats, 1-10). He describes the nightingale as a tree spirit who sings in ease and has not a care in the world, while he has an aching heart and his senses are sedated and in a world of oblivion. The contrast between his self-description and the nightingale, which sings in the summer, is light winged and sounds like it has no cares at all, almost elf like, is quite a stark contrast. It almost brings an image of darkness and light to mind. Keats also writes in this same poem, “Darkling I listen; and, for many a time/ I have been half in love with easeful Death/ Call’d him soft names in many a mused rhyme/ to take into the air my quiet breath;/ now more than ever seems it rich to die/ To cease upon the midnight with no pain/ while thou art pouring forth thy soul abroad/ in such ecstasy!/ Still wouldst thou sing, and I have ears in vain/ To thy high requiem become a sod.” This stanza once again shows a contrast between Keats’ darkness and despair in contrast with the nightingale, which is also in the dark but even in such dark still sings with no pain. Keats can’t even bear to listen to the nightingale’s song, as he has ears in vain and, upon listening, he becomes
In Keats “Ode to a Nightingale” we see the sense embodied through a variety of different literary techniques and in particular his use of synaesthesia imagery. The dejected downhearted nature of the poem promotes emotion in the reader even before noting poetic devices at work. The structure of the meter is regular and adds to the depth of this poe...
death were all part of a cycle that was necessary for new life to be
In order to experience true sorrow one must feel true joy to see the beauty of melancholy. However, Keats’s poem is not all dark imagery, for interwoven into this poem is an emerging possibility of resurrection and the chance at a new life. The speaker in this poem starts by strongly advising against the actions and as the poem continues urges a person to take different actions. In this poem, the speaker tells of how to embrace life by needing the experience of melancholy to appreciate the true joy and beauty of
Within both poems, Keats blurs the lines between what is dream and what real. As the narrator of “Ode to Psyche” expresses, “Surely I dreamt to-day, or did I see / The winged Psyche with awaken’d eyes” (“Ode to Psyche” 5-6) and as was previously seen, the narrator in “Ode to a Nightingale” expresses concern, wondering if the experience he had with the nightingale “Was it a vision, or a waking dream? / Fled is that music:—Do I wake or sleep?” (“Ode to a Nightingale 79-80). This distinction between dream and reality creates an interesting relationship between both narrators and their subject matters: the nightingale and the Goddess Psyche. Firstly, the implication of sleep implies a state of unconsciousness, or rather, a more natural frame of mind. When awake, we are actively thinking and examining the world around us, constantly distracted—just as the narrator in “Ode to a Nightingale.” When asleep, the mind is in a more natural state, creating an intimate relationship between mankind and its place within nature. Here, Keats uses the idea of the goddess Psyche could serve a duel meaning. Firstly, the narrators question as to whether he is dreaming or truly witnessing Psyche with his own mind indicates a connection between Psyche and dream, or rather, the idea of human mind in an uninterrupted state of being. Simply, dreaming allows the
Arguably one of John Keats’ most famous poems, “Ode to a nightingale” in and of itself is an allegory on the frail, conflicting aspects of life while also standing as a commentary on the want to escape life’s problems and the unavoidability of death. Keats’ poem utilizes a heavy amount of symbolism, simile and allusion to idealize nature as a perfect, almost mystical, world that holds no problems while using imagery taken from nature, combined with alliteration and assonance, to idealize the dream of escape from the problems life often presents; more specifically, aging and our inevitable deaths by allowing the reader to feel as if they are experiencing the speaker’s experience listening to the nightingale.
John Keats is an early nineteenth century Romantic poet. In his poem “When I have Fears that I May Cease to Be,” Keats makes excellent use of a majority of poetry elements. This sonnet concentrates merely on his fear of death and his reasons for fearing it. Though Keats’ emphasizes his greatest fear of death, he offers his own resolution by asserting that love and fame lacks any importance. Keats uses articulate wording to exemplify his tone, while using images, figures of speech, symbols, and allegory to illustrate his fear of death. His use of rhythm, sounds, and patters also contribute to his concentration of fear and the effects on his life. As one of the most famous Romantic poets, John Keats utilizes the elements of poetry in “When I Have Fears that I May Cease to Be” to convey his fears and allow the reader to realize how much these fears affect him.