Journeys are not measured by where the individuals end up but by what they learn along the way. To what extent does your study of the poetry of John Keats and one other related text support this statement? A journey’s significance is determined by how it impacts on the individuals involved, this often results in individuals growing and learning about themselves or their reality whilst undertaking a journey. This undoubtedly has an impact on how an individual’s journey ends. Thus journeys are measured by the culmination of an individual’s growth as demonstrated by where they end up at the conclusion of their journey. John Keats’ works, ‘Ode to a Nightingale’ and ‘Ode on a Grecian Urn’ support this idea as the inner journey the persona undergoes …show more content…
heavily impacts on the conclusion of the poems. Alternatively, Ernest Hemingway’s ‘Indian Camp’ highlights how journey’s end may be unchanged regardless of how an individual grows, but that this reflects the individual’s inability to handle the changed perception induced by the journey. A journey is defined by how the individuals grow and change, and this impacts both the individuals involved and the responder, resulting in a change in perception. Keats’ ‘Ode to a Nightingale’ centres of Keats’ own existential crisis concerning his mortality through the tortured musings of a persona. The poem beginnings with “a drowsy numbness” dulling the persona’s senses like “hemlock” foreshadowing the deeply philosophical questions plaguing him and his inevitable inability to answer them. Throughout the persona’s journey, the tone of the poem dramatically shifts between stanzas reflecting his troubled mindset and forcing the responder to partake in the inner journey of the persona, experiencing the idea that “to think is to be full of sorrow” as the total insignificance and transience of each individual is fully realised. However the inspiration of the persona’s musings, the “light-winged Dryad,” ultimately allows the persona to realise within its “self-same song” that art is immortal, because of how it captures human emotion, something so fleeting and turbulent, in a medium that lasts forever. This idea is reflected in Keats’ ‘Ode on a Grecian Urn’ where Keats directly addresses a piece of ancient art, trying to comprehend immortality form the frozen images upon its skin. He realises that although “heard melodies are sweet…those unheard / sweeter,” allowing him to see that imagination and the art it produces is superior to reality, reflecting the purest forms of human emotion and experience. Like in ‘Ode to a Nightingale’, Keats questions his reality and his inevitable mortality, and comes to the conclusion that “Beauty is truth, truth beauty.” Such a revelation impacts greatly on Keats, and in turn the responder, whose perceptions are changed to see that truth, is not at the core of human existence, rather emotion and experience are, things that are trapped in their purest form within art. Thus, Keats showcases how a journey is defined by the impact it has on all those involved. Furthermore, an individual’s growth from a journey shapes a journey’s outcome, making it an intrinsic element of understanding the full impact of a journey.
‘Ode to a Nightingale’ ends with the question, “fled is that music: - Do I wake or sleep?” Which is the product of how profoundly the persona’s journey has impacted on his perception of reality, it also serves to leave the meaning of Keats’ poem up to the responder allowing them to determine the truth behind the persona’ inner journey based on what they felt within the poem itself. By doing this, Keats shows that a journey’s significance can only truly be measured when it ends, when the individuals involved have the chance to decide how the journey they have undertaken will impact them. Contrastingly, Hemingway’s ‘Indian Camp’ tells the story of a young boy and his father who travel to an Indian camp to help with the troubled labour of one of the women. The boy’s father says that he “ought to have a look at the proud father. They’re usually the worst sufferers in these…affairs,” before discovering the Indian man’s suicide, foreshadowing both the demise of the Indian man and the boy’s inevitable change in perception because of the event. However, upon leaving in the “just daylight” Nick denies what he has seen to instead rely on the authoritive figure of his father for guidance. He asks, “is dying hard, Daddy?” returning to language reminiscent of a young child, and seemingly satisfied with his father’s vague response, “it all depends.” Nick’s attitude highlights to the audience that he was not mentally prepared to witness the Indian man’s suicide and allows the audience to contemplate on Nick’s behalf on how such an episode will affect him. Nick’s journey ends in such a way that it was inevitable, regardless of how Nick grew and reflects Nick’s inability to comprehend his journey as he accepts the authority of a parental figure rather than questioning his reality as Keats did when faced with death. Thus
Hemingway highlights how some journeys do not serve to impact on those involved because they reject the reality that the journey has to offer, which contrasts Keats’ own deep musings of his mortality when faced with death. This demonstrates how a journey’s full impact can only be fully understood by seeing how an individual’s growth shapes the end of the journey. Nick’s journey never truly finished, even though ‘Indian Camp’ did, because he was never able to contemplate the reality he was faced with, meaning that the full impact of the journey could not be explored. Hence, a journey is intrinsically linked to its end, and the impacts on the individuals involved can only truly be measured by how the journey comes to its conclusion. Keats’ works, ‘Ode to a Nightingale’ and ‘Ode on a Grecian Urn’ support this idea because of how the contemplation of mortality Keats undergoes, clearly influences the understanding he comes to at the conclusion of his poems. Contrastingly, Hemingway’s ‘Indian Camp’ demonstrates how a journey may have a predetermined ending based on the immaturity of those involved and that such an ending is the product of the individual’s inability to comprehend the impact the journey has had on them. Together Keats and Hemingway utilise concepts intrinsic to humanity, especially the idea of mortality, to show how a journey’s end is defined by the impact it has on those involved.
In conclusion, I have found that both poets are successful in presenting their particular ideas about what a journey is to them. For Plath, a journey represents a desire for freedom and a metaphorical escape from the insecurities within her own life and it is clear to us that her escape is pivotal in her journey of self acceptance. Larkin has also shown that journeys are an escape from life, but unlike Plath he is running away from society and the oppressions he feels bound by, whereas Plath wants to escape from the shackles of her thoughts.
Throughout all texts discussed, there is a pervasive and unmistakable sense of journey in its unmeasurable and intangible form. The journeys undertaken, are not physically transformative ones but are journeys which usher in an emotional and spiritual alteration. They are all life changing anomaly’s that alter the course and outlook each individual has on their life. Indeed, through the exploitation of knowledge in both a positive and negative context, the canvassed texts accommodate the notion that journeys bear the greatest magnitude when they change your life in some fashion.
These timeless tales relate a message that readers throughout the ages can understand and relate to. While each of these tales is not exactly alike, they do share a common core of events. Some event and or character flaw necessitates a journey of some kind, whether it is an actual physical journey or a metaphorical one. The hardships and obstacles encountered on said journey lead to spiritual growth and build character. Rarely does a person find himself unchanged once the journey is over.
Throughout his villanelle, “Saturday at the Border,” Hayden Carruth continuously mentions the “death-knell” (Carruth 3) to reveal his aged narrator’s anticipation of his upcoming death. The poem written in conversation with Carruth’s villanelle, “Monday at the River,” assures the narrator that despite his age, he still possesses the expertise to write a well structured poem. Additionally, the poem offers Carruth’s narrator a different attitude with which to approach his writing, as well as his death, to alleviate his feelings of distress and encourage him to write with confidence.
After a four week survey of a multitude of children’s book authors and illustrators, and learning to analyze their works and the methods used to make them effective literary pieces for children, it is certainly appropriate to apply these new skills to evaluate a single author’s works. Specifically, this paper focuses on the life and works of Ezra Jack Keats, a writer and illustrator of books for children who single handedly expanded the point of view of the genre to include the experiences of multicultural children with his Caldecott Award winning book “Snowy Day.” The creation of Peter as a character is ground breaking in and of itself, but after reading the text the reader is driven to wonder why “Peter” was created. Was he a vehicle for political commentary as some might suggest or was he simply another “childhood” that had; until that time, been ignored? If so, what inspired him to move in this direction?
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 ...
The poem is launched by a protracted introduction during which the speaker indulges in descriptions of landscape and local color, deferring until the fifth stanza the substantive statement regarding what is happening to whom: "a bus journeys west." This initial postponement and the leisurely accumulation of apparently trivial but realistic detail contribute to the atmospheric build-up heralding the unique occurrence of the journey. That event will take place as late as the middle of the twenty-second stanza, in the last third of the text. It is only in retrospect that one realizes the full import of that happening, and it is only with the last line of the final stanza that the reader gains the necessary distance to grasp entirely the functional role of the earlier descriptive parts.
There are many ways in which a goal or an ideal may influence an individual’s life. It could be the mere feeling of accomplishment, and the outcome of meaning to one’s life, or simply the goals may conclude the sensation of change and retain of wisdom that appeal to individuals. Such an existence can cause the compulsion of never feeling the desire to end the journey and forever aspiring towards new goals. That is what happened to the speaker in the poem “The Layers” written by Stanley Kunitz. In an infinite journey the speaker continues to discover new paths as he looks back on his past, learning from his mistakes, it grants him the st...
A physical journey occurs as a direct result of travelling from one place to another over land, sea or even space. The physical journey can occur individually or collectively, but always involves more than mere movement. Instead physical journeys are accompanied by inner growth and development, catalysed by the experiences and the decisions that impact the outcome of the journey. These journey concepts and the interrelationship between physical and emotional journeys is exemplified in the text; The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain, The Road Not Taken by Robert Frost, the children’s book Lost and Found by Oliver Jeffers and the film Stand By Me directed by Rob Reiner.
Time is an ever constant moving aspect of life. It can build one up and tear one down
Keats presents a stark contrast between the real and the surreal by examining the power of dreams. For the narrators of each work, dream works as a gateway to the unconscious, or rather, a more surreal and natural state of mind. Keats presents the world as a place where one cannot escape from his/her troubles. For the narrator in “Ode to a Nightingale” he attempts to artificially medicate himself as a means of forgetting about the troubles of the real world which cause him to feel a “drowsy numbness” (Ode to a Nightingale 1) which “pains / My senses, as though of hemlock I had drunk,” (1-2). The narrator, seemingly in search for both inspiration and relief, drowns out these feelings through an overindulgence in wine as a way to “leave
John Keats was one of the greatest poets of the Romantic Era. He wrote poetry of great sensual beauty and had a unique passion for details. In his lifetime he was not recognized with the senior poets. He didn’t receive the respect he deserved. He didn’t fit into the respected group because of his age, nor in the younger group because he was neither a lord nor in the upper class. He was in the middle class and at that time people were treated differently because of their social status.
John Keats ‘Ode on a Grecian Urn’ is one of the most enduring, timeless, romantic poems of 1819. It defines ‘romanticism’ not just in the literary sense, but in a modern sense filled with passion, imagination and individuality. I will examine how the idea of romanticism is portrayed through the beauty of art and nature, in contrast with the writer’s perspective on romanticism as a melancholic emotion. Furthermore, as Keats wrote the poem during his last few years on this Earth-whilst he was ill- it is said that he felt “like a living ghost”, so it is not surprising that the poem speaker is obsessed with the ideas of immortality, survival and death which I will be further examining in relation to the poem.
“The Road Not Taken” examines the struggles people run into when they come to a place in their life where a life altering decisions has to be made. The man who is described in this poem is traveling when he comes upon “two roads diverged” (1). He then has to choose which path he will take to continue on his journey. After standing at the diversion for a while, he knows he has to make a final decision. One path was worn down and “bent in the undergrowth” (5), so he took the other path, which was described as “perhaps the better claim/ Because it was grassy and wanted wear” (6-7). The man of the poem begins to ponder about a time when he will be telling his story of the path he took. Although we are not sure if the man regrets his decision or is relieved, he lets us know taking the road less traveled “has made all the difference” (20).
Keats is one of the greatest lovers and admirers of nature. In his poetry, we come across exquisitely beautiful descriptions of the wonder sigts and senses of nature. He looks with child-like delight at the objects of nature and his whole being is thrilled by what he sees and hears. Everything in nature for him is full of wonder and mystery - the rising sun, the moving cloud, the growing bud and the swimming fish.