Keats' Thoughts on Poetry in On First Looking Into Chapman's Homer
Its difficult to determine whether "On first looking into Chapman's
Homer" precisely mirrors Keats thoughts on poetry , unless you are
able to understand his view point. To gain an insight into his mind
and his thoughts on poetry, it is necessary to examine some of Keats
letters , many of which are written to his friends and family. As well
as everyday events, he uses his letters to express his thinking. In a
letter written by Keats on 22 November 1817, he outlines his thoughts
on poetry ' I am certain of nothing, but the holiness of the Heart's
affections and the truth of the Imagination - What the Imagination
seizes as Beauty must be truth - whether it existed before or not.
Also in a letter to his brother George, written on 31/12/1818 , he
states that "a work of art should not seek to supply all the details
but give enough to stimulate the readers imagination and omit enough
to allow that imagination fill in the gaps".
The Chapman's Homer , that's is referred to in the title of the poem,
relates to a translation , of Homers Greek poetry by the Elizabethan
writer, George Chapman , and was introduced to Keats by his good
friend John Clarke. Keats was moved by intense feelings after reading
Chapman's interpretation of Homer, and wrote the sonnet in his head
the following morning whilst walking home. The poem is an example of
how Keats inspires the reader to use his or her imagination to move
and clearly understand the passion that he feels as he writes it, the
use of imagination is one of the characteristics of the work of the
Romantic poets which includes Keats.
Keats uses metaphors to awaken the readers imagination 'much have I
travelled in the realms have gold' should not be read literally , as
throughout his short life Keats did not travel extensively. Keats is
actually speaking metaphorically and the 'realms of gold' that he
speaks of could refer to the many great works of literature that he
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?
The question is: What do you think the grandmother meant when she said to the Misfit, “Why you’re one of my babies. You’re one of my own children!” Why do you think the Misfit killed her when she said that? Since the question is two parts, I’ll answer it in two parts.
Reading a poem by Emily Dickinson can often lead the reader to a rather introspective state. Dickinson writes at length about the drastically transformative effect a book may have upon its’ reader. Alternating between iambic tetrameter and iambic trimeter, Dickinson masterfully uses the ballad meter to tell a story about the ecstasy brought by reading. In poem number 1587, she writes about the changes wrought upon the reader by a book and the liberty literature brings.
John Keats' "On Seeing the Elgin Marbles" is a sonnet written upon visiting the British Museum, subsequent to the country's purchase of marble statues that had originally been part of the Parthenon in Athens. The poem contains a web of underlying tensions and conflicts that are evident in both the words and imagery of the poem. However, unlike other sonnets in which conflict is often resolved by the end, this sonnet leaves a lasting feeling of despair which sheds light on the internal strife embodied within the speaker himself.
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
Using ‘Ode on Melancholy’ and one other, examine how Keats uses language to explore his muses Keats In ‘Ode on Melancholy’ Keats accepts the truth he sees: joy and pain are inseparable and to experience joy fully we must experience sadness or melancholy fully. The first stanza urges us not to try and escape pain; stanza two tells us what to do instead - embrace the transient beauty and joy of the nature and human experience, which contain pain and death. Stanza three makes clear that in order to experience joy we must experience the sorrow that beauty dies and joy evaporates. The more intensely we feel happiness, the more subject we are to melancholy. The poet's passionate outcry not to reject melancholy is presented negatively – “no,” “not,” “neither,” “nor.”
The form of a poem can be understood simply as the physical structure. However, there are various aspects that make it up that contribute towards the goals of the poet. I find that the sonnets “When I Have Fears that I May Cease to Be”, by John Keats, and “Anthem for Doomed Youth”, by Wilfred Owen, make efficient use of their formal elements to display the depth of the situation of their poems. Keats uses a Shakespearean sonnet structure to organize his thoughts being displayed throughout the poem and to construct them around the speaker’s fear that is the central focus of the sonnet. Owen’s sonnet is a Petrarchan sonnet, although it has a rhyme scheme similar to a Shakespearean, which allows him to display a contrast between the images the
William Butler Yeats is a famous Irish poet, yet as a student he did not do so well in his Math and English course. During his education, it was known that he did remarkably poor in mathematics and language as student. Is that surprising that a well-known poet, such as William, to be a poet if he did not do well in language? As being a famous poet for what he is known for now, one must expect that he would succeed well in just category. However, not everyone success was built on success. The life of William Butler Yeats, from his childhood years, to early life, and later life made him the person who people has known him as of now, a famous Irish poet.
After evaluating my perception of The Last Night that She Lived, by Emily Dickinson. The message in this poem is we take life for granted and we don’t appreciate it until we are threatened with losing it. Emily used what seems to me as free verse with no apparent rhyme but alliteration at times. This is a Narrative poem that tells a story about a death of a young woman.
Time is an ever constant moving aspect of life. It can build one up and tear one down
becoming any worse in the future since “a thing of beauty is a joy for
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.
In the poem “To Autumn” the initial impression that we get is that Keats is describing a typical Autumn day with all its colors and images. On deeper reading it becomes evident that it is more than just that. The poem is rather a celebration of the cycle of life and acceptance that death is part of life.
The poem dramatizes the gradual process of falling apart. Dickinson speaks abstractly of the crumbling of the soul as a dimension of time, rather than being instantaneous. Man falls as a result of a continuous and small-scale decay of the spirit by way of evil inclinations. The complex structure of the poem reflects the underlying figurative meaning. The poem consists of three quatrains in iambic meter, alternating between tetrameter and trimeter. The poet’s use of hyphens guides the reader to read the passage slowly and thoughtfully. The slow pace mirrors the theme of slow decay. The most obvious factor of the poem’s structure is the seemingly random capitalization of mid-sentence nouns. The stress and personification of certain nouns emphasize the small elements of crumbling. The figurative meaning of the poem is built upon by showing that all things can be broken down, slowly but surely.
The writer I have chosen to speak about is the romanticist John Keats. I chose this particular poet as I believe his ideas are the best expressed of the composers we have studied. I have looked at "Ode on a Grecian Urn," "Ode on Melancholy" and "Ode to Autumn" and I think some important comparisons can be drawn from them. Each poem has been chosen because I think that the ideas conveyed in them are among the more significant in Keats's works.