Keats

John Keats poetry greatly differs from the other poets that we have read. Keats does not convey political messages in his poetry. He just writes it for the pleasure that he gains from it. Throughout Keats poems, we can see parts of his life being represented through his usage of diction and tone. Keats was not born into an aristocratic family, which led him to experience life in a different form when compared to the other poets. This experience led him to question the contradictions of life, something that the other poets did not clearly focus on. By focusing on the contradictions of life, Keats was able to express good points and raise questions and even inspire people.

Keats died at the age of 25, yet he had many incidents occur in his lifetime that have vastly impacted his writing style, in my opinion. The death of his brother is represented through the gloomy and dark tone that Keats establishes in his poems, such as Ode on a Grecian Urn. This poem seems to purely contain dark imagery as it essentially revolves around death and questioning the meaning of life. This gloominess was clearly expressed and I am pretty sure it stems from the death of his brother. The other component of his poetry, a form of joy, arises from his engagement. Since this is a joyous time occasion for Keats, he expresses this in his poetry. This helps add more the somewhat elegiac feeling at some parts in his poems, such as Ode to a nightingale.

Keats

Keats is certainly the conformist of the Romanticism Era of poetry. Unlike his Romantic counterparts, who write to encompass the true aspects of nature, John Keats chooses to write to truly fulfill his own enjoyment. Keats's main goal is to satisfy the beauty of poetry. Keats's personal life has been affected being that his brother passed away at a young age due to tuberculosis, which made a lasting impact on his life. Keats is known to include some dark imagery and tone in his poem, and it can be assumed that the death in his family is the reason behind his dark inclusions. His gloomy inclusions seem to contrast with the rest of his poems, though, which involve a cheery and happy view of nature. The contrast of tones seem to accomplish the beauty of nature and life itself. This contrast is definitely apparent in is ode Ode to a Nightingale in which he includes sorrowful and dark images of death at the beginning, but follows those descriptions with hopeful thoughts of death. He uses the nightingale as a piece of happiness in death.

Byron and Shelley

Lord Byron and Percy Shelley -- upon seeing the two names together in one poetry packet, I was taken back to the days when we studied Wordsworth and Khan. Together, Byron and Shelley worked to renew the Romanticism Era. While Byron was poorer than Shelley, they both had similar and nearly identical writing styles. The two focused on finding a deeper meaning in nature and the subject served as a focal point for the majority of their poems. Although the two chose to focus on the same subject, they often had different ideas of the ways of nature.

Lord Byron grew up in a relatively poor household for his time, but no matter what sort of rough childhood he endured, he was able to make a living through poetry. Byron perceived nature as a force that was never-ending. Byron successfully produces vivid descriptions of what we see in nature by putting them into words that further epitomize nature as a whole.

Unlike Byron, who approaches nature more realistically, Shelley takes a more imaginative approach. The tone in his poem Ozymandias seems to contradict with his happy life that he has lived up to that point; sounding rather brash and depressed. The point of this dark tone, though, is to truly convey the true darkness of the world and those who inhabit it.

John Keats

Right off the bat, John Keats is different from his other Romantic counterparts. Keats was born into a working-class family as opposed to Shelley, Byron, etc. who were born into noble or rich families. The others wrote about politics or rebellion or radical points of view, using nature and naturalistic beliefs to convey the message. Keats, on the other hand, focuses his writing primarily on the beauty in the simple things, like an urn or the song of a nightingale perched in a tree. He writes mostly on what he sees; the very surface-level emotions or sights. He also has quite the fascination with the word "forlorn" and the color green. Unlike the other Romantics, who used nature as a platform for their political ideals, Keats uses naturalistic imagery as a vehicle to release his pain and grief about his deceased brother. I personally think that it is this deep-rooted (no pun intended) pain that allows him to find such beauty in nature. The frailty of being mortal has smacked him in the face and he has gained a deeper appreciation for the more simplistic things that one stumbles upon throughout the course of their lifetime. Keat's first presented piece, "Ode to a Nightingale," is ripe with emotional diction and powerful images of the nightingale's song and the feelings it creates within Keats. However, I find a foil in Keats's writing. He uses a lot of Biblical and/or Greek allusions, but I personally feel as though they make the flow of his writing a little choppy. The references don't quite fit with the feelings he puts forward in his pieces; it feels as though they're just there to make him sound more deep/intelligent than he actually is. I feel a little bad about saying that, but it really does seem that way to me. Don't get me wrong, the poetry is beautiful. It has a certain...underlying emotion to it that the other Romantics seem to lack.

John Keats

John Keats is unlike the other poets that we have read previously. Keats was not born wealthy, but rather to working-class parents from London. He was not inspired by fantastic views of the lakes in northern England or by his travels abroad - his main travelling consisting of a journey to Italy due to his ill health - but rather what was close to his heart, which is what makes his poetry so riveted with emotion. Also, unlike Byron and Coleridge, and even Wordsworth and Shelley, Keats did not write poetry as a hobby, but instead, poetry was his career, having given up his chosen medical path. So, thus, he supported himself and his wife financially and economically through his writing, which made success necessary for his survival. The two selections of Keats that we have in this packet reflect his rather melacholy lifetime. He was never wealthy, and at first his poetry was scorned, and faced sorrow of the acutest kind: the death of a beloved brother to tuberculosis, soon followed by his own realization that he had contracted the illness as well and his removal to Italy in the hopes of recovering under the influence of warmer weather. Unfortunately, Keats life was cut too short, a tragic story, really. He was so young, had only briefly been married to the love of his life, and had only just begun his promising poetic carerr.

Keats

John Keats, one of the greatest English poets and a major figure in the Romantic movement. Keats was known especially for his love of the country and sensuous descriptions of the beauty of nature, and his poetry reflected this. All of the Romantic poets in these past passages seem to have a lot in common with friendships and early death. Like everyone else Keats was friends with other romantic poets like Shelley, but he was different in that he was not an aristocrat. One of his most famous works 'Ode to a nightingale' is a meditation on the purity of the bird's song. Its relentless pathos reminds Keats, still haunted by the painful death of his brother, of the inevitable sadness of man's mortality. Even though Keats was not rich, and he experienced death throughout his life he still continued to work on poems that focused on the beauty of things such as song, or ancient urns in this case. "Ode on a Grecian Urn" describes a perfect scene of beauty and peace dotted with logical facts regarding truth, beauty, and eternity. The scenes on the urn are frozen in time or in their perfect form, as only an artist, or a poet, could depict them. Keats asserts, "Heard melodies are sweet, but those unheard / Are sweeter". Music exists in perfection only in art. Any attempt to replicate it lessens its beauty. He writes of "happy, happy boughs! that cannot shed / Your leaves, nor ever bid the Spring adieu". In the perfect world, youth, equal with beauty, can only exist in the artist's mind. As it progresses, it loses its perfection. The final stanza concludes the poet's thoughts with an eternal suggestion that perfection exists, Beauty exists and "that is all / Ye know on earth, and all ye need to know". In other words, learn that perfection exists and don't worry about figuring out the rest.

Byron and Shelley

Lord Byron and Percy Bysshe Shelley are among the most respected and admired of the second generation of English Romantic poets, after Worswoth and Coleridge. Best known for his extended visionary poems, such as Queen Mab, and his short verse poems like Ozymandias. Shelley is also famous for his once controversial and radical political ideals and his often-proclaimed social idealism like his radical tract “ The Necessity of Athiesm.” He is perhaps best known, though, as the husband of the novelist Mary Shelley who wrote Frankenstein, which kind of sucks to be known as the husband of someone. While Shelley’s childhood was decidedly happy and rustic, his atheism and radical politics led to his expulsion from college and estrangement from family at an early age. His personal life was considered rather radical and controversial for his time, especially given his pronounced leftist political ideals and the abandonment of his first wife in favor of a woman named Mary Goodwin, who would become his second wife. Though he began composing and publishing poetry at a young age, Shelley’s career as poet did not truly get underway until he met the English poet Lord Byron. This meeting resulted in a life-long friendship between the two that served to inspire and influence some of Shelley’s finest poetry. It seems like all of these great romantic poets have relied on friendships with other poets of the same degree to get different perspectives on their work. Shelley died at an early age comparative to back then Today, Shelley and Byron are considered by critics and readers to be among the greatest of English Romantic poets. Unlike Lord Byron, Shelley did not receive full critical and popular recognition until after his death. Shelley is also much admired for his lyrical and psychologically powerful poetry, which seem like they’re striking, instinctive style as well as strong messages on behalf of social justice, liberty, and non-violence.

Young Keats

Unlike the other poets we have studied, John Keats does not write to express political ideals or personify rebellion. Instead, Keats wrote about beauty and the deep contradictions that life entails – “the sadness of every joy.” Unfortunately with his early death, Keats only had a two year time frame where he wrote his masterpieces.

The first presented poem, “Ode to a Nightingale,” portrays the narrator’s yearning to be able to escape life and join the nightingale and its song. The poem has a very melancholy tone given the speaker’s wants of escaping his life. Although borderline depressing, the ode offers vivid imagery of the outdoors and celebrations of the nightingale’s song. This expression of beauty fits well with the Romanticist movement. The resolution of the poem that the narrator no longer knew whether this was a dream or reality, offers the meaning of the poem: That everything in this world is temporary.

The second poem, “Ode to a Grecian Urn,” is an amazing poem. The narrator comes upon a couple urns that all have pictures on them. He thinks to himself that these pictures never grow old but on the other hand never get to experience anything. For example, the lovers in the woods are stopped in time and they always get to be together but on the sad side of things, they never really get to experience their love. This poem epitomizes Keat’s writing about the deep contradictions in life. On one hand, these beautiful paintings on the urns are joyful for what they portray, but sad because they are really only paintings.

Hodgy Keats

Dude J-Dawg this guy is really [expletive delelted]ing emo and I have to say that I am kind of digging him. Now while the other romantic poets were all like “ohh flowers is so purdy” this guy is all like “ dude were all going to die and that suck like a bunch”. Now moving beyond my Totally Kyle inspired representations of exceedingly profound masters of the English language I do rather enjoy this dude’s take on the concepts of romanticism. One thing that seems to pop up with this guy more than any of the other romantic poets is that he utilizes significantly more sensual imagery particularly in "Ode to a Nightingale”, and well since I mentioned it might as well talk about it (mostly because I am entirely too lazy to go look up the names of the other poems. One thing I notice is that in this ode, Keats focuses on immediate, concrete sensations and emotions such as frequent use of the image of the color green. But another thing I find intriqing about this poem is how seemingly melancholic it is especially in the Eighth stanza were it repeats the word “forlorn” eight hundred trillion billion times. Also the way in which he tries to separate himself the pain of reality, the poet begins to move into a world of imagination or fantasy. His purpose is clearly not to get drunk. Rather he associates wine with some quality or state he is seeking

he keats me commin' back

John Keats is a new kind of poet; he was not an aristocrat, like the two we read prior. He was born in the working-class of London. He was a great looking man and eventually went to medical school. There is absolutely no optimism in his poetry what so ever. It makes me sad, mainly because it is very depressing. His poetry is about death and quite frankly the only thing that fits the romanticism about it is that he includes random correlations to natural elements. His poetry seems to be based on his life. personally i think what makes him so different from Byron and Shelly, is that he wrote for himself. He did not have a bunch of money that he could use at his expense of writing. The other two poets had the wealth. He just loved it so much that he did it for himself because he truly loved it There is times in Keat's poetry where he does look at the hopeful sides of his topic, in this case; death.I think his poetry reflects his life and how he feels; he has a sad painful life, using certain things like alcohol to suppress those feelings.

I feel like his early death is what made him so popular in literature. He was not given a real opportunity to mess up or allow his poetry to become more and more unprecedented. How ever his poerty was a beautiful yet painful recollection of his life.

Keats Keats Keats

Unlike the other poets we have studied, Keats grew up to a working class family and did not have everything handed to him on a silver platter, like our other aristocratic poets. His poems are, in my opinion, much more depressing than the others we have read. In Ode to the Nightingale, Keats starts with a rather melancholy opening. However, the mood changes to a tad happier for a little, but then unfortunately goes back to being dark and depressing. He seems to view death as a positive and a negative, and his statements contradict eachother. The poem is full of contradictions. I feel like he was really trying to get the reader to think deeply and in a new way about the idea of death and other unfortunate things that happen to us. Its also pretty ironic that he died at an early age. Through out the poem the diction is very sophisticated. The purpose of his poems were to get the reader thinking, which I think he accomplishes.

Keats

Unlike Keats’s other writing cohorts, his work truly looked past all pre-existing reasons that other Romantic poets wrote their poetry, and wrote for his own needs. Keats was neither an upper nor lower class born child, but born to a middle-class working family. He immediately faced losing his brother at an early age, which later influenced his work as a writer. Although he was deeply saddened by this lose, Keats was able to channel this loss to create great works of poetry. Some of his most famous writings have been direct reflections of his life. For example, his Ode to a Nightingale presents the introductory line: “my heart aches, and drowsy numbness pains,” which appears to have been taken from some terrible events that occurred in his life, knowing his background information. This point again brings up a unique factor about Keats and his writings. Other Poets, like Bryon and Shelley, attempted to synthesize an issue that they found to be important in the universe (nature) and used that as the lead for their poetry. Keats, however, chose not to take this route of writing for a specific purpose, but writing because he simple loved to write and it provided a therapeutic outlet for him. Through the events that he experienced, writing was the exhale from the distressed world. Because he chose to write about important events that occurred during his life, he had an eclectic repertoire of literature that was written, making him one of the most diverse writers of the era. His poems of Ode to the Nightingale and Ode on a Grecian Urn also employed many specific literary devices that enhanced his message, like, end rhyme, form (iambic pentameter) and a strong sense of the narrator’s role. The narrator’s role is an important one, for it allows Keats to shift between a speaking tone of reality while incorporating the power of the unconscious mind through dreams and the exploration of mythological creatures. This is evident in Nightingale, where Keats uses terminology and ideologies from Greek mythology, like: the wooden dryad, the Hippocrene horse, etc. This alone showed the diversity of his writings and his personality.

Keats is a prime example of the amount of time that one lives on earth not being as significant as what one does with that time. Although he died young, he used his life to the fullest to compose of the most amazing poetry written. He reflections of his own life and important issues in the world teach others that if they have a passion, they should pursue it for their own enjoyment, not the enjoyment of others!

of man raised in poverty;

Comparatively, Keats resembles the darker realm that the other poets prior hadn’t really touched upon. Byron and Shelley relied on the more whimsical aspects in the world around them to convey certain messages. Judging by Keats’ past experiences, having been raised into the working class rather than aristocracy, the mood of his poems seems to take on a form of expression from his childhood. His poems are more somber and delicate and lack the feelings of optimism that lingered in the poetry from other poets. In “Ode to a Nightingale”, Keats begins with “My heart aches, and drowsy numbness pains my sense,” – already beginning with a mellow tone that brings one down from lurking in the clouds but instead down to the more curious faults of man and the more shadowy things that seem to accumulate around the human population. While in Byron’s “She Walks in Beauty” has a darker feel, Keats seems to take things a step further and more blatantly address the things he has seen or knows drifts around him. Keats seems to become more questioning and indecisive in his poem “Ode on a Grecian Urn” which brings mention to elves and “forlorn” fairylands. This more mythical standpoint is reminiscent of Shelley’s “Ozymandias” that seems to also have a fondness towards things in a more dream-like approach.

Oh, Keats

John Keats is not like the other famous Romantic poets. Instead of being involved with revolution, he studied beauty and how everything good had another side which was bad. Keats was all about contradictions more than likely because within a few months he found the love of his life, but his brother died. All of the things that were apart of his life allowed him to understand the irony of life and the ability to look at different angles to see the good, the bad, and the ugly.

In Ode to a Nightingale, Keats switches from sorrowful to hopeful thoughts about death. The poem begins with him believing that hemlock will bring "drowsy numbness;" it will bring a death from the pain of life. He also uses alcohol as a suppressant from his unforgiving life. However, soon he beings to see death as a way to fly with the nightingale. In the end, after seeing all of the beauty around him and the freedom of the nightingale, it would be "rich to die." Ode to a Grecian Urn is a commentary on the foolish wish of humans to live forever. Keats explains in great detail all of the possible scenarios that could be on the vase. He ends stating that "old age shall this generation waste, though shalt remain" all by itself.

Writing to a bird

Keats differed greatly from his other Romantic colleagues. Of the poets that we have read so far, they seem to be writing poetry to emphasize certain aspects of things, whether it be politics, nature, or whatever. However, Keats writes simply because he enjoys it. He writes for the beauty of writing. He does not really have any agenda behind it. For example, he noticed a bird and liked the song of it. So he sat down for several hours and wrote about it. Keats was not trying to display some kind of ideology, he was simply writing for the beauty of writing. His poetry did not go without influence however. The death of his brother at a young age had a lasting impact on him. Keats often included some dark, solemn lines in his poems, including "My heart aches, and drowsy numbness pains," in the first line of "Ode to a Nightingale." This solemn tone sometimes conflicts with the overall cheerful nature of the rest of the poems, but I believe Keats does this on purpose. The contrast and comparisons display the overarching beauty and greatness of life, even though we all go through tough and sad times. He shows that the beauty around us makes life worth living, even when things are tough. This is further emphasized by the fact that he wrote lots of poetry in his last two years of life, when he knew he was dying. Keats continued to emphasize the beauty of nature and the emotion and power it has, even as his life is withering away.

Byron and Shelley

Once again, two friends helped pioneer and push forward the new Romantic era. Lord Byron and Percy Shelley, like Coleridge and Wordsworth, helped invent the Romantic way of writing. Byron and Shelley grew up in opposite households; Byron growing up poor yet obtaining the title of Lord early, while Shelley grew up in a wealthy household with the best education.

Byron was strongly influenced by nature and seemed to develop two different personalities in his writing. He was often portrayed as a "dark and brooding" character, similar to what he wrote about, yet was often nice. His poetry was strongly influenced by revolution and his slightly radical political ideas. In his poems "Apostrophe to the Ocean" and "She Walks in Beauty," the dark side of Byron is shown. Both poems seem to display the strength of nature over man and the idea that man can do nothing to control the will of nature. Nature is able to easily destroy man, which he seems to find beauty in. This dark viewpoint slightly differs from Coleridge and Wordsworth who viewed nature as bright and cheerful almost.

Shelley seemed to be more influenced by politics. He believed in the will of man over the will of government and displayed this through his poetry. In "Ozymandias," he emphasizes the cruel rule of Ramses II. He displays the power of nature and how it affects the statue, yet also displays his disdain for an absolute rule, as Ramses had. Shelley also continued the idea of the power of nature over man, while also including an almost god-like symbolism to nature in the next poem, "Ode to the West Wind." He emphasizes the hierarchy of nature over man, just as Byron did.

The Final Poet

Yet another poet we are studying from the romanticism era is John Keats, who died at the age of twenty-five. Because he died so young, people often wonder what more he would have accomplished had he lived longer in this world of literature, which we often call poetry. John Keats was not an aristocrat like Byron and Shelley, but had a restless spirit and would fight for worthy causes. He earned his pharmacist's license before ditching medicine for the literary world. Keats's health began deteriorating, but had he stayed healthy his “burst of creativity” and his engagement may have been the beginning to a very happy life. Unlike Shelley, Keats did not use poetry to make political statements, nor did he have a rebellious spirit. He would always find beauty in the things people would consider imperfect. “In masterful verse, he explored the beauty he found in the most ordinary circumstances.” Keats also seemed to be very sensitive to the contradictions that life would offer.

In “Ode to a Nightingale,” Keats begins on a negative statement, talking about suicide, and then turns to positivity, then back to death and the negatives again. He discusses death in almost a dream-like manner, switching from heaven to hell, and ending with deceiving contradictions. “Ode On A Grecian Urn” uses superb diction to get the point across about Heaven and happiness. A wedding is primarily discussed throughout this poem, using vivid imagery to describe the “maidens overwrought with forest branches.”

Poor Little Keatsy Kat

Compared to Bryon and Shelley, John Keats was far more dignified and humble poet. Having come from a common birth, he chose to stick to his roots of earthiness in both his life and in his writing. It is tragically ironic that Keats had first decided to study medicine before developing an interest in poetry despite his unstable health. His untimely death seems to make his his poems all the more reflective and recondite. If was as if Keats knew that he only had so many years to live and decided to view the simple world through a dimensional lens. Fanciful yet melancholy, Keats is the ideal Romantic poet in my opinion. The most famous of his poems are odes to ordinary, daily occurrences, objects, or emotions that Keats found higher meaning in. In "Ode to a Nightingale," Keats depicts the enchantment brought on by the bird's singing; it blurs the lines between reality and the imagination. Keats expresses how he wants to sink into the night, become consumed in the dreamy scene, and "fade far away, dissolve,and quite forget." He hints that the nightingale has put him at such peace that Death would be welcomed at that moment. The poem is rich in eloquent language and passionate tones along with many references to magic of Greek mythology. Another of his poems, "Ode to a Grecian Urn," contains even more of these allusions as he ponders over the painted figures of the vase. He envies the eternal youthful beauty and joy portrayed by the couple but contrasts it with the woeful circumstance that they are trapped in; that though they will remain forever young but cannot kiss either due to their static position. The poem presents a paradox between the world displayed on the urn and the reality that Keats must face.

In Awe of the Ode

John Keats' career as a poet was brief, yet powerful. The young man presented a profound reverence towards the world within his works of literature. As a student, Keats' early pieces were not well accepted as they were associated with radical ideals and introduced uncharted forms of poetic verse. As the poet grew older and underwent more life experiences his poetry developed rapidly into an assembly of masterpieces. His odes to the world around him were far less controversial than Shelley's pieces but contained many similarity in the praise of nature and complex description of simple observations. Keats was ultimately a romantic that sought after what could not be, creating beauty out of the ordinary.
In his piece, "Ode to the Nightingale," Keats uses basic end rhyme to establish a rhythm for his song of appreciation. He produces a very descriptive piece, using adjectives and adverbs to describe every aspect of the scene thoroughly. Keats places variation within the rhyme scheme in several places in order to amend the pace and tone of each descriptive aspect. The author creates imagery through implements of color variation and specific word repetition. He also conveys biblical and monarchic allusions and personifies nature. Finally, Keats alludes to his personal illness and the envy he holds towards the nightingale's perfection.
The author continues this envious tone for immortality and perfection in his piece, "Ode on a Grecian Urn." Here Keats describes his analysis of a urn that adorns a painted scene. He does so by using adjectives of the naturalistic context and a rhyme scheme that consists of both end and internal rhyme. Keats implements a good amount of rhetoric questions and repetition in order to present a somewhat pleading, or desperate cry for conclusive enlightenment from the urn. Just as in the previous piece, Keats seems to be envious of the urn's tranquil permanence in respect to human life. This repeated theme ultimately indicates the writer's sorrow over his own circumstances of mortality.

Keats

John Keats personified the tragic hero which the poets of the Romantic period sought to emulate. Unlike the other poets, he was not born into the upper classes, which made him much more accessible to the everyday person. Tragedy struck him at an early age when Tuberculosis took his brother. The pain and grief which this event caused becomes evident in lines such as “my heart aches, and drowsy numbness pains.” As many of the poets of this period showed, tragedy can also bring out the best in people. Keats refused to bow to his unfortunate circumstances; instead he used them as motivation. Just two years before his death, when his health began to deteriorate he wrote the majority of his pieces.
Keats did not use his poetry to accomplish certain things as Shelley and Lord Byron did. He simply wrote for the sheer beauty of it. To me, this is what separates him from his contemporaries. While they all appreciated beauty, especially in nature, Keats was the only one who wrote simply for the pleasure of it. The titles of his odes such as “ode to a Nightingale,” and “Ode to a Grecian Jar” convey the beauty and joy he found in everyday objects. His poetry includes numerous allusions so Classical Mythology., and they are almost always used as adjectives. Although he enjoyed the simplicity of nature, lines such as “That I might drink, and leave the world unseen/” convey his disillusionment with life, probably brought on by his deteriorating health and the death of his brother. His poems offer stark contrast between the happiness and life and the inevitable coldness of death.