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.
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