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.