John Keats

1. John Keats An Introduction

2. A brief biography • 1795-1821 • Studied to be an apothecary, then a surgeon • First collection, Poems – 1817 • Revealed talent, but criticized by many • Continued writing, blah blah • Fell in “love” – Isabella Jones, Fanny Brawne • April – May, 1819 – major odes composed • Slowly downhill from there – died February 23, 1821

3. Overview of Romanticism • Started in 1798 with the publication of Lyrical Ballads by William Wordsworth and Samuel Taylor Coleridge • Definition: “the spontaneous overflow of powerful feelings recollected in tranquility” (Preface) • Rejected more overtly intellectual movements (Age of Reason, Industrialization) • Feelings  art (get reason and social conventions out of the way) • Wordsworth – people most intelligent in womb/infancy – connection to the divine – society corrupts • So nature’s important, too, as free from corrupting forces • 1st Generation: Wordsworth, Coleridge, William Blake • 2nd Generation: John Keats, Percy Bysshe Shelley, Lord Byron

4. Negative capability • Letter to George and Thomas Keats – December 21, 1817 • At once it struck me, what quality went to form a Man of Achievement especially in Literature & which Shakespeare possessed so enormously – I mean Negative Capability, that is when man is capable of being in uncertainties, Mysteries, doubts, without any irritable reaching after fact & reason – Coleridge, for instance, would let go by a fine isolated verisimilitude caught from the Penetralium of mystery, from being incapable of remaining content with half knowledge. (emphasis mine) • Advocates acceptance of our necessary ignorance in the face of fundamental mysteries of nature and life. • Suggests a receptive pose, rather than searching and striving after things.

5. Mansion of many apartments • Letter to JH Reynolds – May 3, 1818 • first Chamber: “infant or thoughtless Chamber” • “remain there for a long while,” no desire to enter the second Chamber (though the doors are open) • Second Chamber: “Chamber of Maiden-Thought” • We’re “intoxicated” by its light and atmosphere, want to stay • Gradually, we become aware that “the World is full of Misery and Heartbreak, Pain, Sickness and oppression”  Chamber darkens and many doors (all dark) around it open up • other Chambers: dark passages, “in a Mist,” feel the “’burden of the Mystery’” • Watch for this in “The Human Seasons”

6. Chameleon poet • Letter to Richard Woodhouse – October 27, 1818 • “As to the poetical Character itself, … it is not itself – it has not self – it is everything and nothing – It has no character – it enjoys light and shade; it lives in gusto, be it foul or fair, high or low, rich or poor, mean or eleveated. It has as much delight in conceiving an Iago as an Imogen. What shocks the virtuous philosopher, delights the camelion Poet. It does no harm from its relish of the dark side of things any more than from its taste for the bright one; because they both end in speculation. A Poet is the most unpoetical of any thing in existence; because he has no Identity – he is continually in for – and filling some other Body – The Sun, the Moon, the Sea and Men and Women who are creatures of impulse are poetical and have about them an unchangeable attribute – the poet has none; no identity – he is certain the most unpoetical of all God’s Creatures.” • Goes with the whole Negative Capability thing  morality presupposes a Truth that, to Keats, we just can’t access.

7. Vale of soul-making • Problem: Life can be great, sure, but Death is always at the end of it. Death and other annoyances can’t be shaken. • Fish can’t “philosophise the ice away from the Rivers in winter.” • Roses bloom, but cannot escape the hot sun or cold wind. • For those believing in salvation, world is “vale of tears.” • Solution: World is a/the “vale of soul-making.” • God’s spark = Mind; Human passion = Heart • (Mind + Heart)  World (“pain and troubles”) = Soul • Analogy: • Child = Mind; Heart = hornbook; World = School • Soul = Child able to read • Look for this in “Ode to Psyche”

8. Themes and motifs (Content) • Themes • Inevitability of death – Keats’ has obvious existential angst, surrounded by death. Poetry dwells on this end and, in some ways, looks to make sense of and/or transcend it. • Contemplation of beauty – Beauty can liberate man from suffering (suffering [fear of death] can cause paralysis) • Escape through love – A subpoint of 1, love allows for that outward move away from the self and its cares, principally Death. • Motifs • Departure – His speakers often leave the real world, or at least focus on the self, to another plane or entity, sometimes returning with a new understanding/idea. • Nature – A subpoint of 1, nature allows for departure, in various ways.

9. Styles (Form) • Sonnet • Lots of types (Petrarchan, Spenserian), but Keats used the Shakespearean sonnet • 14 lines • ABAB, CDCD, EFEF, GG • Iambic pentameter • 3 quatrains and a couplet • Quatrains 1-2: problem • Quatrain 3: turn/volta • Couplet: resolution • Ode • Poem of praise • A well-used form until Keats’ time; not so used after that • Irregular structure • ABABCDECDE – but often violated • Often iambic • Keats developed a stanza structure (numbered), but this varies from poem to poem Keats use of these forms is largely imitative, not revisionary or innovative.