Romanticism was one of the most quintessential eras of literary works in the history of English literature. The literary artists of the period exuded their artistic excellence and aesthetic genius through their works that went on to find an immortal place in the hearts of gazillion avid readers all over the world. The Romantic era of literary works had its own characteristics that made the time stand out among the other periods in literary history. This period was marked by imaginative excellence and idealism of the authors or poets. The proponents of this literary period believed that imagination was one of the greatest tools in the arsenal of the literary artist, and it was highly essential to use imagination in the creative works of the artists. The literary works further delved deep into the realm of creativity, rather than portraying a mirror of the real world. Among the many stalwarts of this age of literature, John Keats was one of the most famous ones.
Keats was an English Romantic poet, who was also one of the main personalities of the second generation of the Romantics along with people like Percy Bysshe Shelley, Lord Byron, and so on. Unfortunately, his literary works were not too well received by the literary critics during his lifetime. However, his reputation got built up after his demise, and by the end of the 19th century, he went on to become of the most loved poets of the society. Keats had a huge influence on a number of later writers and poets owing to his artistic excellence. “Keats attempted to use myth and romance as not as fashionably decorative pass-times but as serious poetic forms,”
Like the other Romantic poets of the time, the poet wished to escape in the past times. His wings of imagination took him to the grandeur and splendor of the Middle Ages. He never binds himself in the drudgeries of the contemporary times of the society. The stalwart poet successfully finds an escape route to the past from the oppressive reality of the contemporary times through his poetry.
The themes of Keat’s poetry are romantic in nature. Majority of his poetic works are written in the quest of finding beauty. His poems echo themes like chivalry, love, pathos, and adventure. However, the constant fear of demise is a strain that runs through the poems of Keats. Poems like ‘When I Have Fears’ bring out this expression with quintessence. Keat’s theme of disappointment in love is resonated in the famous poem, ‘La Belle Dam Sans Merci.’
Just like the other Romantic poets, John Keats loved to express the unparalleled beauty of the nature in his poems. He embarks on the journey of expressing the euphoria of his heart in the poems penned by him. “In To Autumn Keats showed how poetry could establish a world elsewhere.” (Fermanis) In the poem, ‘Ode to Nightingale’, he writes, “Tis not through envy of thy happy lot, / But being too happy in thine happiness,” (Keats)
Keats delves deep into the search for beauty in his artistic works. All the poems penned by him deal with beauty in some way or the other. The poet finds immense beauty in the very ordinary things of the nature. Thus, the song of the nightingale comes across as a symbol of the omniscient and universal spirit of exquisiteness. Keats sees the nightingale to be symbolic of brimming ecstasy and the spirit of immense beauty. Thus, he is inspired by the pursuit of the infinite and unknown in his literary works.
Keats is a true Romantic even in the terms of diction and meters in his poetry. Keats went on to employ many kinds of meters and stanza forms in the literary works. He is obviously one of the best sonneteers in the history of English literature. His Odes are among the best works of aesthetics in the Romantic period of literature. Just as a true Romantic, his attention was not just on the beauty, but also on the truth of things. He went on to see beauty in truth, and truth in beauty. He penned, “Beauty is truth, truth beauty, — that is all / Ye know on earth, and all ye need to know.” (Keats)
One has to comprehend the fact that a true creative artist would express his joy in beauty. When the artist experiences the ecstasy, he realizes the new aspect of charm that is nothing but truth. The harmonious nature of the entire universe lies in this identity of truth and beauty.
John Keats believed that is the very necessary quality of poetry to submit the things as they are. He does not put any extra effort to intellectualize things into something other than what they truly are. Keats does not delve in didacticism like other poets of English literature. All he writes about is the pleasure of seeing the beauty and nature.
One can very well opine the fact that the poetry of Keats does not express any revolutionary ideas of the times. Nevertheless, the poet is instrumental in expressing in his artistic work the most special part of himself. He expresses his own vision of beauty in his poems. So, if beauty was a form of truth to him, he cannot be called an escapist. “Keats cannot imagine a time when the concept of beauty did not exist.” (White)
Keat’s poetry shows a process of gradual development that is his uniform characteristic. While the earlier experiments of the creative genius included the verses as the results of his youthful imagination, the works also exuded much of imagery that testifies his imaginative powers. Keats went on to gain more experience in life that reflected in his writings. ‘Endymion’ was work of his young age, and it opens with the very famous line, “A thing of beauty is a joy forever.” The poetic work is, indeed, full of promises by the poet, but it gets lost in the uncertainties and shadows as the poet lacks experiences.
His Odes are more mature as literary pursuits. In these writings, he faces the sufferings and sorrows of life. In the ‘Ode to Nightingale’, Keats pines for a life that is filled with happiness and peace. He writes, “Fade far away, and quite forget / What thou amongst the leaves hast never known, / The weariness, the fever, and the fret, / There, where men sit and hear each other groan..” (Keats)
Thus, Keats longed to go away from the dreadful realities of life, and be in a realm of happiness and the ideal. However, he went on to understand that sufferings and sorrows are inevitable experiences in one’s life. He realized that the escape from the harsh realities of life was not desirable or possible. Thus, he wrote in Hyperion, “None can usurp the height … / But those to whom miseries of the world / Are miseries, and will not let them rest.” (Keats)
Nevertheless, his immense passion for beauty found the best expression in the ‘Ode to Psyche’, where he penned, “Yes, I will be thy priest and build a fane / in some untrodden regions of my mind, / Where branched thoughts, new grown with pleasant pain / Instead of pine shall murmur in the wind.” (Keats)
Thus, one can very well conclude by saying that John Keats possessed all the necessary qualities and characteristics of a Romantic poet. Rather than thinking about the past or the future, the primary concern of Keats was to portray the moments of truth and beauty. His poems show his vastness of imagination and his creative genius. His poems delve deep into the human psyche of emotions that bring out the intricacies of human nature. Thus, he was one of the best Romantic poets who has been immortalized in the hearts of one and all.
Works Cited
Barnard, John. John Keats. New York: Cambridge University Press, 1987. Print.
Fermanis, Porscha. John Keats and the Ideas of the Enlightenment. Edinburgh:
Edinburgh University Press Ltd., 2009. Print.
White, Keith D. John Keats and the Loss of Romantic Innocence, Volume 107.
Amsterdam: Rodopi D.V., 1996. Print.
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