John Keats: A Romantic poet

 

KEATS: A ROMANTIC POET.

  In English literature, Romantic Movement started towards the end of 18th century and continued till 30's of the 19th century. Wordsworth, Coleridge, Scott, Byron, and Shelly are principal influential figures by this movement. But when we take Keats as a romantic poet, others lay behind him in the field of Romanticism. Other poets had some social or national aims to propound in their writings but Romantic poetry requires complete expression of the individual. So, Keats' poetry is the most romantic of all the poets as it is without any moral or message of social or political significance. To give Keats the title of a Romantic poet, there are several points to elaborate our discussion.

      ESCAPISM is a distinguished feature of romantic poetry. Every romantic poet cherishes to abode in the world of romance and beauty, a world where there are no troubles of earthly life. Unlike Classical poetry, romantic poetry exhibits excess of imagination to far off lands in pursuit of beauty. All these escapist elements of romantic poetry are profusely found in the works of Keats though at a mature period of his life, he was capable to render his imaginative flights- a spiritual touch. Even then, deep experiences of despair run through his verses. The fatal death of his brother and his own consumption due to unfulfilled love are considered reason for his escapism.

John Keats, when finds no solace in present, takes the help of the wings of poetry to transport himself to past. This is a genuine romantic trait to fly to past. We find Wordsworth enjoying as a child without any anxiety of the present. Like Wordsworth, Keats takes great pleasure when he is attracted by the charms of ancient Greece and the splendor of the middle ages. Majority of his poetry is inspired by these two fantastical experiences of his imagination. Endymion, Hyperion, Ode to Psyche, and ode on a Grecian Urn reveal his zestful longing for the past.

Classical poetry pertains to objectivity whereas romantic poetry expresses poet's own feelings and experiences of life. In this context, Keats asserts his position as a romantic artist remarkably. The odes specially and other poems of Keats as a whole are essentially subjective. For instance, in Ode on a Grecian Urn, to Keats Human passions are:

       That leave a heart high sorrowful and cloyed

       A burning forehead and a parching tongue.

A similar emotional indulgence is perceptible in Ode to Psyche, Ode to a Nightingale, Ode to Melancholy, and Ode to Indolence. Ode to Indolence is reflective of his disappointment with his most cherished passions viz, LOVE, AMBITION and POETRY. In Ode to Nightingale, he speaks of his oppressive realities of life in the shadows of his brother's death, and his own failure in love with Fanny Browne.

    Where Beauty cannot keep her lustrous eyes, 

    Or new love pine at them beyond tomorrow.

It would be but valuable to pinpoint that even in the objective form of epic, he remains somewhat subjective as in the case of Hyperion where he introduces Apollo as an embodiment of himself.

So far as the themes of Keatsian writings are concerned; they are purely romantic. Love, art, chivalry, beauty, nature and fear are dominant in his poetry. Except Keats, there may be no one in literature, a frank pursuer of beauty. Keats looks for beauty everywhere- in art, in history, and in truth. Nature, on the other hand, is a prominent passion. Keats loves nature in its variegated forms. Old tales of romance and chivalry stirred his imagination to take romantic tendency. For Keats, art was a vehicle to convey truth and beauty as in ODE ON A GRECIAN URN.

SUPERNATURALISM is another striking element of romantic poetry. A romantic poet aspires to look from seen to unseen just as he looks from present to past. Among the romantic artists, Coleridge stands supreme as a super naturalist. Keats succeeds in dealing with supernaturalism in LA BELLE DAME SANS MERCI, and in this poem, he creates the supernatural atmosphere of Coleridge's ANCIENT M ARINER.

Keats is not romantic just in his themes and subject-matter. Even his poetic style is a vivid embodiment of his romantic inclination. The diction and meters employed by Keats are purely romantic. To a romantic writer, sense of form and proportion is not essential but even at the mature stage of artistry, when his style is refined just like classical; his style possesses suggestiveness of romantic writing.

The SUBJECT-MATTER of Keats throughout his Odes is highly romantic. In one way or the other, the poet relishes in loveliness and exultation of romance. ODE TO PSYCHE is significant with romantic characters of PSYCHE, CUPBID and the POET himself. ODE ON A GRECIAN URN depicts romantic scenes decorated with MEN, WOMEN and NATURAL SURROUNDINGS;

 O Attic shape! Fair attitude! With bead

Of marble men and maidens overwrought

With forest branches and the trodden weed.

ODE TO A NIGHTINGALE transports Keats to imaginative world of romance and beauty. He finds his imagination knowing new horizons of such as romantic dreamland of medievalism:

The same that often-time hath 

Charmed magic casements.

ODE TO AUTUMN creates a romantic atmosphere with natural delights.

All poetry, whether classical or romantic, deals with BEAUTY. But it must not be omitted that romantic poetry goes a step ahead in this context and adds strangeness to beauty. Majority of romantic artists confirm this very idea. Just take the example of Wordsworth who watches everything with a wonder to find out a new aspect of beauty in that very thing. The same is the case with John Keats. Beauty renews itself every day on earth- this is the doctrine of John Keats. The blooming flowers, the floating clouds, the blowing winds, the flowing water of a stream, the enthralling spell of a piece of art, and all the beauties scattered everywhere are the symbols of the high romance i.e. Universal Beauty. This universal beauty is Keats' passion. Keats always hankered after beauty but it is important to pinpoint that it is his romantic imagination (as his odes TO A NIGHTINGALE and ON A GRECIAN URN show) which takes him to the world of eternity where he finds beauty synonymous with truth. Thus he is not just a romantic but a true romantic.