John Keats. di Andrea Piccolo. Here lies one whose name was writ in the water

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Jack French
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1 John Keats Important poet for his fusion between neoclassical elements with the Romantic spirit. Love for Middle Ages ambientations and Ancient Greek world (great enthusiasm for the first translation of The Iliad by 16 th century Chapman). Great appretiation for authors like Milton, Ariosto, Tasso, Dryden, Boccaccio and Spenser, and above all Shakespeare: in him, the sense of competition with these great authors, especially Milton in his will of composing epic poems, was always present. During his life he suffered criticisms, and he was always influenced by the judgement of public and critics. Here lies one whose name was writ in the water Difficult life: he came from a humble family and both his brother both his mother died for TB; He started to study to become a surgeon but then he left to devote his life to poetry; Since 1818, he started to have symptoms of his illness that would compel his marriage and bring him to death in In 1820, he moved to Rome to recover from his illness, but died some months later.

2 Keats's works Poems (1817): immature work with a strong influence of Spenser's The Faerie Queene; Endymion (1818): a mithologic tale where the epic meets the lyrical, in an attempt to render it in a very narrative way ; The Eve of St. Agnes and other Poems (1820): the first one is a narrative poem with a medieval setting and a romantic atmosphere. The other poems are the five great odes where the poet explores different themes in their antynomy: - art/life; - happiness/melancholy; - reality/immagination; Hyperion, published after Keat's death, that shows Milton's influence in this story about the last of the Titans.

3 A thing of beauty is a joy for ever Endymion, Book 1 Keats's poetry Not merely autobiographical, like in Byron and Shelley. The I of the poet is a more universal I than an autobiographical one (except in Ode to a Nightingale); Not strictly romantic in this individualism, which is, as said, different from Byron's one. The substance of his life is rarely present in his poetry and, where there is, it is nuanced (Ode to a Nightingale). No pantheistic vision of nature (like in Wordsworth); no sense of mystery (like in Coleridge): no divine force in her, but his love for Her was for her charm and external look. She is always connected with the senses of the poet. Importance of imagination: superior to senses: it often creates a vision of how life should be lived (especially in the Grecian Urn). Descriptions of the feelings that involve all the senses in the triumph of sinestesias, allitterations and, on the other hand, of the individualism. High style in his phrasing: it reminds to Shakespeare for rythm and language: great debt to classical poetry for style (use of the invocative, verses ruled by metrics...), language (often archaic and elevated), and also themes (immortality of art vs caducity of life, the approach of death...), but with romantic elements (the power of imagination, the cosmic power of nature). The typical poetry of opposites, with which he presents his experience with a conciliation between pain and pleasure, love and death, sadness and happiness, aesthetic detachment and social responsability.

4 Vision of Art and Beauty BEAUTY ART Disinterested love for it: forerunner of the cult of aesthetic Art for Art's sake The sense of beauty proceeds from the physical sensation and all the senses are involved PHYSICAL BEAUTY Nature (perceptions) Mortality SPIRITUAL BEAUTY Abstract things (love, poetry...) Eternity TRUTH Idea that Beauty, and so Art, are the only sources of knowledge, and so of sheer Truth. ALERT! Physical and Spritual Beauty are interwoven, but the Spiritual Beauty is superior, because it produces a deeper experience of joy and eternity

The negative capability The negative capability is the capability of being in uncertainties, mysteries, doubts, without any irritable reaching after fact and reason In other words, it is the ability

5 The negative capability The negative capability is the capability of being in uncertainties, mysteries, doubts, without any irritable reaching after fact and reason In other words, it is the ability that only poets have to deny their personality in order to identify themselves with the object, which constitutes their source of inspiration and Truth. In the odes, the negative capability manifests itself through the object of the Grecian Urn or through the Nightingale. It is the tool with which the poet can experience sensation, which is the basis of beauty, and therefore, of Truth. It is also the ability to see the objects in an laical key, without the intervention of religious dogmas. In other words, both the Nightingale both the Grecian Urn are the objects that permit Keats to activate sensation (hearing or sight or smell...) and to make them immortal through the composition of his poertry.

6 Ode to a Grecian Urn The Ode The work is a classical ode in honour of an ancient urn. The ode can be divided in 3 sections: a)introduction (st. 1): the poet introduces the urn with the theme of the immortality of art and with a series of rethorical question about what is drawn in the urn; b) Central part (st ): two scenes of the urn are described through the cosmic power of imagination. First, a young boy tries to kiss a lady while some shepherds play timbrels and pipes; in the second the poet depicts the precedent moment of the sacrifice of a cow in a religious rite. c)conclusion (last stanza):keats reveals the attic form of the urn and in the final couplet distinguishes the concepts of Beauty and Truth that the Urn represents. Meaning With this ode Keats wants to convey three messages: The eternity of art in juxtaposition with the mortality of men ( when old age shall this generation waste, / thou shall remain, [ ], a friend to man, vv ); The power of imagination: with it Keats animates the characters of the vase and the vase itself: for this reason, it superior sensation ( heard melodies are sweet, but those unheard / are sweeter, vv ); The idea that art can make immortal what is mortal in real life: all the scenes depicted, concerning mortal creatures (the people, the priest, the cow...) are now immortal through Art; The idea that Art, and so Beauty, are the only sources of Truth in an aesthetic idea ( Beauty is truth, truth beauty that is all / ye know on earth, and all ye need to know, vv ). Art is Beauty; Beauty is Truth ART IS TRUTH

7 Nature and imagination NATURE IMAGINATION Different from Wordsworth: No spirit in Nature; No help of memory Different from Coleridge: No sense of mystery, No destructive power Different from Wordsworth: Not equal to memory nor perceptions Similar to Coleridge: Creative power It pemits to reach the ideal world Keats, instead: Is interested in the realism and everything connecting with Truth (real world); He simply turned natural objects into poetic images; For Keats, imagination has an Important role: it is superior to perception, because it has a creative power; It activates the negative capability He just recreated the Physical world, seeking Beauty and Truth. It is useful to create Beauty And Art.

Keats Negative Capability and Oneness of Beauty and Truth in Ode on a Grecian Urn

Keats Negative Capability and Oneness of Beauty and Truth in Ode on a Grecian Urn Dr. Bhagavatidevi A. Chudasama Government Teacher, Mandvi (Gujarat) E-mail: bhagavati_c@yahoo.com Abstract The job of a