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JOHN KEATS
(1795-1821)

The biographical background of his life is important. He was born in 1795 from a lawer middle class, his father died when he was nine, his life was accompanied by the illness of consumption, which was terrible because you were sure that you would die. All his family died of this illness, and he too. He left England because of the bad weather, because he had to live in a hot country for his illness. He wasn’t an aristocrat, he didn’t have a lot of money. He was a surgeon, he studied medicine, but he had great interests in literature. He begun to write poetry very soon as he died at 29. In 1816 when he was 21 he was struck by a visit at the British Museum, where Elgine marmours were brought from the Acropolys. He was captured and he begun writing a poem which sung the idea of beauty. The consolation he had was in beautiful things which were the only beautiful things left to men in this horrible world, so he sings them because they are ethernal. Art is a consolation because it’s eternal, in contrast to his life. In 1815 he wrote his first sonnet “On first looking into Chapman’s Homer”. In the same year his father died, he was attacked from critics. In 1818 he felt in love, but he felt his death coming nearer and nearer. In 1819 he wrote his most famous poem “Great Odes”, “La belle dam sans merci”.

In 1820 he felt ill and therefore he travelled to Italy and the year after he was dead and he was buried in Rome.

ON FIRST LOOKING INTO CHAPMAN’S HOMER

Keats found a translation of Homer in 1815 at the house of his friend, so it made him happy, enthusiast because Homer was a very important author. This is a sonnet made of 14 lines, 2 quartins and 2 terzet, while the Elizabethan sonnet was made of 3 quartins. In this sonnet he uses a lot of metaphors, indeed he’s talking about a book, but the first impressions for book are “realms of gold”, “good by states and kingdoms”, “western islands” and “wide expanse”. With the words “islands”, “states” we understand that reading is considered like travelling, so if he travels a lot it is to say that he reads a lot. In the two quartins the theme is the beauty of books, of having books, the richness brought by books. The enthusiasm of the poet conveyed through an incredible number of metaphors for books. The semantic field is richness, incorruptibility, power and travel. Temporal elements are at the beginning of the lines because they’re important for example “Much have I”. “oft”, “till” and “them”. The poet felt like astronomers because he found something new. He felt like Cortez, so he felt like a sea dog, like Columbus who discovered new lands. The image of the Eagle represents power, beauty. The poet’s strong emotions are conveyed through this careful choice of words which play together with strucking metaphors and similies and give the poem their greatness.

ODE ON A GRECIAN URN

The ode opens with an invocation “thou” to the urn and the urn gives the structure and the theme of the poem. The urn was made by men but it has been preserved during the centuries and it’s still perfect and perfectly beautiful.

In the 2nd part of the 1st stanza  the author asks a series of questions to the urn, eve if there’s paradox because he asks questions to something which is silent.

As the urn is an historian, it can tell us something. Even if silent, the urn can narrate the legends of a past century which is illustrated on its surface. He begins describing the scene of young people playing instruments and the author underlines that instruments are silent, but we can imagine the music, so there’s a paradox because it’s only a visual clamour. We admire this silent music, so it becomes on ideal music, the best music we can eve imagine. He introduces the idea of contrast between the real and the ideal and this he introduces love just in the moment it is achieved, he speaks of the best moment in a love story which is just before the physical fulfilment, and so it is stopped it is seen in a timeless perfection. In the 2nd part of the 2nd stanza he insists on the limitations everything will be perfect forever. In the 3rd stanza he insist on the idea that it will be forever, in contrasts to the reality that leaves isn’t without cost, so unfulfilment. In the 4th stanza the poet looks at the urn from another point of view. He describes the scene of sacrifice with the idea of eternity and he asks questions which can’t be answered. There are contrasting images like the silence in town and ideal music and happiness of the people going to the sacrifice. The final stanza opens with an address to the urn “o attic shape!”. He underlines that he has understood, he had asked questions that couldn’t be answered, because he had asked questions that refer to reality, to an existence inside time, on the contrary the urn is unaffected by time, he calls it “Cold Pastoral”.

Then he realizes that there’s a sort of message about an ideal world, something eternal. The cleaner message is that beautiful things have an absolute value and that these beautiful things can console men and give them a means to reach eternity. In the message there’s a link with “when I have fears” which is the struggle of the poet with a autobiographical mean to try to find the way to remain eternal.

WHEN I HAVE FEARS

This sonnet was written in 1819 when Keats was only 21. He wrote this sonnet after his brother’s death, so in the sonnet there are his feelings of the impending death. Indeed the biographical background is very important in his sonnet. This sonnet is in Shakespearean structure because it is divided into 3 quartins and a final couplet, for the use of “when” and the personification of words for example “Love” and “Fame”. In this sonnet he insists on the world “fear” which strikes us on the idea that something may happen, so it gives also a sense of eventuality. The first line conveys on the idea of an impending death.

Indeed he describes all the things he won’t be able to do, so there’s also a sense of desperation because he won’t be  able to write poetry. He won’t be able to love, especially in an unreflecting way, because his love is ruined by a sense of responsibility to the girl, because he can’t love her without problems. The love of the poet isn’t spontaneous because it doesn’t came from heart, but from the head, because he thinks that if he dies he will make the girl suffer. After a piling up of ideas there’s a conclusion with the clear image of the romantic poet, who is alone, who has this ability to think in a profound way and who has fears, feels, he sees things that others can’t see.

This is an incredible moving poem because it’s written by a young man, who is telling his fears, it’s a confession, he feels that his life will be incredible short. The theme of the limitedness of life is a common theme of Bible, latin poems and Shakespeare.

He insists on the limitedness of life but it’s the anguish of someone who is a romantic poet who knows that he had a mission to convey ideas and he doesn’t have time to say them.

In the final line there’s an interesting image of a romantic poet through the eyes of a romantic poet. The natural environment is connected with the image of harvest and also with the idea of nourishment, so literature and poetry are nourishments. In this sonnet there’s no action, there’s only the contemplation of the poet’s own. The impression of Keats is of a man who loves life and passions, but he won’t be able to enjoy it.