( three Of Keats & # 8217 ; Odes Compar Essay, Research Paper

The insouciant reader of John Keats? poesy would most surely be impressed by the exquisite and abundant item of it? s poetry, the ageless freshness of it? s phrase and the inordinately rich sensory images scattered throughout it? s lines. But, without a deeper, more intense reading of his verse form as mere parts of a larger whole, the reader may lose specific subjects and ideals which are non as readily evident as are the obvious stylistic trademarks. Through Keats? eyes, the universe is a topographic point full of idealistic beauty, both artistic and natural, who? s built-in immortality, is to him a changeless reminder of that adult male is irrevocably capable to disintegrate and decease. This subject is one which dominates a big part of his late poesy and is most readily apparent in three of his most celebrated Odes: To a Nightingale, To Autumn and on a Greek Urn. In the Ode to a Nightingale, it is the ideal beauty of the Nightingale? s vocal & # 8211 ; every bit permanent as nature itself & # 8211 ; in the Ode on a Greek Urn, it is the flawlessness of beauty as art & # 8211 ; transfixed and transfigured everlastingly in the Grecian Urn & # 8211 ; and in the Ode to Autumn it is the exquisiteness of the season & # 8211 ; idealised and immortalised as portion of the natural rhythm & # 8211 ; which symbolise ageless and idealistic images of profound beauty.

In Ode to a Nightingale, Keats uses the cardinal symbol of a bird to represent the perfect beauty in nature. The nightingale sings to the poet? s senses whose ardor for it? s vocal makes the bird ageless and therefore reminds him of how his ain mortality separates him from this beauty. The verse form begins: ? My bosom achings, and a drowsey numbness strivings? ( Norton 1845 ) . In this first line Keats introduces his ain immortality with the hurting bosom & # 8211 ; a machine of flesh with a fixed figure of vitalizing beats. He besides employs a common poetic device to bespeak a airy activity is about to follow with the admittance to a province of? drowsey numbness? . In this instance, the airy action is the poet easy sinking into the Luscinia megarhynchos? s universe, opening his senses to the true nature of the bird while other? work forces sit and hear each other moan? ( Norton 1845 ) . This province of grogginess allows for his apprehension that, although it is mid-May, the bird? singest of summer in full-throated easiness? ( Norton 1845 ) . The nightingale, whose vocal so absolutely embodies a peculiar season that the poet is unable to be mistaken about it? s significance, expresses the beauty of nature in a manner which adult male is incapable. The poet is besides seeing the bird as timeless, for the summer exists within the nightingale regardless of it being mid-May. In stanza seven the poet reveals the Luscinia megarhynchos for what it genuinely is: a symbol nature? s immortal beauty. The bird has now wholly escaped the physical restrictions of the poet? s universe where all is capable to decease and decay, for it? wast non born for decease? , and is an? immortal bird? life in an fanciful kingdom. It lives outside of the human universe? where beauty can non maintain her bright eyes? , yet still affects the poet so deeply that he wonders if it was? a vision or a wakeful dream? ? ( Norton 1847 ) . Keats, in sing the vocal as he describes, idealises the Luscinia megarhynchos and elevates the bird to a remarkable incarnation of unchanging natural beauty.

Alternatively of looking to nature for idealized beauty in Ode to a Greek Urn, Keats turns his attending to semisynthetic art for inspiration. It is the minute frozen in clip on the side of the urn which constitute the immortality and profound beauty which Keats had earlier discovered in the Luscinia megarhynchos. Keats admits to the simple easiness with which the art is able to show it? s kernel in the first stanza when he writes, ? silvan historiographer, who can therefore show / a flowery narrative more sweetly than the rhmye? ( Norton 1847 ) . He is proposing that art has the power to affect upon the spectator? more sweetly? than can the written word impress upon the reader. In the 2nd stanza Keats introduces the thought that the unheard vocal, and by extension that all feeling experienced through agencies other than the physical senses, are more permanent and perfect than those understood through the? animal ear? , for they a

rhenium non capable to the imperfectnesss of our impurity universe: ? heard tunes are sweet, but those unheard / are sweeter ; therefor, ye soft pipes, play on. ? He goes on to reenforce this thought farther in the 2nd stanza when he tells of the? bold lover? who is frozen, everlastingly expecting a buss that will ne’er come, and is therefore spared the invariable Lashkar-e-Taiba down which accompanies all human experience. The lover is everlastingly trapped in a province of Rythmos – the climactic minute, an blink of an eye before action, which was viewed by the ancient Greeks as the pinnacle of all experience. In this manner the lover is a symbol of beautiful flawlessness, non by the expertness of his word picture but by his perfect illustration of a individual, ageless minute. In this manner Keats finds ideal beauty and immortality in art which is unachievable by physical adult male, who is destine by the Torahs which give him life, to see the progressive every bit good as the perfect.

It is in Keats? Ode to Autumn that the subject of perfect beauty and ageless being are more clearly conveyed than in any of his other plants, for it is to nature itself that he refers for inspiration. The Autumn season is personified and considered a divinity as it conspires with the? maturating Sun? to? burden and bless? and to? put budding more? , faithfully offering it? s premium each consecutive twelvemonth. It fills? all fruit with ripeness to the nucleus? and fills the bees? clammy cells? with honey boulder clay they? re? o? er-brimm? vitamin D? ( Norton 1869 ) . In this first stanza, the flawlessness of nature? s intents and the manner in which Keats indulges in it? s description leaves small uncertainty as to what he is seeking to convey: that nature itself is the ultimate profound beauty. The very definition of a season implies ageless life for it is bound by the Torahs of our existence to return each twelvemonth and execute it? s responsibility as it has ever done earlier. Each of the three stanzas dwell upon a different human sense and allude to a different point in the natural rhythms of a adult male? s life. The first stanza uses haptic images, such as heavy apples weighing down a subdivision, which relates to the point in a kid & # 8217 ; s life when he feels and tests his new universe by touching and feeling. The 2nd stanza trades preponderantly with ocular imagination as in the first line when the poet asks, ? who hath non seen thee frequently amid thy shop? ? ( Norton 1869 ) . This laterality of ocular esthesis reminds the reader of the clip in life when adult male, full grown, looks frontward into the hereafter to see what it has to offer instead than proving done experience as a kid might. The 3rd and concluding stanza is prevailing with audile esthesiss, such as the? lamb? s loud bleat? and the cricket? s soft vocal. The usage audile esthesiss to depict the transition of fall into winter reflect the clip in a adult male? s life when he becomes self-satisfied and more aware of the costliness of the minute. It is clear that in Ode to Autumn Keats has found the perfect beauty, on which is truly ageless and which emphasises, instead than avoids, the natural rhythm of decease and decay in the human universe.

After reading three of Keats? most celebrated plants in sequence, his compulsion with ideal beauty and immortality become evident. This subject is developed in Ode to a Nightingale and Ode on a Greek Urn, both in which he strives to happen the perfect everlasting beauty in art and nature, but is merely confused by the true kernel of his topics ; for a bird must decease and an urn must crumple and are but symbols of things imagined. Keats nevertheless, does detect his elusive ageless beauty in his Ode to Autumn, gaining that it is mother nature, with her of all time repeating seasons and flawlessness of intent that is deeply beautiful. Turning, maturating and deceasing are no longer avoided in Ode to autumn, they are embraced and accepted as necessary for the continuity of the seasons rhythm. Keats, through his poesy, is invariably reminding us that the minute, whether short of continuance or everlastingly present, is to be savoured ; for all things that exist in adult male? s universe are capable to disintegrate and decease because our ability to comprehend them is limited. The universe is no longer merely a topographic point of vocal birds, delighting art and fruit laden trees, but a universe of profound and everlasting beauty.