Today I will be discussing one of John Keats sonnet, called “On Fame”. The three focus questions I will be discussing are, what is “On Fame” about?, what are the themes in “On Fame”? And how does “On Fame” compare to Keats 's other poems?
Firstly to understand what “On Fame” is about we need to look at its form.
“On Fame” is divided into two separate sections, with one stanza in each section. Each stanza consists of fourteen lines and is written in iambic-pentameter. Iambic-pentameter is a line of a verse with five metrical feet, each consisting of one unstressed syllable followed by one stressed syllable, for example in the first line of “On Fame”, “Fame, like a wayward girl, will still be coy”. The words with the orange arrow pointing at them are stressed and the words without are unstressed. The rhyme scheme for the first section is ABABCDCDEFEFGG. This is an Elizabethan rhyme scheme because it consists of three quatrains followed by a couplet. Now the rhyme scheme is different for the second section, so can you all write down what you think the rhyme scheme is for the second section. Thats right it is ABABCDCDEFEGGF. So here Keats has swapped the F and G around. We do not know why Keats did this, but often poets would not stick to an exact rhyme scheme every time.
Now we can analyse what Keats is actually saying in “On Fame”. The two stanzas are very different, in the first stanza Keats is comparing fame to a woman.
He also compares people 's want for fame to a man
The similarities between the poems lie in their abilities to utilize imagery as a means to enhance the concept of the fleeting nature that life ultimately has and to also help further elaborate the speaker’s opinion towards their own situation. In Keats’ poem, dark and imaginative images are used to help match with the speaker’s belief that both love and death arise from fate itself. Here, Keats describes the beauty and mystery of love with images of “shadows” and “huge cloudy symbols of a high romance” to illustrate his belief that love comes from fate, and that he is sad to miss out on such an opportunity when it comes time for his own death.
All fame begins when you do something noticeable. For example, actors and actresses build upon their careers and reputations by achieving excellence in their personal goals, as well as perfecting their public performance.
From the first few lines Keats alludes to the great romances of the previous ages as opposed to William Shakespeare's great tragedies. While it could be discerned that Keats is referring to his poem
All fame begins when you do something noticeable. For example, actors and actresses build upon their careers and reputations by achieving excellence in their personal goals, as well as perfecting their public performance.
Keats’ father Benjamin worked as a waiter at a coffee shop in Greenwich Village and was therefore all too familiar with the struggle to make a better life for you and your family. Although he had a great appreciation for Keats’ work, he discouraged him from making it a career for fear that his son would not be able to support himself. On one occasion he went so far ¬¬ to purchase tubes of oil paint and then gave them to Keats under the false pretense that a starving artist had traded them for a bowl of soup. Fortunately for future readers of his works, Jack was not deterred from his passion for art. When Keats graduated from high school he was awarded the senior class medal for excellence in art. In a cruel twist of fate, his father Benjamin died of a heart attack the day before he was set to receive the award. Although his father never saw Jack receive the award, he learned of his support when asked to identify his father’s body. As he checked his father’s wallet after his death he found several preserved article clippings of all of his achievements. His father was proud of Keats and his work and remained a supporter until his last breath.
In the words of John Wooden, "Talent is God-given. Be humble. Fame is man-given. Be grateful. Conceit is self-given. Be careful." The talent we have was given to us by God and we need to remember that. Fame was given to us by the talent we have and we need to be grateful for the talent and fame we have. This essay will show you have some people, places, things, and ideas get their fame.
In the first stanza Yeats expresses his conflicting loathing and admiration for modernity through the juxtaposition of “vivid faces” and “grey houses”. This represents the possibilities that modernity can bring; the revitalising of the community or the destruction of tradition and age old energy already lost by the modifications in the city. The repetition of the phrase “A terrible beauty is born” in the first and fourth stanzas articulate this inner turmoil revolving around modernity. This oxymoronic declaration is emphasised throughout the text by Yeats’ confusion towards the rebellion and its necessity. The fourth stanza embodies this conflict, removing the previously represented idea that life in pre-rebellion Ireland was a “casual comedy”, alluding to an Elizabethan play where the characters were content. By asking the rhetoric questions “was it needless death” and “O when may [British rule] suffice?” Yeats parallels the unresolved contradiction of “terrible beauty”. However, this sensitive treatment of conflict allows the retainment of ambiguity and can be related to any change within life, hence allowing audiences to superimpose their own beliefs and ideas into the poem. Yeats continues to explore his aversion towards modernism in The Second Coming with the appointment of a new “gyre” standing as the symbol for a new age. The fear of
Although the basic mood and intended idea of these poems may seem to be the same, the two ways in which these two messages are portrayed are different from one another through diction and imagery. Keats’ poem is much more romantic and enchanting, using eloquent symbols containing imagery such as when he says, “When I behold, upon the night’s starr’d face, /Huge cloudy symbols of a high romance,”(5-6). This complex symbol of imagery, complemented by the use of the word “love” twice in the poem, contribute to the poem being characterized as more romantic. On the other hand,”Mezzo
In order to dissect this controversial issue we will need to first define fame. According to Dictionary.com fame can be defined as
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Yeats was a confessional poet - that is to say, that he wrote his poetry directly from his own experiences. He was an idealist, with a purpose. This was to create Art for his own people - the Irish. But in so doing, he experienced considerable frustration and disillusionment. The tension between this ideal, and the reality is the basis of much of his writing. One central theme of his earlier poetry is the contrast
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