Theme Of Ode On A Grecian Urn And Ode To A Nightingale

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.

Life’s mysteries are best stated in writing. Some mysteries are revealed, while others remain unknown forever. John Keats, one of England’s greatest poets, published several poems, including one of his most famous ones in 1819, “Ode on A Grecian Urn” (Keats 247). Keats was a renowned poet during the British Romantic period. Romantic literature focused on beauty and emotions. So, what is the significance of the scenes depicted on the mysterious urn? Is the urn simply a masterpiece of art with emphasis only on physical beauty? In the poem, “Ode on A Grecian Urn”, John Keats creates mysterious scenes on a Greek urn to contrast between everlasting art and human life. Keats contrasts both worlds through the urn’s elaborate description, the theme of personal relationships, and the ultimate message of beauty, with significant relevance to modern times.

In literature, it is generally agreed that 'The Nightingale invites the beholder to explore something beyond the merely human '. Both Keats and Finch imitate this concept in 'Ode to a Nightingale ' and 'To the Nightingale ' by using poetic form and language to show the qualities of a bird that inspires them to look beyond the physical and in Finch 's case, challenge the confines of human restriction whilst asserting poetry as a human necessity.

Keats seems to find true beauty in everything; every view or perspective he has. In Ode to a Nightingale, the beauty is thinking that maybe death gives some one a chance not to have any worries, but knowing that there is always light at the end of a tunnel, and showing that there is always some one’s own Nightingale to put life into perspective when change is needed. Yes, the Nightingale in the poem might represent darkness in a way in which Keats thinks of death throughout many scenarios, but Keats still imagines this Nightingale as a beautiful creature in a beautiful world, “To cease upon the midnight with no pain, while thou art pouring forth thy soul abroad in such an ecstasy! Still wouldst thou sing, and I have ears in vain- to thy high requiem become a sod” (Lines 56-60). Keats is not envious of the Nightingale, but just wants to be like it and have a life of

Readers of Keats’s story begin to realize that the fear of a young death is a demon that haunts us all. This was Keats’s goal as a romantic writer: to connect with the reader, to portray his ideas in the form of art, and to make the reader see from his point of view. With his use of colorful figurative language, such as repetition, imagery, and personification, Keats accomplishes his goal. The reason that Keats is so successful in painting a clear picture is because he “uses his imagination to write” (King). By writing his poem in the form of a “Shakespearean sonnet consisting of three quatrains” (King), Keats, like any great artist, clearly states the point he is trying to make. Apprehension of a young demise is a plague that haunts us all. In “When I Have Fears That I May Cease to be,” Keats takes our hands and reassures us that we are not

Keats, like all the other poets of this time found inspiration in nature except he dug deepen and found not only nature’s beauty as inspiration but its sounds as well. While reading Keats poems, I found that a lot of the things he was describing symbolized music. For instance in “ode to a Nightingale” Keats states: “Thou was not born for death, immortal Bird” (61). The bird can be seen a representation of life. Birds create the music of nature when they chirp and fly around. Keats takes this and compares it to life and death. I kind of see this as an idea that when you find a passion and focus on it, it can take you away from your problems. I can relate to this because I am a musician. When I am sad or frustrated we turn to the things we love

Michael O’Neil claims that Keats greatest poetry thrives on its knowledge of contrast, its feeling for light and shade. The contrast that these two poems provide for each other allow the reader to appreciate their similarities, and likewise analyze their differences. The greatest contrast between the two is in the type of beauty they describe. In Ode to a Nightingale, the beauty is in the birds song, which lasts eternally beyond the lifetime of the bird. Thus depicting the eternal glory of nature, and the persistence of creation. The latter poem is displaying the beauty of the urn, a figure in a permanent reality–unchanging and existing beyond

Both poems are sonnets that focus on early death; however, each poet displays different emotions for life and death in their poems. On the one hand, Keats displays an optimistic view of life, but is contemptuous towards death since it will mark an unwanted end to his artistic, romantic, and countless other endeavors. On the other, Longfellow distrusts life and fears death. As an indicator of these contrasting sentiments, the poets not only use significantly different types of poems, but they also differ in their rhetorical devices’ purposes in the shared iambic pentameter structure. In particular, they use imagery, diction, mechanical devices and metaphors in varying extents and purposes.

John Keats was a well established English poet in the early 19th century. His work is greatly influenced by his family, studies, political views, and life experiences. Keats was born October 31st, 1795 in a stable to his devoted parents, Thomas and Frances Keats (15). Before Keats’s twentieth birthday he would experience many hardships from the passing of both of his parents as well as his grandmother. Thomas Keats died in 1804 after an accident occurred while riding his horse, leaving John Keats as the ‘man’ of the house at the young age of nine. Less than five years passed before Frances Keats fell ill and passed after contracting tuberculosis. At a young age Keats experienced great loss and suffering that would linger with him for the entirety

Meanwhile in “Ode on a Grecian Urn”, the speaker experiences the belly of the whale when he comes to the realization that he will never be immortal like the painting on the urn. The belly of the whale--as mentioned before--deals with the lowest point in the character’s life, and specifically in this case, the persona, a human with a mortal life desires the ability of being immortal. The speaker undergoes the same wants as Dorian Gray but does not gain them. If anything “Ode on a Grecian Urn” serves as the realistic version of people accepting mortality than The Picture of Dorian Gray. Although Dorian Gray expresses what it “looks like” to receive what a person wishes for, “Ode on a Grecian Urn” turns a lesson into a wide perspective about what

Primarily, Keats’s use of this theme shows the importance of human life. As Keats states with his line, “Verse, Fame, and Beauty are intense indeed, / But Death intenser -Death is Life's high meed,” (), life has many intense elements, but death ultimately serves as the highest point of life. Because of the intense questioning of death by Keats’s narrator, Keats shows the importance of living life before the finality of death inevitably hits. Keats also allows a certain amount of personal freedom through his use of the glorification of the ordinary with the way that he begins his poem. As the poem begins, Keats tells that, “No God, no Demon of severe response, / Deigns to reply from Heaven or from Hell,” (). This line intends to show the complicated nature of religion and the mute lips which it comes from. Keats essentially throws religion out the window with this line, and he states that there are more important elements in life than religion such as the importance of living itself. In relation to this statement of life’s more important elements, Keats does acknowledge death’s ability through lines such as, “Why did I laugh? I know this Being's lease, / My fancy to its utmost blisses spreads;” (), and “Yet would I on this very midnight cease,” (), but he also places a heavy importance on living life simply because it is to be lived rather than dreaded or pondered. Lastly, Keats provides a final layer of depth by implying that his narrator laughed because of life and death. Keats shows this through his constant questioning of life and death in the context of laughing. By providing a satire to both life’s purpose and death’s inevitability, Keats shows us the greatest example of glorification of the ordinary which he has to offer throughout his poem by illustrating that death should be disregarded and life should be lived in

Keats is known for his distinct odes that signify his achievement and accomplishments as a poet. The opposing ideas surrounding the poets causes them to contemplate and understand the world within them.

The twenty-four old romantic poet John Keats, “Ode on a Grecian Urn” written in the spring of 1819 was one of his last of six odes. That he ever wrote for he died of tuberculosis a year later. Although, his time as a poet was short he was an essential part of The Romantic period (1789-1832). His groundbreaking poetry created a paradigm shift in the way poetry was composed and comprehended. Indeed, the Romantic period provided a shift from reason to belief in the senses and intuition. “Keats’s poem is able to address some of the most common assumptions and valorizations in the study of Romantic poetry, such as the opposition between “organic culture” and the alienation of modernity”. (O’Rourke, 53) The irony of Keats’s Urn is he likens

John Keats’s “Ode on a Grecian Urn” is written through the power of eternity, beauty and truth regardless of existence, as Wordsworth showed likewise. Keats illustrated his poem through love in its sublime. For example, in the first stanza he says, “What wild ecstasy?” (Keats 930). If ecstasy is a huge feeling of

Keats, on the other hand, uses the “Ode on a Grecian Urn” to express his perspective on art by examining the characters on the urn from either an ideal or realistic perspective. In the beginning, Keats asks questions regarding the “mad pursuit” (9, p.1847) of the people on the Grecian urn. As the Grecian urn exists outside of time, Keats creates a paradox for the human figures on the urn because they do not confront aging but neither experience time; Keats then further discusses the paradox in the preceding stanzas of the poem. In the second and third stanza, Keats examines the picture of the piper playing to his lover “beneath the trees” (15, p.1847) and expresses that their love is “far above” (28, p.1848) all human passion. Even though