John Keats
The first work I selected is from the following course/activity: AP English
Grade Level: Senior Year, 1st Semester
Explain the Activity in 2-3 sentences: Our class had to pick a poet from the Romantic time period and analyse one of the poet's poems. I choose to research John Keats because I remembered hearing his name from when the class talked about poets.
Grade Level: Senior Year, 1st Semester
Explain the Activity in 2-3 sentences: Our class had to pick a poet from the Romantic time period and analyse one of the poet's poems. I choose to research John Keats because I remembered hearing his name from when the class talked about poets.
I selected this item of work because I am proud of how long it is. We had also given a presentation about our poets based off of our research papers, and I ended up getting over 100% on my presentation. There were not many challenges for me on this assignment. Like every other assignment, I struggled putting my thoughts into words, but that’s an everyday occurrence. I learned that it can be fun and easy to do research projects. If I had to do a paper similar to this one, I would make note cards containing information from each source, so I would know where I got all of my information. The note cards would make it easier to cite all the sources in the research paper. I am proud of this paper and learned a lot about John Keats. I immediately thought I would highly dislike doing this research paper, but I ended up enjoying it. John Keats was an interesting guy that wrote great poetry.
Although John Keats lived only twenty-five years, he had many accomplishments in poetry. John Keats’s works of poetry were not well known until the Romantic period which was years after Keats’s death. John Keats, a great romantic poet, has an interesting background and wrote many great poems including “You Say You Love” (Encyclopedia of World Biography).
John Keats was born in London, England on October 31, 1795. He was the first son of four born into a lower-middle-class family. Keats’s father was a livery stable keeper (Authors and Artists for Young Adults). In 1803, Keats was sent to attend a school in Enfield where he was liked because of his high spirits and boyish nature (Encyclopedia of World Biography). In school, Keats became good friends with the headmaster’s son, Charles Cowden Clarke. In 1804, Keats’s father died after falling off a horse and fracturing his head on a road railing. His mother remarried a bank teller only two months after Keats’s father died (Authors and Artists for Young Adults). His mother died in 1810 from tuberculosis. Before his parents passed away, Keats’s interest was fighting, but after his parents passed away, his interests starting shifting to writing (Encyclopedia of World Biography). He started translating Latin and French texts and entering essay contests (Authors and Artists for Young Adults).
John Keats left school in 1811 and began working as an apothecary and a surgeon in Edmonton. Once he was out of school, Keats discovered “Faerie Queene”, an epic poem written by Edmund Spenser. When reading “Faerie Queene”, John Keats began to find the beauty, charm, and power in poetry. He was impressed with Edmund Spenser’s intense use of imaginary words in “Faerie Queene.” During his last few months at Edmonton, Keats tried writing and wrote four stanzas called “Imitation of Spenser.” Even though John Keats was inspired to write, he continued to pursue his medical studies at Guy’s Hospital in 1815. Keats’s conflict and growing alienation from medical studies emerged in his poem titled “O Solitude! If I must with thee dwell” (Encyclopedia of World Biography). Keats started having trouble balancing his poetry and medical studies around 1816. “Solitude” and “How Many Bards Gild the Lapses of Time!” were essential in John Keats’s becoming of a poet because they helped change Keats’s perception of himself. In 1816, Keats passed the medical examinations allowing him to become a surgeon, but he had to wait until he was twenty-one years old before he could work as a surgeon. By the time Keats turned twenty-one, he had written more poems and had left behind his plans to become a surgeon because he was caught up in writing poetry (Authors and Artists for Young Adults).
In 1816, John Keats met new friends and supporters including Benjamin Haydon, Shelley, John Hamilton Reynolds, and Charles Ollier. Keats published two long poems what were considered clumsy and adolescent, but introduced important themes. In 1817, Keats’s first volume, Poems, containing 31 poems was published, but his publishers later regretted releasing the volume because the volume sold few copies. Keats did not seem fazed by his unpopular volume and continued to work on more poems. Keats started to distance himself from his friends because he felt he needed to head out in his own direction. At one point, John Keats wrote, “that which is creative must create itself” (Authors and Artists for Young Adults).
John Keats began working on a 4,000 line poem called “Endymion;” every day he would set out to write 40 lines. This 4,000 line poem was about a mortal that falls in love with an Indian maiden. The Indian maiden turned out to be Cynthia, the moon goddess. One of the themes in “Endymion” was that the realization of nature’s beauty and oneness could overcome and transform someone. In 1818, “Endymion” was published; some critics called Keats uneducated and told the young poet to give up poetry. Harsh critics denounced Keats for implying that women just as capable as men to have sexual desires. Keats’s friend, Percy Shelley, came to the assumption that Keats was falling ill because of the terrible reviews. Percy Shelley claimed that the critics broke Keats’s spirit which led to his tuberculosis (Authors and Artists for Young Adults).
John Keats’s brother, Tom, became sick with tuberculosis in 1818, and Keats had to take full charge of his brother. Keats started seeing the early signs of tuberculosis with himself as well. Tom died late in 1818. Tom’s death inspired Keats to produce multiple great works of poetry in 1819. Keats began to write love poems to a woman he met while taking care of Tom. This woman’s name was Fanny Brawne, and she captured Keats’s heart. The couple got engaged, but they never had the chance to marry because of Keats’s illness. In 1819, Keats was able to produce five odes including “Ode to Psyche,” “Ode to Nightingale,” “Ode on a Grecian Urn,” “Ode of Melancholy,” and “Ode of Indolence.” Within the five odes, Keats explored many ideas including sorrow verses happiness, dream verses reality, death verses immortality, romance verses truth, and art verses reality (Authors and Artists for Young Adults). Because Keats was ill with tuberculosis, his mind was set on mortality and immortality during late 1819. At the young age of twenty-four, Keats are already dying. He tried to work in 1820, but he was too weak. On February 23, 1821, John Keats died at the age of twenty-five and was buried in a Protestant Cemetery. His headstone did not have a name and simply says, “Here lies one whose name was writ in water” (Authors and Artists for Young Adults).
John Keats wrote many love poems to his lovers including the following “You Say You Love.” “You Say You Love” is composed of five stanza, and the first four stanzas compare Keats’s fiancé’s love to bodily things.
You Say You Love
I
You say you love; but with a voice
Chaster than a nun's, who singeth
The soft Vespers to herself
While the chime-bell ringeth-
O love me truly!
Stanza 1 compares Keats’s fiancé’s love to a nun’s pureness. When Keats references the nun’s purity, he is saying that his fiancé is too discreet about their love. Keats wants his fiancé to tell the world of their love instead of speaking of it quietly. He uses imagery when speaking about the nun and singing to enable the reader to picture the stanza in their head. Singeth and ringest rhyme at the end on the second and fourth line. (You Say You Love).
II
You say you love; but with a smile
Cold as sunrise in September,
As you were Saint Cupid 's nun,
And kept his weeks of Ember.
O love me truly!
Stanza 2 compares Keats’s fiancé’s love to a cold smile. His fiancé tells him that she loves him, but she says it with a cold simile. The cold smile shows that there is doubt of love in the fiancé’s mind. She is trying to keep Keats at a distance. In lines two and four, September and Ember rhyme. This stanza references weeks of Ember. During a week of Ember people in the Western Church would fast to sanctify the season (Ember Days). The poem is comparing Keats’s fiancé’s love to a nun of Saint Cupid who keeps the food that Saint Cupid does not eat during the week of Ember. Keats is trying to say that his fiancé is hoarding Keats’s love and not giving any love back. Once again, Keats wants his fiancé to show her love for him (You Say You Love).
III
You say you love -- but then your lips
Coral tinted teach no blisses,
More than coral in the sea
They never pout for kisses
O love me truly!
Stanza 3 compares Keats’s fiancé’s love to lips that present no happiness. Although she says she loves him, her lips to not tell the same story. When he kisses her, he does not feel her happiness and love for him. Keats wants his fiancé to beg for kisses yet she never does. Blisses and kisses rhyme in line two and four. For the third time, Keats just wants his fiancé to express her love for him (You Say You Love).
IV
You say you love; but then your hand
No soft squeeze for squeeze returneth,
It is like a statue's dead
While mine to passion burneth
O love me truly!
Stanza 4 compares Keats’s fiancé’s love to a hand that does not squeeze back. There is a rhyme in lines two and four with returneth and burneth. When Keats holds his fiancé’s hand, she must not respond. While two people hold hands, they tend to move their hands and squeeze their partner’s hand. When Keats holds his fiancé’s hand, she doesn’t do anything, and her hand reminds him of a statue. John Keats just wants his fiancé to express her love for him (You Say You Love).
V
O breathe a word or two of fire!
Smile, as if those words should bum me,
Squeeze as lovers should O kiss
And in thy heart inurn me!
O love me truly!
In stanza 5, John Keats summarizes the previous four comparisons. He wants his fiancé to say something passionate instead of saying nothing. He begs her to simile even if the words she would smile at, would hurt him. In summary, John Keats wants his fiancé to love him and show her love for him; he need reassurance of their relationship (You Say You Love).
Every stanza in “You Say You Love” starts with “You say you love”, and ends with “O love me truly!” The tone of the poem tends to be impatient, annoyed, and confused. Keats’s fiancé is not returning Keats’s love. The overall attitude of the poem is negative even though it talks about love. Keats is feeling distant from his fiancé even though she says she loves him. The diction throughout the poem is simple, and Keats uses imagery to make his statements understood.
John Keats was not famous while he was alive, but his poems have become well known for their romantic ideas. Keats is known as a romantic poet after his death because his poems discuss the power of nature over moods and “stressed that man’s quest for happiness and fulfillment is hindered by the sorrow and corruption inherent in human nature” (Encyclopedia of World Biography). For example, Keats shows how human nature desires to be loved in “You Say You Love.”