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Keats' Odes and the themes of life and death
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John Keats (1795-1821) is widely perceived as one of the best poets from the Romantic era. As in most Romantic work, the emphasis is placed on beauty. This beauty is then most often expressed in mythology, nature and personal emotion. Keats presents images clearly and simplistically with a definite sense of joy and pain and an ever-present infinite pathos and tenderness (Downer 1969: 7-8). Of his vast collection of poetic work, Keats’ odes are often argued to be his best work in which he creates “… a new class of lyrical poetry” (Downer 1969: 12). It is clear that the odes were composed in a state of deep reflection and depending on the mood or theme of the poem, they vary from pensive to felicitous. At the same time the odes are “… always self-contained and natural” (Downer 1969:12). The central and most obvious elements of Keats’ work in general – Nature, Hellenism and Romance – are also found in his odes, but there is also another significant element present - that of the mental state of Keats himself (Downer 1969: 12). In this assignment two of the odes, namely ‘Ode on a Grecian Urn’ and ‘Ode on Melancholy’ will be analysed and discussed with reference to the important themes of the sense of the fleetingness of life and thoughts on eternity and immortality. In ‘Ode on a Grecian Urn’ a higher sate of philosophical thought is reached than in any other ode of Keats and the Philosophy of Art and the Ethics of Life are touched upon. The degree of personal emotion present in the poem leaves Keats free of any objective thought. A definite undertone of pathos can be observed in the fact that pain always seems to be present even in a state of passion and pleasure. This pathos does, however, seem to elevate the general thought of the poem which involves the contemplation of Beauty that Keats equates with Truth. The advantages of plastic art over human life in regard to permanence are clearly illustrated and thus the themes of transience and immortality (Downer 1969: 36). In ‘Ode to a Grecian Urn’ the poet views an old Grecian urn and recounts to the reader how the urn looks. He then goes deeper by expressing awe at the fact that the urn has survived for such a long time and how the imagery on the urn’s surface is able to tell a more meaningful story than a poem would have been able to. Emphasis is also placed on the fact that the figures depicted on the urn will live on into eternity and by doing this Keats makes the reader aware of the fact that human life is transient. An external analysis of the ode reveals five regular stanzas each comprising a quatrain and a sestet. The rhyme in each stanza differs and the irregularity can be found throughout in the last three lines. With regard to metre, the poem is written in iambic pentameter.
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