Assignment - 3 : Mortality and Immortality: The Contrasts of Life and Death in Keats’s Poetry :
This blog is part of an assignment for the paper 103 - Literature of the Romantic Periods, Sem - 1, 2024
Table of Contents :
- Personal Information
- Assignment Details
- Introduction
- Keats’s Personal Struggles with Mortality
- “Ode to a Nightingale” and the Contrast Between Life and Death
- “Ode on a Grecian Urn” and the Immortality of Art
- Endymion and the Desire for Eternal Beauty
- “When I Have Fears That I May Cease to Be” and the Fear of Death
- Conclusion
- References
Batch:- M.A. Sem 1 (2024-2026)
Enrollment Number:- 5108240017
E-mail Address:- bhumimahida385@gmail.com
Roll Number:- 03
Assignment Details :
Topic:- Mortality and Immortality: The Contrasts of Life and Death in Keats’s Poetry
Paper & subject code:- 103 - Literature of the Romantic Periods
Submitted to:- Smt. S.B Gardi, Department of English, MKBU, Bhavnagar
Date of Submission:- 20th November, 2024
About Assignment:- In this assignment i define the contrast between life and death in john Keats's poetry.
Introduction :
John Keats, one of the leading figures of the Romantic movement, is perhaps best known for his profound exploration of the human condition, particularly themes of mortality and immortality. Living through the early death of both his parents and suffering from his own fatal illness (tuberculosis), Keats was acutely aware of the brevity of life. His work reflects this existential awareness, and his poignant reflections on life and death resonate deeply with readers. Keats’s confrontation with mortality becomes a central theme in his poetry, in which he grapples with the desire for immortality through beauty, art, and nature. His engagement with death and the yearning for permanence in the face of mortality form a complex dialogue within his verse, offering profound insights into the human spirit.
Keats’s personal struggles with illness are intrinsically linked to his treatment of death in his poetry. His early death at 25 (in 1821) lends his exploration of mortality a raw, immediate poignancy. He often weaves together the themes of the fleeting nature of life, the inevitability of death, and the possibility of achieving immortality through the timeless beauty of art and nature. This paper will examine how Keats confronts the themes of mortality and immortality in his works, with a particular focus on his awareness of personal mortality, his quest for beauty, and his contemplation of art as a vehicle for transcendence. Through a close reading of several of his key poems, we will explore how Keats intertwines the concepts of life, death, and immortality, ultimately offering an intimate and philosophical perspective on human existence.
Keats’s Personal Struggles with Mortality :
Keats’s own life was marked by an acute awareness of the transience of existence. Born in 1795, Keats lost his father at the age of eight and his mother when he was just 14. Both deaths were traumatic, leaving Keats with a profound sense of loss that would resonate throughout his life and work. In his youth, Keats was filled with a sense of vitality, eager to experience the world’s pleasures, but the early deaths of those he loved left him deeply aware of mortality.
By the time Keats was diagnosed with tuberculosis in 1819, he had already witnessed the devastation of death firsthand. In his letters to friends and family, he frequently expressed his fears about his own future, writing with a sense of inevitability about his decline. One of his most famous reflections on this subject comes in a letter to his brother George, where Keats writes: “I am certain of nothing but the holiness of the heart's affections, and the truth of the imagination” (Letters, 1819). These words encapsulate Keats’s inner conflict: his deep belief in the power of human love and the mind’s imaginative capacity to transcend earthly limitations, while simultaneously acknowledging the fragility of the human body.
Keats’s awareness of his own mortality deepens his commitment to creating art, which he believes offers a way to transcend the physical limits of his body. In a letter to his friend Benjamin Bailey, Keats reflects on the inevitable decline of the body: “The body is a house of disease, the soul is a prison” (Letters, 1817). These early expressions of mortality, coupled with his growing sense of time running out, give rise to a complex and multifaceted engagement with themes of immortality. In this context, Keats’s poetry becomes a means to explore the delicate balance between the ephemeral nature of life and the hope for transcendence through art, beauty, and love.
“Ode to a Nightingale” and the Contrast Between Life and Death :
One of Keats’s most iconic poems, “Ode to a Nightingale”, delves into the contrasting forces of life and death, offering a meditation on human mortality and the longing for immortality. In this ode, Keats juxtaposes the ephemeral nature of human existence with the perceived immortality of the nightingale, a bird that symbolizes eternal beauty and transcendence. The nightingale, by virtue of its song, represents a form of art that exists beyond time and human decay. Keats expresses a desire to escape the limitations of his mortal body and become one with the bird’s eternal voice.
The poem opens with the speaker hearing the nightingale’s song, which seems to carry him away from the earthly world and into a timeless realm. The bird’s song contrasts with the poet’s own human experience, which is tied to suffering and mortality:
“Thou wast not born for death, immortal Bird!
No hungry generations swarm around thee;
All this is older than the flow'ring mead,
All this hath been, and is, and will be, and will be.”
In these lines, Keats’s speaker contrasts the immortality of the bird’s song with the fleeting nature of human life. The nightingale, untouched by death, stands in opposition to the poet’s mortality. The poem reveals Keats’s fascination with the idea of an immortal, eternal existence—one that is unbounded by time or the decaying body. Yet, this desire for immortality is also tempered with the recognition that such an ideal is unattainable for the human being.
As the speaker contemplates his own mortality, he begins to grapple with the notion that immortality may only be achieved through art. The nightingale’s song, though transient, becomes immortalized in the poet’s imagination. This gives Keats a sense of comfort, as he realizes that while the bird itself may die, the song lives on in the mind of the poet, thus granting a form of immortality through art.
“Ode on a Grecian Urn” and the Immortality of Art :
Another key poem in which Keats explores the contrast between mortality and immortality is “Ode on a Grecian Urn”. The urn in this poem symbolizes the permanence of beauty and art in contrast to the fleeting nature of human existence. The scenes depicted on the urn are frozen in time, offering an idealized vision of life that is beyond the ravages of time and decay. The urn represents an eternal state of perfection, unchanging and untouched by the passage of years.
The speaker in the poem marvels at the urn’s depiction of beauty, capturing moments that seem to transcend the temporal world. He addresses the urn as “Thou still unravish'd bride of quietness, / Thou foster-child of Silence and slow Time” (“Ode on a Grecian Urn”, 1819), emphasizing the urn’s power to preserve beauty and meaning long after its creators and their world have perished. The urn, through its portrayal of idealized scenes of life, offers a form of immortality that is inaccessible to the human being.
However, Keats also grapples with the tension between art’s immortality and the impossibility of fully experiencing the life it depicts. The urn, though eternal, holds moments of life that are forever frozen, and the speaker laments that the figures on the urn can never know the fulfillment of their desires:
“Thou canst not kiss, nor ever bid the Spring
Return, thou canst not leave thy song, nor ever
Take a turn upon the dance-floor, the nightingale
Cannot be heard in heaven.”
The urn offers immortality in its perfection, but at the cost of the fullness of human experience—of passion, aging, and death. While the urn preserves moments of beauty and vitality, it also renders them static and devoid of the dynamism of life. This paradox underscores the limits of art’s capacity to fully capture the lived experience of human beings. Nevertheless, Keats’s meditation on the urn highlights his belief in the possibility of immortality through art, even if it is imperfect and incomplete.
Endymion and the Desire for Eternal Beauty :
In Keats’s narrative poem Endymion (1818), the protagonist’s quest for the goddess Diana represents the human yearning for eternal beauty and the idealized concept of immortality. The poem explores the tension between the temporal nature of human life and the desire for a form of permanence. Endymion’s journey to find Diana symbolizes the universal search for eternal love, beauty, and transcendence.
One of the key lines in Endymion—“A thing of beauty is a joy forever: / Its loveliness increases; it will never / Pass into nothingness” (Endymion, 1818)—encapsulates Keats’s belief in the power of beauty to offer a kind of immortality. Beauty, for Keats, is an ideal that transcends the limitations of time, serving as a source of solace in the face of mortality. The poem’s focus on beauty as a source of eternal joy reflects Keats’s desire to capture and preserve moments of perfection in art, thereby granting them immortality.
However, just as with the urn and the nightingale, Endymion grapples with the tension between the pursuit of immortality and the inevitability of human imperfection. Endymion’s quest, while noble and sincere, ultimately cannot escape the frailty of human nature. The poem, thus, serves as a meditation on the paradox of immortality: the pursuit of eternity is often bound to the limitations of time and the human body.
“When I Have Fears That I May Cease to Be” and the Fear of Death :
In the sonnet When I Have Fears That I May Cease to Be (1818), Keats directly addresses his anxiety about dying young and leaving his potential unfulfilled. The poem reveals his fear of not having enough time to accomplish everything he hopes for—particularly, the desire to write and create. He writes:
“When I have fears that I may cease to be
Before my pen has gleaned my teeming brain,
Before high-piled books, in charactery,
Hold like rich garners the full ripened grain.”
Here, Keats expresses a profound fear of mortality, as he is acutely aware that his life may end before he has the opportunity to fully realize his artistic potential. Yet, even in the face of this fear, the poem also reflects Keats’s belief in the possibility of immortality through the written word. The act of writing allows Keats to transcend death, offering him a kind of permanence that death cannot destroy.
Conclusion :
Keats’s poetry presents a complex and deeply philosophical engagement with the themes of mortality and immortality. His personal experiences with illness and the specter of early death informed his exploration of these themes, allowing him to approach questions of existence with a unique sensitivity. Through poems like “Ode to a Nightingale”, “Ode on a Grecian Urn”, and “When I Have Fears”, Keats explores the duality between the transient nature of human life and the desire for something eternal—whether it be beauty, love, or art. Ultimately, while Keats’s poems reveal his longing for immortality, they also acknowledge the inherent limitations of human existence. Nevertheless, through his art, Keats achieves a form of immortality that allows his voice to echo through time, resonating with readers long after his death.
References :
Hough, Graham Goulder. “John Keats | Biography, Poems, Odes, Philosophy, Death, and Facts.” Encyclopedia Britannica, 29 Oct. 2024, www.britannica.com/biography/John-Keats.
“John Keats: ‘Ode on a Grecian Urn.’” The Poetry Foundation, 11 June 2024, www.poetryfoundation.org/articles/145240/john-keats-ode-on-a-grecian-urn.
“---.” The Poetry Foundation, 22 June 2024, www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/44479/ode-to-a-nightingale.
“When I have Fears That I May Cease to Be.” The Poetry Foundation, 22 June 2024, www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/44488/when-i-have-fears-that-i-may-cease-to-be.
Words Count : 2016
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