JOHN KEATS

By Jason Strasberg,

Colin Hager,

and Sarah Palmer

JOHN KEATS: BIOGRAPHY Born in Moorgate, London, England Parents were Frances Jennings and Thomas Keats First of five children, one of whom died in infancy Father died at the age of nine and his mother remarried

soon after Keats and his siblings were sent to live with their

grandmother immediately and their mother joined them soon after, leaving her husband behind along with her former Keats’ father’s business

After his grandfather died when he was ten, his money struggles began

All the Keats children attended Enfield school His mother’s death left a deep impression on him

because he was the one who cared for her throughout her illness

JOHN KEATS: BIOGRAPHY (CONTINUED) He studied medicine for three years after his mother died and

was rather good at it, though his interest lagged as his interest in poetry grew

Richard Abbey, a primary adult influence in Keats’ life after his grandmother died four years after his mother, did not approve of Keats’ poetic interest, especially since the Keats lived in poverty

In 1815, Keats entered Guy’s Hospital for more formal training in medicine

Around the same time Keats decided to quit medical training in 1816, he was inspired by reading to write On First Looking Into Chapman’s Homer

After this his work continued to get better and better, especially after visiting Oxford and befriending Ms. Fanny Brawne

Befriended Shelley during this time of great productiveness In 1821, Keats died of tuberculosis as he seemed to have known

he would throughout the last year of his life

STANZA ONE

My heart aches, and a drowsy numbness pains My sense, as though of hemlock I had drunk,

Or emptied some dull opiate to the drains One minute past, and Lethe-wards had sunk:

'Tis not through envy of thy happy lot, But being too happy in thine happiness, -

That thou, light-winged Dryad of the trees, In some melodious plot

Of beechen green and shadows numberless, Singest of summer in full-throated ease.

STANZA TWO

O, for a draught of vintage! that hath been Cool'd a long age in the deep-delved earth,

Tasting of Flora and the country green, Dance, and Provençal song, and sunburnt

mirth! O for a beaker full of the warm South,

Full of the true, the blushful Hippocrene, With beaded bubbles winking at the brim,

And purple-stained mouth; That I might drink, and leave the world unseen,And with thee fade away into the forest dim:

STANZA THREE

Fade far away, dissolve, and quite forget What thou among the leaves hast never known,

The weariness, the fever, and the fret Here, where men sit and hear each other groan;Where palsy shakes a few, sad, last gray hairs,Where youth grows pale, and spectre-thin, and

dies; Where but to think is to be full of sorrow

And leaden-eyed despairs, Where Beauty cannot keep her lustrous eyes, Or new Love pine at them beyond to-morrow.

STANZA FOURAway! away! for I will fly to thee,

Not charioted by Bacchus and his pards, But on the viewless wings of Poesy,

Though the dull brain perplexes and retards:Already with thee! tender is the night,

And haply the Queen-Moon is on her throne,Cluster'd around by all her starry Fays;

But here there is no light, Save what from heaven is with the breezes

blown Through verdurous glooms and winding mossy

ways.

ODE TO A NIGHTINGALE: LITERARY DEVICES

A brief reference to a person, place, thing, etc. in history.

Hippocrene- an illusion to a fountain located on Mt. Helicon in Greek Mythology

Bacchus- another reference to Greek mythology, this time the god of wine and intoxication

Ruth- a reference to the Bible

The repetition of the same sound at the beginning of a word

“beaded bubbles winking at the brim”

“breezes blown” “the fever, and the fret”

Allusion Alliteration

ODE TO A NIGHTINGALE: LITERARY DEVICES (CONTINUED)

Using one sensory input with another in an impossible way

“Tasting of Flora and the country green, Dance, and Provencal song, and sunburnt mirth!O for a beaker of the warm South,”- Keats combines taste, activity, sound, mood and temperature to create something being tasted, however, what is being tasted is the temperature and the location (“the warm South”)

Usage of details and descriptions to illicit a sensory response from the reader.

“Where youth grows pale, and spectre-thin, and dies”- provides a vivid image of a youth deteriorating until death

Synesthesia Imagery

ODE TO A NIGHTINGALE: LITERARY DEVICES (CONTINUED)

Abstractions, animals, ideas, and inanimate objects are given human characteristics, traits, abilities, or reactions.

“tender is the night” “haply the Queen-

Moon is on her throne”

Return of a word, phrase, stanza form, or effect in any form of literature

Stanza seven, “faery lands forlorn” to stanza eight, “Forlorn!”

“Away! away!”

Personification Repetition

ODE TO A NIGHTINGALE: ANALYSIS The conflicted nature of human life, for example,

pain and pleasure, life and death, lack of feeling or intensity of feeling, etc. is a major concern throughout the poem due to Keats’s own perception.

Keats focuses on concrete emotions and feelings that readers can draw concrete resolutions from.

In the first stanza, the poet is drawn in by the nightingale’s singing, and while listening he feels both pain and joy at the noise.

In the second stanza, the poet calls for wine in an attempt escape the feelings the nightingale’s singing has brought forth in him, and he begins to imagine a fantasy world.

In Stanza three, the poet is drawn out of the imagined world by his knowledge of the real world.

ODE TO A NIGHTINGALE: ANALYSIS (CONTINUED) In Stanza four, the poet suddenly cries out, returns

to the fantasy world, and rejects the wine and determines he will fly to the nightingale.

In Stanza five, the poet is unable to see in the darkness and must rely on his other senses.

In Stanza six, the poet begins to distance himself from the nightingale, though he was determined to fly to it. The poet also realizes his own mortality.

In Stanza seven, the poet moves from his awareness of mortality to his perception that the nightingale is immortal, this may be perceived as a flaw.

In the last stanza, the bird has returned to an actual bird as the poet has returned to the real world, and the bird flies away to sing somewhere else.

JOHN KEATS: SURPRISING FACTS

1. His epic poem, “Endymion”, is based on the Greek legend of the moon goddess Cynthia who fell in love with a human, Endymion.

2. Keats enjoyed playing practical jokes on others.

3. Keats’ favorite flower was the violet.4. Keats once punched a schoolmaster after

the school master scolded one of his brothers.

http://academic.brooklyn.cuny.edu/english/melani/cs6/nighting.html

http://englishhistory.net/keats/poetry/odetoanightingale.html

http://englishhistory.net/keats/life.html http://www.online-literature.com/keats/ http://

academic.brooklyn.cuny.edu/english/melani/cs6/keats.html#image

JOHN KEATS AND “ODE TO A NIGHTINGALE” TRIVIA QUESTIONS

WHAT TWO THINGS HELPED BETTER KEATS’ WORK DURING THE MOST PRODUCTIVE PERIOD OF HIS WRITING?

Befriending Fanny Brawne

and

visiting Oxford

WHAT WAS KEATS’ FAVORITE FLOWER?The Violet

WHAT IS THE POEM “ENDYMION” BASED ON?The Greek mythological story of the moon goddess, Cynthia, falling in love with a human, Endymion.

WHAT TYPE OF IMAGERY USES TWO OR MORE SENSES TOGETHER IN AN IMPOSSIBLE WAY?Synesthesia