Romanticism in Keats' Poetry

Romanticism in Keats' Poetry

Keats uses various poetic techniques and themes to emphasise these

ideas of romanticism the "the strange, the sensual and the dream".

These themes and techniques are the back bone of the Ode's which allow

the reader to feel and use their imagination which was the main reason

Keats wrote his poems.

Keats uses incredibly sensual language to illustrate how he is feeling

and what he is imagining which gives the ode's a sensual feeling of

being alive. In Keats' "Ode to Autumn" he is using a large amount of

sensual language to try and take us to the place in his mind, his

choice of words are hugely important for making Autumn a sensual Ode.

In the first stanza he is focusing very much on the sense of taste and

sight to paint the picture of summer ready to explode into autumn with

words like "load", "fill", "ripeness", "swell" and "plump" these words

are all very sense orientated with the desire to show the peak point

before it all rots and turns to autumn. He uses the sensory language

to generate an atmosphere he wants the reader to feel what he is

feeling.

The theme of sensual language continues into stanza two as the poem

developes and as the season Autumn goes into this state of pure bliss.

He uses highly sensual language like "oozing hours by hours" this is

almost onomatopaeic as he is dragging us into the sense of stillness,

this place he is describing is very relaxed a beautiful place to be

in, he uses many vowels to get us into a drugged state of mind liek

the season "fume of poppies" the language and the season is

intoxicating a place of no worries. This stanza is very sensual it is

slow moving and lazy "thee" this is the place Keats wants to be, this

sensual language...

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... seems a contriversal thing to say as it could also be seen as

blasfemic putting a poet "priest" on the same pedastoole as God. His

whole dream like state is extremly strange saying he is going to

build a garden in his mind for psyche and to let "warm love in!" love

is welcome to come in with him, this dream seems to be about the

relationship between the soul and love.

I do agree with this statement however I do feel there are some far

more improtant and more widley used romantic ideals in his poems than

the strange and the dream however sensual is a very important feature

that runs through all of his Ode's whether it is describing beauty of

art in Urn or nature in Autumn he uses sensual language in all of his

Ode's and that is the main thing that makes the reader ask questions

at the end after you have been taken to into his other reality, his

dream.