Just recently, Benson Theater put on its last show, bringing an end to its storied history. I have had the personal honor of performing in Benson Theater four times and its atmosphere and character have had a profound effect on me as a student and actor. Benson is often home to the hardest-working people on campus: techies putting their blood, sweat, and tears into their work, actors reciting lines late into the night, and directors volunteering their time to ensure the perfection of the show. That is why on Saturday night it was bittersweet to see the last show in Benson. Yet, without the good times that were had in Benson during rehearsals, shows, and all the time in between there would not have been any real sentiment about its closing. John Keats, much like myself, came to the realization that without the possibility of sadness, there can be no happiness; much like without the choice to be evil, there can be no good. In Ode on Melancholy Keats expresses this intrinsic connection between joy and pain through the juxtaposition of death and nature imagery. The first stanza of Ode on Melancholy advises perseverance through dreariness in order to experience the ultimate feelings of joy. Throughout the entire first stanza, for instance, Keats advises against suicide with lines like “No, no, go not to Lethe” (Line 1), “neither twist Wolf's-bane, tight-rooted, for its poisonous wine” (line 2), and “make not your rosary of yew-berries” (line 5). He emphasizes the importance of continuing life in spite of its gloominess because it is only through suffering that man can truly know what bliss is. Keats' idea of a dualistic nature of joy and despair in which there can be no joy without the presence of despair is much like relationsh... ... middle of paper ... ...rst Joy's grape against his palate fine...and taste the sadness of her might” (line 29). Keats closes with the final oxymoron of “cloudy trophies” (line 30) which are rewards for the perseverance of the “soul” (line 29) through the wretchedness. The third and final stanza uses the imagery of a melancholy goddess to show the intrinsic connection between torment and delight. In Ode on Melancholy Keats expresses the fundamental connection between bliss and agony through the comparison of death and nature throughout the poem. Keats realization about the duality of relationships not only holds true for happiness and depression, but for many other partnerships such as the one between Benson Theater and the new Sobrato Theater. The sadness endured on closing night of Romeo and Juliet will be more than made up for by the many new memories to come in the new theatre.
Keats’ poetry explores many issues and themes, accompanied by language and technique that clearly demonstrates the romantic era. His poems ‘Ode to a Nightingale’ and ‘Bright Star’ examine themes such as mortality and idealism of love. Mortality were common themes that were presented in these poems as Keats’ has used his imagination in order to touch each of the five senses. He also explores the idea that the nightingale’s song allows Keats to travel in a world of beauty. Keats draws from mythology and christianity to further develop these ideas. Keats’ wrote ‘Ode To A Nightingale’ as an immortal bird’s song that enabled him to escape reality and live only to admire the beauty of nature around him. ‘Bright Star’ also discusses the immortal as Keats shows a sense of yearning to be like a star in it’s steadfast abilities. The visual representation reveal these ideas as each image reflects Keats’ obsession with nature and how through this mindset he was able
John Keats’s illness caused him to write about his unfulfillment as a writer. In an analysis of Keats’s works, Cody Brotter states that Keats’s poems are “conscious of itself as the poem[s] of a poet.” The poems are written in the context of Keats tragically short and painful life. In his ...
Baron, forlorn in the loss of his Madeline. Does Keats merely make tribute to this classic idea of
Imagery and symbolism merged to express his imagination, he became a unique poet in an evolving world where Romanticism was quickly expanding globally, not into a movement, but a way of thinking. Keats’ mother and brother, and eventually he too, passed away of tuberculosis. At the time of his brother 's passing, he developed ‘La Belle Dame sans Merci’. ‘La Belle’ expressed Keats’ intellect and creativity, although at the same time he himself expressed his angst and depression for the loss of his brother. His poem ‘Bright Star’ was written in a part of his life in which a woman had influenced Keats’ greatly, so much in fact that he was driven to write ‘Bright Star’ in appreciation and celebration of the love of his life. These poems reflect Keats’ intellect, originality, creativity, and his ability to merge the contextual aspects of his life and his imagination with the ideals and concepts of Romanticism to create powerful
Throughout Keats’s work, there are clear connections between the effect of the senses on emotion. Keats tends to apply synesthetic to his analogies with the interactions with man and the world to create different views and understandings. By doing this, Keats can arouse different emotions to the work by which he intends for the reader to determine on their own, based on how they perceive it. This is most notable in Keats’s Ode to a Nightingale, for example, “Tasting of Flora, and Country Green” (827). Keats accentuates emotion also through his relationship with poetry, and death.
...s the speaker in the ode. Thus we see he became inspired to write this song of praise to autumn. He shows that anything can inspire someone to write, not just the beauty of spring. Thus we see the imagery Keats employs move from the scenic and joyous picture portrayed in the first stanza, to the harvest time in the second and finally we are confronted with the melancholy images in the last stanza. One realises, Keats was inspired by many things to complete this ode. Thus, we see influences of the Pastoral period, Greek myth and nature. Keats challenges the idea that spring usually inspires music, by showing the reader all the different places one draws inspiration from. Thus anything can inspire music or a musician if he allows it too. In addition, Keats believed that music does not just have to invoke feelings of joy, but it is still music if it makes one feel sad.
Keats presents his feelings on how he no longer wishes for impossible goals, and how it is much more preferable to enjoy life as much as possible. It is of no use longing for things we cannot have, and so we must learn to live with the myriad of things we already have, of these one in particular appeals to Keats: the warmth of human companionship and the passion of love.
In Keats “Ode to a Nightingale” we see the sense embodied through a variety of different literary techniques and in particular his use of synaesthesia imagery. The dejected downhearted nature of the poem promotes emotion in the reader even before noting poetic devices at work. The structure of the meter is regular and adds to the depth of this poe...
early poets such as William Shakespeare who portrays loss in many of his tragedies including the loss of sanity in ‘King Lear’ and the loss of his life. of reputation in ‘Othello’, through to Keats’s ‘Odes’ and into the. twentieth and twenty-first century. Loss is an important aspect of life and many modern poets find it to be an interesting theme to deal with. with in their work,. The poems chosen for the anthology show a range of responses to different types of loss, from death to material.
Arguably one of John Keats’ most famous poems, “Ode to a nightingale” in and of itself is an allegory on the frail, conflicting aspects of life while also standing as a commentary on the want to escape life’s problems and the unavoidability of death. Keats’ poem utilizes a heavy amount of symbolism, simile and allusion to idealize nature as a perfect, almost mystical, world that holds no problems while using imagery taken from nature, combined with alliteration and assonance, to idealize the dream of escape from the problems life often presents; more specifically, aging and our inevitable deaths by allowing the reader to feel as if they are experiencing the speaker’s experience listening to the nightingale.
In order to experience true sorrow one must feel true joy to see the beauty of melancholy. However, Keats’s poem is not all dark imagery, for interwoven into this poem is an emerging possibility of resurrection and the chance at a new life. The speaker in this poem starts by strongly advising against the actions and as the poem continues urges a person to take different actions. In this poem, the speaker tells of how to embrace life by needing the experience of melancholy to appreciate the true joy and beauty of
“The theatre was created to tell people the truth about life and the social situation,” says Stella Adler. Theater is unique and intriguing because it blends literary and visual arts to tell a story. Before Theater 10, I viewed theater on the surface level: cheesy plot lines with dramatic scenarios for entertainment purposes. Throughout the course, I have learned what it means to appreciate theater, such as understanding Brechtian and Chinese theatre; however, I believe understanding theater’s ability to convey crucial historical and social messages, such as in the production of RENT, is more relevant and important for theater appreciation.
This allows for a smooth transition in his description of the ritual that marks a soldier’s death. To draw attention to the tears “in their eyes”, which could be in the eyes of the dead soldier or of their brothers at war, they are connected to the “glimmer of good-byes”, to represent the quick mourning for the soldiers (10-11). The connection here is furthered with the use of enjambment at the end of the tenth line; with no grammatical separation, the thought smoothly transitions from one line to the other. On the other hand, Keats uses the exact Shakespearean rhyme In the sonnets “When I Have Fears that I May Cease to Be”, by John Keats, and “Anthem for Doomed Youth”, by Wilfred Owen, the poets’ use of formal elements create distinctions to mark the speakers’ thoughts and build upon the situation.
In “Ode to the West Wind”, death is a recurrent theme, but death is also mentioned in “To Autumn”. In Keats’s poem, however, it is clear that the creative power of autumn dominates the references to death. In “Ode to the West Wind”, the autumn is not only the brutal power it seemed to be at first: according to Shelley, autumn also has the ability to preserve life, by letting it die symbolically first. All in all, both poems show that autumn has a number of different facets, and it cannot be described by one or the other, but all.
“An Analysis of John Keats' Odes: "Ode to a Nightingale," "Ode on Melancholy" - RealStudyGuides.net." RealStudyGuides.net. N.p., n.d. Web. 01 Mar. 2014.