An Analysis of On Sitting Down To Read King Lear Once Again
analytical Essay
1156 words
An Analysis of On Sitting Down To Read King Lear Once Again
The poem "On Sitting Down to Read King Lear Once Again" by John Keats is a sonnet about Keats' relationship with the drama that became his idea of tragic perfection, and how it relates to his own struggle with the issues of short life and premature death. Keats uses the occasion of the rereading this play to explore his seduction by it and its influence on himself and his ways of looking at himself and his situation in spite of his negative capability.
From the first few lines Keats alludes to the great romances of the previous ages as opposed to William Shakespeare's great tragedies. While it could be discerned that Keats is referring to his poem Endymion: A Poetic Romance, the underlying meaning of the lines remains. Keats writes "O golden tongued Romance, with serene lute!/ Fair plumed Syren Queen of far-away!/ Leave melodizing on this wintry day,/ Shut up thine olden pages and be mute." (Lines 1 - 4). Keats here is shutting out the idyllic romantic notions he cannot at this time cling to due to the ever present spectre of death that hangs above him. Keats forsakes the romantic here leaning instead toward the tragic, which is what he perceives his short life to be. In these opening lines Keats seems to be a desperate, and morose storyteller who forbids himself the taste of the ideal, regardless of how strong a pull romance has for him. Keats is forced to command the romance to "Shut up thine olden pages and be mute!" (4) in order to pull himself away from it. This shows not only the strong attraction romance holds for Keats, but also Keats' recognition of the Romance as a personified thing he can converse with and bid "Adieu!" (5). The use of ...
... middle of paper ...
...ime it is clear that Keats has succeeded in accomplishing the transition of the Phoenix into immortality, as Keats still lives on over one hundred seventy five years after his death in his poetry and our memories
ON SITTING DOWN TO READ KING LEAR ONCE AGAIN by John Keats
O golden tongued Romance, with serene lute! Fair plumed Syren, Queen of far-away! Leave melodizing on this wintry day, Shut up thine olden pages, and be mute: Adieu! for once again the fierce dispute (5) Betwixt damnation and impassion'd clay Must I burn through; once more humbly assay The bitter-sweet of this Shakespearian fruit. Chief Poet! and ye clouds of Albion, Begetters of our deep eternal theme! (10) When through the old oak Forest I am gone, Let me not wander in a barren dream, But when I am consumed in the fire, Give me new Phoenix wings to fly at my desire.
In this essay, the author
- Analyzes john keats' poem "on sitting down to read king lear once again" as a sonnet about his relationship with the drama that became his idea of tragic perfection.
- Analyzes how keats alludes to the great romances of the previous ages as opposed to william shakespeare's great tragedies.
- Analyzes how keats' use of the term "albion" identifies england as "begetters of our deep eternal theme."
- Analyzes how keats' poem, "when through the old oak forest i am gone," is a representation of his journey through life placed in the context of an oak forest image.
- Analyzes how keats, in "on sitting down to read king lear once again", entices the reader with images of beauty that mislead the poet from his primary duties being set aside for the more paramount need of pensive introspection.
- Opines that john keats' king lear once again is a golden tongued romance with serene lute.
Related
- analytical
- John Keats Dance With Deathanalytical essayFor example, in the first line is him contemplating his fear that he may never live to share all of his knowledge. It is a strange fact that we, as humans, believe that we will not die; we think this until there is that one point in life that we first see death. For many, a sense of mortality does not hit until a loved one’s light suddenly goes out and all that is left is a stream of hazy memories of that person. Keats knew his flame was flickering, so he wrote down his feelings and thoughts with vigor. When people of his time read what he put down on paper, they were not ready to accept the inevitable because they only saw a man belligerent about his life. Is has been said that, “the generally conservative reviewers of the day attacked his work, with malicious zeal, as mawkish and bad-mannered, as the work of an upstart." (The Poetry Foundation) After his death at such a young age, people began to see why he was contemplating such a dark concept. Basically, Keats gives the example that although the words of today can sometimes be ignored, there may be a time in the future when those words mean the world to
In this essay, the author
- Analyzes how john keats, world-renowned poet, knew his end was coming and aspired to transcribe his thoughts into words.
- Analyzes how john keats' work reflected his revelation and taught his readers that no man is immortal. he knew his flame was flickering, so he wrote down his feelings with vigor.
- Analyzes how john keats, knowing that his life would end at a young age, had the tenacity to live, unlike many who decide to sit and wait to see the face of death.
- Opines that john keats had the drive to do what he loved because of his lack of time, which is a lesson everyone should set out to learn.
- Analyzes how john keats taught us how to deal with knowing we must all come to an end and how one should live a happy life. thomas a. edison, father of wisdom, reflected his revelation and taught his readers that no man is immortal.
1071 wordsRead More - Keats’ Fear and Tichborne’s Acceptance: Deathanalytical essayJohn Keats explores his fear of death in “When I have fears that I may cease to be” in the form of a Shakespearean Sonnet. The poem contains three quatrains that interlock his primary fears together, leading to a couplet that expresses his remedy and final thoughts. His primary fears are expressed with respect to the abab cdcd efef gg rhyme scheme of the Shakespearean Sonnet, with each fear contained in each rhyming quatrain. His first fear, in the first quatrain is dying without living up to his full potential as a writer, when he states, “Before my pen has glean’d my teeming brain…” (2). This line indicates that he has not expressed through his pen, all that is on his mind, and leads into the second quatrain with the use of a semicolon which suggests that the next part of the poem is connecte...
In this essay, the author
- Analyzes how chidiock tichborne and john keats convey death in opposite ways. both poets express deep rooted human emotions such as nostalgia, pain, love and a feeling of insatiability.
- Analyzes how john keats explores his fear of death in "when i have fears that i may cease to be" in the form of a shakespearean sonnet.
- Analyzes how keats's method of analysis ends with a solution to his fears, and the tone of his poem is that of unfulfilled expectations.
- Analyzes how tichborne's elegy consists of 18 lines divided into three sixians, which includes a couplet at the end of each stanza.
- Analyzes how the second stanza isn't a reflection of tichborne's life, but the strangeness of his condition.
- Analyzes how keats uses a standard shakespearean sonnet approach, while tichborne uses an iambic pentameter and rhyme scheme to express their views on death.
- Compares how keats and tichborne analyze their lives and lament about their death. both use the conjunctions "and" and "but" to go back and forth between the past and present.
- Analyzes how both keats and tichborne's poems have deep levels of meaning, which is revealed to the reader in closer inspection.
- Explains hatzitsinidou, evangelia, and vendler, helen, in greek-gods.info- greek gods and goddesses of ancient greece.
2006 wordsRead More - The Existential Progression of King Learanalytical essayThe Existential Progression of King Lear The human condition is the scrutiny of art, Prince Hamlet notes the purpose of art is to hold the mirror against nature. King Lear is a masterful inquiry into the human condition. King Lear is confronted with existence in its barest sense and is forced to adapt to that existence. His adaptation to the absurd provides an invaluable insight for all into the universal problem of existence.
In this essay, the author
- Analyzes how lear's phenomenological progression begins with his fury at nature. his pre-reflective interior consciousness perceives the storm and its relentless ferocity.
- Analyzes how lear's pre-reflective consciousness perceives the violent universe bearing down upon him and relates that to his recently formed ego of the absurd universe.
- Analyzes how morality refutes the absurdity of the universe, but there is no clear distinction between right and wrong in these characters.
- Analyzes how the fool understands the absurd universe in that it does not stop being absurd.
- Analyzes how lear's being-in-the-world is where his ego remains in angst. he would rather be taken away to prison and be sheltered from freedom and absurdity than talk to his other daughters.
- Analyzes how cordelia, lear's hope as the antithesis of suffering, has been put to death, all appeal to the gods are in vain. the apparent triumph of evil over good serves as a catalyst into the existential progression.
- Opines that all future references will come from shakespeare's king lear, edited by russle fraser.
- Describes bloom's work, shakespeare: the invention of the human.
- Analyzes how king lear is a masterful inquiry into the human condition. he is forced into an existential progression that will be traced with the phenomenon of consciousness.
- Analyzes how lear's violent indifference to the universe, otherwise considered absurdity, is palpable throughout the play.
- Analyzes how lear's angst is a natural existential progression; it is reaction to the harsh shock that confronts humanity in its forlornness.
- Analyzes how lear appeals to some higher power to expose the sinful to justify the violent storm, but his ignorance is his sin and the storm is doing just what he commands.
- Analyzes how edgar, who constantly comments that he is cold, blesses lear from the harshness of nature. the fool refers to the cold motif used by edgar to show man’s bare existence, then comments upon the revelatory power of the storm.
- Analyzes how lear's angst is so absurd that he abandons all hope and his ego develops further when hope is abandoned. he hath commission from his wife and me to hang cordelia in the prison.
- Analyzes lear's phenomenological progression from angst to acceptance of an absurd universe.
3669 wordsRead More - La Belle Dam Sans Mercianalytical essayKeats had a fear of endings. He wanted every pleasant sensation and every love affair to go on forever with the same intensity. There are two aspects of "La Belle Dame Sans Merci" that expresses Keats' wish to immortalize fleeting happiness. One is the existence of fairies and elfin magic in the poem. The "Lady in the Meads," (Keats p507 line 13) is "a faery's child."(Keats p507 line 14) She sings "A faery's song" (line 24) and takes the Knight at arms to her "elfin grot." (line 29) In mythology fairies are immortal and eternally youthful and beautiful. They live in a realm known as Faerie, which is always summer and forever twilight. This magical land would appeal to Keats...
In this essay, the author
- Analyzes how john keats' poem "la belle dame sans merci" expresses all of his philosophies of happiness and the ideal world while being an enchanting love story on a simpler level.
- Analyzes how keats uses the word feverish to depict starvation and intense longing in the poem.
- Analyzes how the inclusion of fairies and elves in keats' poems helps depict the ideal world that he wrote and dreamed about.
- Analyzes how "la belle dame sans merci" expresses keats' wish to immortalize fleeting happiness. fairies and elfin magic exist in the poem.
- Analyzes how keats' connection between "la belle dame sans merci" and canto v from dante's inferno reflects his search for immortality.
- Analyzes how dante's torture is a "delightful experience" for keats. paulo and francesca are constantly whorled about and tired of each other.
- Analyzes keats' "pleasure thermometer" through an analysis of the knight's narrative. the knight at arms is active while the belle dame is passive.
- Analyzes how the narrative goes through all the levels of keats' thermometer. the first level of happiness is being wrapped up in a physical sensation.
- Analyzes how keats enters the next level of sensation when the belle dame sings her fairy song.
- Analyzes how the belle dame feeds the knight at arms wild food before bringing her into her elfin grot.
- Analyzes how the knight is taken to her elfin grot and the belle dame weeps and sighs over him. keats' thermometer states that the last level is complete empathy, the loss of self into another's reality.
- Analyzes how earl wasserman's dream of the knight causes him to transition from the faery world to the cold hill side; the world of death.
- Analyzes how keats' dream of rationality reminds him that there is death in the world he inhabits. the harbingers of logic are "pale kings, and princes too," who are starved.
- Analyzes how the knight wakes up on the cold hill's side and only sees death around him. before meeting the belle dame, he saw life in the world.
- Explains that la belle dame represents the impossible ideal that mortals should strive for, yet can never attain. once a mortal has knowledge of her, he will never be the same again.
1159 wordsRead More - Ode On A Grecin Urnanalytical essayIn the first stanza the speaker standing before an ancient Grecian urn, addresses the urn, preoccupied with its depiction of pictures frozen in time. This is where Keats first introduces the theme of eternal innocence and beauty with the reference to the “unvarnished bride of quietness”(Keats). Because she has not yet engaged in sexual actions, the urn portrays the bride in this state, and she will remain like so forever. Also in the first stanza he examines the picture of the “mad pursuit,” and wonders what the actual story is behind the picture. He looks at a picture that seems to depict a group of men pursuing a group of woman and wonders what they could be doing. “What mad pursuit? What struggle to escape? What pipes and trimbels? What wild ecstasy”(Keats). Of course, the urn can never tell him the whos, whats, and whens of the story it depicts. As the stanza, slowly leads the reader to the series of questions that are asked. The tone of the poem becomes exciting and breathless until it reaches the ultimatum, “wild ecstasy”(Keats). “The ecstasy brings together the pursuit and the music, the human and the superhuman, and, by conveying an impression of exquisite sense-spirit intensity, leads us to the fine edge between mortal and immortal. Where passion is so intense that it refines itself into the essence of ecstasy, which is without passion”(Bate117). Ecstasy is therefore the end of the feelings the poem has lead to reader to feel. Since the urn does not depict anything past the chase itself, the situation is purely innocent with beauty again complying with the theme of eternal innocence and beauty.
In this essay, the author
- Analyzes how keats uses innocent, unfulfilled images painted on the urn to demonstrate the theme of innocence and eternal beauty.
- Analyzes how keats perceives art as something better than real life. he enjoys the fact that nature remains the same and this particular painting it must be spring.
- Analyzes how the poet's recollection of the mortal world reminds the speaker that he is inescapable subject to them.
- Analyzes how the theme of eternal innocence and beauty is profound with the subject of a peaceful, uncorrupted town.
- Analyzes how keats convinces the reader that innocence and beauty are ever present in society.
- Analyzes how keats shows the presence of eternal beauty and innocence through the various scenes that are painted on the urn.
1307 wordsRead More - Ode to a Grecian Urn by John Keatsanalytical essay“ Forever warm and still to be enjoyed; Forever panting and forever young….” These words from the poem, Ode to a Grecian Urn was written by John Keats, an English poet of the nineteenth century. This sentence expresses the romance and love of life that John Keats represented. Keats lived during the romantic period, which was a time that focused on the individual, emotions and nature. Although Keats died very young, during his short life he wrote many poems, particularly odes. An ode is a type of poem that can be about an object; a person or anything that one feels extremely passionate about. In Ode to a Grecian Urn, Keats addresses an inanimate object, an urn that has no life, but speaks of it using imagery of energy such as “warm,” “panting,” and “young.” In just one sentence he brings the urn to life praising it as “forever young.” Keats had a difficult life filled with much death. Nevertheless he incorporated both his life experience and his romantic visions in his work. Ode to a Grecian Urn is one example of Keats’ poems that displays all of the paradox’s that can be seen in each of his works.
In this essay, the author
- Analyzes how john keats' poem, ode to a grecian urn, expresses the romance and love of life that he represented.
- Explains that john keats was born in 1795 and died on february 23, 1821 at the age of twenty-five. he had a difficult life surrounded by constant death.
- Describes how john keats cared for his brother tom who had tuberculosis and died shortly after. he fell in love with fanny brawne and wrote five odes.
- Analyzes how keats' life experiences are clearly seen in his poetry, which focuses on difficult human conflicts, including life and death.
- Analyzes how keats' life experiences, surrounded by death, can be seen throughout the poem ode to a grecian urn.
- Analyzes the contradictions in keats' work, which is that even surrounded by death, he imagines life that will also remain timeless.
- Analyzes how keats' ode to the grecian urn represents a fantasy world with idealized people reflected on the urn.
- Analyzes how keats describes the urn as a ‘still unravish’d bride of quietness.’ there are melodists playing sweet unheard melodies.
- Analyzes how keats' poetry was not critically praised until after his death, but it is now considered to be among the great works of literature.
- Analyzes keats' famous contradiction of "beauty is truth; truth is beauty." it's a statement with no answers and leaves us with the urn and the images, both human creations and all beautiful.
- Explains that john keats is of ode on a grecian urn.
1299 wordsRead More - Through the se of metaphor, imagery, form, and rhyme scheme, John Keats crafts a message in this poem for all to hear, both young and old. To those who dread the aging onslaught of the coming years, he says to remember autumn. To those wishing again for the good old days of childhood, and feeling dissatisfied with their old age, he says to remember autumn. Age brings fruitfulness, stability, leisure, and harmony. It should be embraced for the natural and wonderful part of life that it is.
In this essay, the author
- Analyzes how the poem personifies autumn as "sitting careless on a granary floor".
- Analyzes how keats uses the "music" of old age, as sung by nature, to show that age is a wholesome part of the life process.
- Analyzes how john keats' poem, to autumn, urges us to see old age as a beautiful and enviable state of life, rather than something to be feared.
- Analyzes how keats uses rich imagery throughout the poem and points to many positive aspects of old age.
- Analyzes how john keats uses imagery to uplift the idea of old age and employs a suggestive poetic form.
1026 wordsRead More - An Analysis of the Symbols in Yeat’s Poemsanalytical essayThe first text entitled, “When you are Old” by William Yeats has the main message of his lover leaving him, but uses the symbolism of a book. The main message of this poem is William Yeats had a lover who loved Yeats has much as he loved her; the only problem was the woman Yeats loved was a “rebellious” women’s rights activist. She thought that if she were to marry, it would look bad on her for being controlled by a man, and trying to push for women’s rights. Yeats publishes a book of poetry, giving her one of his first copies. In this Yeats hopes that one day when she is old she will, “by the fire, take down this book, and slowly read, and dream of the soft look” (Yeats, When you are Old, page 1140, lines 2-3) and then he hopes she regrets not marrying him. The book of poetry that he publishes is a representation, a symbol, of future regret for his ...
In this essay, the author
- Analyzes how yeats' poem, "wild swans at coole," deals with the main idea of becoming old and uses the symbolism of a swan to tell of his message.
- Analyzes how william yeats' "the second coming" conveys the idea that society is going to crumble, and uses the symbolism of a falcon.
- Analyzes how yeats uses the symbol of the sailing ship to represent death and the coming of death in his poem "sailing to byzantium."
- Analyzes how yeats uses symbols to convey his message to the reader or listener. symbolism is a big part of the lives of all of us.
- Analyzes how symbols and their meaning have had a great influence in our day-to-day living. william butler yeats had many symbols in his works and poetry.
920 wordsRead More - Combined Experience of Suffering, Death and Love all at Onceanalytical essayJohn 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 ...
In this essay, the author
- Analyzes how john keats's personal life experiences directly affect the topic of his poetry. he was diagnosed with tb and unable to marry his fiancée.
- Analyzes how john keats's illness caused him to write about his unfulfillment as a writer. he laments that he will never reach his full potential or achieve fame.
- Analyzes how keats tries to escape reality by writing poems that end with a somber realization of actuality.
- Analyzes how keats used his background to communicate his feelings through his poetry's topics. jane austen and charles dickinson used their personal experiences to make beautiful works of art.
- Analyzes how keats uses his family and personal tragedy as inspiration to convey his love and struggles.
- Explains that allen, janet, arthur n. applebee, and jim burke wrote "the flowering of romanticism."
1547 wordsRead More - Analysis Of Ode On A Grecian Urn By John Keatsanalytical essayAn “Ode on a Grecian Urn” by John Keats is one of five great odes, characterized by great technical difficulty. The speaker, presumably Keats, addresses an “unravish’d bride,” which is the first of many figurative language techniques used in the ode, in five stanzas, each stanza complete with a separate subject. It is assumed that Keats was diagnosed with tuberculosis as he was composing this poem, which can explain the interest with immortality throughout the narrative. The structure Keats crafts along with his usage of figurative language allows for the overall theme of the poem to be presented; however, Keats usage of paradoxes implies a dual theme with several lines of his ode, which is the reason as to why there are several interpretations
In this essay, the author
- Analyzes how john keats' "ode on a grecian urn" is one of five great odes, characterized by great technical difficulty. the speaker addresses an "unravish'd bride," which is the first of many figurative language techniques.
- Analyzes how keats structures his poem to combine the quatrain of shakespearean sonnets with the petrarchan sestet, implying that he is breaking free of traditional poetic styles.
- Analyzes how the first four lines contain three consecutive metaphors: "bride of quietness," "foster-child of silence and slow time" and "sylvan historian."
- Analyzes how keats sets up the last six lines of the first stanza to contain many paradoxes: the urn is depicting activities full of motion and sound.
- Analyzes how keats uses apostrophe, which is the direct address of inanimate objects, in the second stanza of the poem. grief is a painful result of love, and there is no cause for grief if they are never able to move forward.
- Analyzes how keats delineates a hierarchy between symbols in lines twenty-one through thirty. the shift in tone contributes to the speaker’s apparent understanding of the urn's message.
- Explains that the final couplet has been interpreted many different ways, and is known as being "exhaustively explicated passages of poetry in the language."
977 wordsRead More