Spirit of movement in Keats's Endymion
John Keats believed - and he did
actually - he consummated the dignity of the subject he deals with and
the splendour of what pictures. Endymion is the peak of his that kind of
achievement
Very early in life, Keats's observation made him realize unless
delivered in words of power and tone, celebrating the triumphant
occasions such as impressive words in contemporary poems could distract
vocabulary. He struggled to come to terms with languages of real life
which being colloquial was too risky for poetry. The wide span of poetry
he embarked upon was a cross between his thoughts ranging from truth
felicity.
Keat's enthusiasm on Greek mythology touched many themes of his later
poetry. But his sketches of the seasons and their glorious splendour
gripped in the colouring of his impressions. At times he used the
language of the painter seeped in the spirit of their movement.
'I stood tip-toe upon a little hill,
The air was cooling, and so very still.
That the sweet buds which with a modest pride
Pull droopingly, in slanting curves aside.
Their scantly leaved, and finely tapering stem
Had not yet lost those starry diadems'...
- I stood tip-toe upon a little hill
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John Keats, always a gentle pensive poet |
In writing his famous Endymion, Keats was not making an allegory. To
outline his long poem that is divided into four books, he used a legend.
The four short books correspond with the four elements such as water,
fire, under-sea water and air.
These typify natural beauty, the mysteries of the earth, the secrets
of death and spiritual freedom and satisfaction. The first idea is the
poet's imagination while the other three concern with the state of the
mind. He search for truth rather than as a psychologist or prophet. But
the inner meaning of Endymion is open to everlasting discussion.
Keats treats his feminine characters in superficial and unworthy
elements. It was Keats himself who knew the incidental beauties of
Endymion and how its life really shines. He considered altogether
undeniably the asserting in luxurious poetry that he conveyed in
Endymion in a work rather disorderly allowing the reader to use his own
intellectuality to understand and digest the mix-up of this rather
complicated garland of verses.
'A thing of beauty is a joy for ever,
Its loveliness increases; it will never
Pass in to nothingness; but still will keep
A bower quiet for us, and a sleep
Full of sweet dreams, and health, and quiet breathing'...
- Book 1
Keats believed that he learnt the dignity of subject and splendour of
vision. It made his poetry fullsome and created and intimacy between
this finer thinking.
He wrote in simple language that was know to the people of his era.
Take a quick look at Book II of Endymion, where he pleads for love;
'Here at, she vanished from Endymion's gaze,
Who brooded o'er the water in amaze
The dashing found pour'd on, and were its pool
Lay, half asleep, in grass and rushes cool;
Quick waterflies and gnats were sporting still
And fish were dimpling, as if good nor ill'...
- Book 11
The ardent Keats devoted most of his young life to literary
situations from which it diverse aspects made him stand apart even from
Wordsworth though twenty three years younger than Wordsworth as well as
eleven years younger than Leigh Hunt. These are reflected in book three
and book four of Endymion. He simply sails through life and her vigour
in Endymion. Apart from the seriousness of Endymion, the poem I cherish
most is beautiful, lyrical La Belle Dame Sans Merci written in 1820 that
brings into one's mind the lyricism of Wordsworth.
'O what can all thee, Knight-at-arms,
Alone and palely loitering
The sedge has withered from the lake
And no birds sing...
I see a lily on thy brow
With anguish moist and fever dew
And on thy cheek a fading rose
Fast withereth too...
I met a lady in the meads
Full beautiful, a fairy's child
Her hair was long, her foot was light
And her eyes were wild...
The genius that he was, Keats wrote on almost all subjects using his
poems, lyrics, songs and sonnets to pay homage to the Lord's creations.
Had he lived beyond his twenty six years, he would have surpassed each
and every English poet including Shakespeare.
John Keats (1795-1821) was born to a modest family with good
Christian values and faced anguish at the early deaths of his parents
unaware that he too would die very young.
He was downed by consumption and agonized by a hopeless and failed
romance. He died young in 1821. The first volume of poems published in
1817 were notable for the presence of an adolescent, fumbling poet
lacking in complexity and realism for which he became famous later. The
First Volume was triggered by anxieties whether or not to be a poet of
the future.
Between the Odes (April/May) 1819 and Endymion, Keats was
astonishingly and gloriously transformed into a near-genius. He matured
in mind and concept, advancing towards deeply reflective dimension of
human experience. In Odes, he gives us the most of his inner self as
that of accomplished artist. The poems are colourful and heady. Take for
example, Ode To a Nightingale which embodies the free romantic spirit of
the times and is deeply sensuous, passionate, and expressive.
The solace of Romance is traded for the solace of Art in Ode on a
Grecian Urn. His writing reached a mature ripeness along with sensuous
imagery that blended with each other in form and character. Hyperion
(1819-20) are two unfinished poems relating to the ideal, celestial
revolutions of pagan mythology which is a fragment marked by an austere
Miltonic beauty. Scholars and researchers say, had Hyperion seen the day
before Keats passed away, it would have even surpassed Endymion.
'Away, away; for I will fly to thee
Not charioted by a Bacchus and his pards.
But on the viewless wings of Poesy,
Though the dull brain perplexes and retards
Already with thee; tender in 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 from heaven is with the breezes blown
Through verdurous glooms and winding mossy ways'....
- Ode to a nightingale |
