DOCSLIB.ORG

The Odes of John Keats: a Critical Assessment Ghadah

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
The Odes of John Keats: a Critical Assessment Ghadah THE ODES OF JOHN KEATS: A CRITICAL ASSESSMENT GHADAH BAKR MARIE To The Unforgettable Memory of my dear father and Mother Thanks to: Many thanks to all the professors with whom I had correspondence through writing the book and I am pleased to mention some of them-Professor Kenneth Muir, Professor Stuart M. Sperry, Professor Ronald A. Sharp, and Professor David A. Kent. They have provided me with a number of books and articles, in addition to their own views on different aspects of Keats's odes. Also, I like to thank my family for the continuous encouragement I received. An endless gratitude I owe to my dear sister, Dr. Hanan Bakr, for her kind help in providing me with up-to-date books on Keats, in addition to her dear advice. A great help was also received from my dear brother, Dr. Siddeeq Bakr. Contents Chapter Page Interlocution 1-7 Chapter One: The Irregular English Ode 8-27 and Keats: A Historical Survey Chapter Two: The Early Odes 28-46 Chapter Three: The Major Odes: 47-68 A Unified Sequence! Chapter Four: Sensation and Thought in 69-89 the Major Odes Chapter Five: Imagery Structure of the 90-128 Major Odes Chapter Six: Thematic Structure of the 129-141 Major Odes Conclusion 142-144 Bibliography of Works Cited 145-159 Introduction This book aims at a discussion of the major odes of John Keats – "Ode to Psyche", "Ode to a Nightingale", "Ode on a Grecian Urn", "Ode on Melancholy", "Ode on Indolence" and "To Autumn". Points of view of many critics on these odes are surveyed. The thesis contains an introduction, six chapters, and a conclusion. The introduction contains a hypothesis of this book, its aim, the data and method used. Other works on the same field are also mentioned. Chapter One is a historical introduction to the "Ode" as a genre. It presents two contradictory opinions concerning Keats's handling of the "Ode". The first opinion is that Keats's odes are but a developed stage of his experiments with the "sonnet" form. The second opinion presents the notion that Keats used the "Ode" as a literary genre as used by the English poets, principally by Thomas Gray, who influenced Keats at the beginning of his literary career. 1 Chapter Two tackles the controversy around some of Keats's poems – "Ode to Apollo", the four lyric interludes of Endymion: "To Pan", "To Neptune", "To Sorrow", and "To Diana"; "Lines on Seeing a Lock of Milton's Hair"; and "Ode to May". These poems are regarded by some critics as early odes. They have features of the irregular English ode. Other critics, however, reject some or all of these poems as early odes. Chapter Three discusses the debate on Keats's critics of whether the major odes form a unified sequence or not. Some critics believe they form a sequential pattern; others assert that they form a unity; a third group of critics read and assess the odes as individual poems. Chapter Four discusses another critical issue, that of sensation and thought in John Keats, and their role in shaping the major odes. Many points of view on both sides are stated here. Essentially, sensation proved its predominance, in spite of the fact that there is development from sensation to thought in his poetry. Chapter Five is about Keats's skillful use of imaging in the major odes-especially sensory imagery which established Keats's fame as a great Romantic poet of sensation. 2 Chapter Six explores the structure of each ode as complementary to theme. Each of the major odes has specific type of structure. In all these odes structure has a firm relation with theme. The conclusion recalls the main issues in the book and shows Keats as a great poet of sensation whose fame is of permanent value. Also, it sums up my points of view on each issue. Keats's Odes have attracted, and still attract, the attention of critics since their first publication. A large amount of critical analyses of the odes has accumulated, for they are regarded the peak of Keats's poetic life. Although written when Keats was barely twenty-five, they proved his poetic genius. His literary life span is only about five years and it is during the period from April to September 1819 that he wrote the odes. Their intrinsic literary value and their relation to Keats's poetic achievement are great. Hence, critics have investigated these odes extensively. Accordingly, each study of the odes tackles certain aspects, and thus many points of view are given. This book is another attempt to re-evaluate the odes. This study aims at presenting the main aspects of the major odes. It, first of all, discusses the issue whether 3 Keats's odes are the result of his experiments in both the sonnet-sequence and the narrative pomes, or whether they fit in the traditional pattern of the irregular English ode. It, then, tackles the question whether these odes do or do not form a unified sequence. The study also states the sensation – thought argument on Keats's odes. The functions of imagery and structure in these poems are salso discussed here. The six major odes of Keats form the main data of this study. In one chapter reference is made to some of the poems which are regarded as "early odes". Allusions are made to Milton's "Nativity Ode", Collins' and Gray's Pindaric Odes, References to Keats's letters are also made in relation to his odes. Some critics associate the odes with Keats's personal life; others study the odes in relation to other poems of the poet – especially the narrative ones and those written just before the odes. Another approach is to read the odes in relation to one another and to Keats's letters. Also, there are studies which emphasize the psychological state of the poet, that is, his mood when writing the odes. Other studies conduct a critical analysis of the odes as independent works of art. This study stands close to this last method. 4 Many books and articles are devoted to the study of Keats's odes. Among the books, Robert Giting's John Keats: The Living Year (London: Heincman, 1954) is a biographical study of the odes. Jack Stillinger's edition of Twentieth Century Interpolations of Keats's Odes (Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey: Prentice-Hall, 1968) contains critical interpretations of the odes as personal view points of Keats's modern critics. In his The Odes of John Keats and their Earliest Known Manuscripts (London: Heincman, 1970) Robret Gittings gives an account of all the drafts of the odes Keats first wrote. G. S. Fraser's edition of John Keats, Odes: A Casebook (London: Macmillan, 1970) cantinas sound and significant articles on the odes. Helen Vendler's recent book, The Odes of John Keats (Cambridge, Mass: Harvard, 1983) argues that Keats's odes can be read as a sequence. She tries to enforce her claim partly by using "image-transformation device in the odes. In addition to these books there is a large number of articles an single odes. Here are some of the most significant ones: on the "Ode to Psyche", L. M. Jones's "The 'Ode to Psyche': An Allegorical Introduction to Keats's Great Odes" in the Keats-Shelley Memorial, No. 9 (1958) celebrates the ode as a starting-pint towards a better 5 way of writing the other odes. Another article is L. Waldoff's "The Theme of Mutability in the 'Ode to Psyche'" in PMLA, 92. No. 3 (May 1977) which tackles the "change" theme as the moving agent in the poem. On the Nightingale Ode, the most famous article is that of Rich arch Harter Fogle, "Keats's 'Ode to a Nightingale'" in PMLA, 68, No. 1 (March 1953) which gives a full account of the ode: another is that of Y. J. Lams, "Ruth, Milton, and Keats's 'Ode to a Nightingale'" in MLQ, 34. No. 4 (December 1973), which, shows Milton's influence on Keats in this ode. "Ode on a Grecian Urn" occupies, among the other ode, the major part of criticism. Among the standard articles on the ode are those of J. D. Wigod, "Keats's Ideal in the Ode on a Grecian Urn'" in PMLA, 72, No. 1 (March 1957). This article discusses one of Keats' themes – that of the actual against the ideal, in relation to the ode. Another article as by J. O'Rourke, "Persona and Voice in the 'Ode on a Grecian Urn'" in Studies in Romanticism, 26, No. 1 (Spring 1987). O'Rourke handles "Silence" as developed in the ode. The last ode, "To Autumn", also has a large number of critical articles devoted to it. Among these are Michael Lillgate's "Keats: 'To Autumn'" in Notes on Literature, No. 5 (1960) in which he traces the development of the ode in terms of thematic 6 growth: Patrick Swinden in "John Keats: 'To Autumn'", Critical Quarterly, 20, No. 4 (Winter 1978) ascribes the poem's optimistic mood to the fact that Keats never mentions the dead leaves usually seen in autumn. Other materials on the odes are found in books dealing with Keats's poetry in general. Such books are by famous critics on Keats – such as K. Muir, W. J. Bate H. W. Garrod, P. Gittings, I. Jack, E. Wasserman, B. Blackstone. J. Ricks, S. M. Spery, Sperry, M., R. Ridley, and E. Mayhead. 7 The ode is a classical genre, with its roots in English poetry that go back to the Renaissance.
Load more

Recommended publications
  • Representation of Natural World in Keats‟S “Ode to a Nightingale”
    International Journal of Engineering Applied Sciences and Technology, 2019 Vol. 3, Issue 11, ISSN No. 2455-2143, Pages 53-61 Published Online March 2019 in IJEAST (http://www.ijeast.com) REPRESENTATION OF NATURAL WORLD IN KEATS‟S “ODE TO A NIGHTINGALE” Lok Raj Sharma Associate Professor of English Head of Faculty of Education Makawanpur Multiple Campus, Hetauda, Nepal Abstract - The prime objective of this article Nature carries a great symbolic significance is to explore the representations of the natural in creative writings. world as presented in one of the famous odes “Ode to a Nightingale" is a romantic poem of Keats‟s “Ode to a Nightingale” published composed by John Keats (1795-1821), who in 1819. This paper seeks to analyze this ode was a great romantic poet. “Ode to a from the Ecocritical Perspective which deals Nightingale" is one of the most highly with the study of man's relationships with his admired regular odes in English literature. It physical environment along with his reveals Keats's keen imaginative faculty, perception and conception of it. This article heightened sensibility and those aesthetic concludes that nature plays a very prominent qualities for which Keats is much well- role to generate sheer pleasure in man. The known. He was one of the greatest lovers and nature is represented as an active force, admirers of nature. His love of nature was whereas persons are represented as positively solely sumptuous and he cherished the beneficialized entities. This article is expected gorgeous sights and scenes of nature. to be significant to those who are involved in The article writer has attempted to teaching and learning ecocriticism.
    [Show full text]
  • Editor's Introduction
    Editor’s Introduction: Scansion DAVID NOWELL SMITH _______________________ I would like to start from an intuition.1 This might seem an abuse of editorial privilege, and indeed might strike one as more generally tendentious: is an issue on ‘scansion’ the place for discussing one’s intuitions at all? For a start, it contravenes quite brazenly the strict separation between description and performance, lain down most powerfully by John Hollander well over half a century ago. For Hollander, a ‘descriptive’ system of scansion would aim at presenting schematically the whole ‘musical’ structure of a poem, whether this consists, in any particular case, of the prosodic features of the language in which it is written, the arrangement of elements completely foreign to that language (syllable counting in English verse for example), or even the arrangement of type on a page. A performative system of scansion, on the other hand, would present a series of rules governing a locutionary reading of a particular poem, before a real or implied audience. It would end up by describing not the poem itself, but the unstated canons of taste behind the rules. Performative systems of scansion, disguised as descriptive ones, have composed all but a few of the metrical studies of the past. Their subjectivity is far more treacherous than even that of reading poems into oscilloscopes and claiming that the image produced describes, or even is, the true poem.2 1 My great thanks to Ewan Jones on his comments on an earlier draft of this introduction. 2 John Hollander, ‘The Music of Poetry’, The Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism vol.
    [Show full text]
  • Rubai (Quatrain) As a Classical Form of Poetry in Persian Literature
    INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF RESEARCH CULTURE SOCIETY ISSN: 2456-6683 Volume - 2, Issue - 4, Apr – 2018 UGC Approved Monthly, Peer-Reviewed, Refereed, Indexed Journal Impact Factor: 3.449 Publication Date: 30/04/2018 Rubai (Quatrain) as a Classical Form of Poetry in Persian Literature Ms. Mina Qarizada Lecturer in Samangan Higher Education, Samangan, Afghanistan Master of Arts in English, Department of English Lovely Professional University, Punjab, India Email – [email protected] Abstract: Studying literature, including poetry and prose writing, in Afghanistan is very significant. Poetry provides some remarkable historical, cultural, and geographical facts and its literary legacy of a particular country. Understanding the poetic forms is important in order to understand the themes and the styles of the poetry of the poets. All the Persian poets in some points of the time composed in the Rubai form which is very common till now among the past and present generation across Afghanistan. This paper is an overview of Rubai as a classical form of Poetry in Persian Literature. Rubai has its significant role in the society with different stylistic and themes related to the cultural, social, political, and gender based issues. The key features of Rubai are to be eloquent, spontaneous and ingenious. In a Rubai the first part is the introduction which is the first three lines that is the sublime for the fourth line of the poem. It represents the idea if sublet, pithy and clever. It also represents the poets’ literary works, poetic themes, styles, and visions. Key Words: Rubai, Classic, Poetry, Persian, Literature, Quatrain, 1. INTRODUCTION: Widespread geography of Persian speakers during the past centuries in the history of Afghanistan like many other countries, it can be seen and felt that only great men were trained in the fields of art and literature.
    [Show full text]
  • "The Clam-Digger: Capitol Island": a Robinson Sonnet Recovered
    Colby Quarterly Volume 10 Issue 8 December Article 7 December 1974 "The Clam-Digger: Capitol Island": A Robinson Sonnet Recovered Richard Cary Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.colby.edu/cq Recommended Citation Colby Library Quarterly, series 10, no.8, December 1974, p.505-512 This Article is brought to you for free and open access by Digital Commons @ Colby. It has been accepted for inclusion in Colby Quarterly by an authorized editor of Digital Commons @ Colby. Cary: "The Clam-Digger: Capitol Island": A Robinson Sonnet Recovered Colby Library Quarterly 505 "THE CLAM-DIGGER: CAPITOL ISLAND": A ROBINSON SONNET RE,C'OVE,RED By RICHARD CARY n page 2 of The Reporter Monthly for April 26, 1890 ap­ O pears the following sonnet by Edwin Arlington Robinson not yet attributed to him in any bibliography or checklist. THE CLAM-DIGGER CAPITOL ISLAND There is a garden in a shallow cove Planted by Neptune centuries ago, Which Ocean covers with a thin, flat flow, Then falling, leaves the sun to gleam above Those oozy lives (which reasoning mortals love) Reposed in slimy silence far below The shell-strewn desert, while their virtues grow, And over them the doughty diggers rove. Then awful in his boots the King appears, With facile fork and basket at his side; Straight for the watery bound the master steers, Where giant holes lie scattered far and wide; And plays the devil with his bubbling dears All through the bounteous, ottoitic tide. R. In compiling his sturdy Bibliography 0/ Edwin Arlington Robinson (New Haven, 1936), Charles Beecher Hogan did record and reprint two other primigenial poems from this four­ page literary supplement of the Kennebec Reporter: "Thalia," March 29, 1890, as Robinson's first known publication of verse; "The Galley Race," May 31, 1890, as his second (at this point clearly to be reclassified third).
    [Show full text]
  • Jennifer Rushworth
    Jennifer Rushworth Petrarch’s French Fortunes: negotiating the relationship between poet, place, and identity in the sixteenth and nineteenth centuries This article reconsiders Petrarch’s French afterlife by juxtaposing a time of long-recognised Petrarchism — the sixteenth century — with a less familiar and more modern Petrarchist age, the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. Of particular interest is how French writers from both periods understand and represent Petrarch’s associations with place. This variously proposed, geographically defined identity is in turn regional (Tuscan/Provençal) and national (Italian/French), located by river (Arno/Sorgue) and city (Florence/Avignon). I argue that sixteenth-century poets stress Petrarch’s foreignness, thereby keeping him at a safe distance, whereas later writers embrace Petrarch as French, drawing the poet closer to (their) home. The medieval Italian poet Francesco Petrarca (known in English as Petrarch, in French as Pétrarque) is the author of many works in Latin and in Italian, in poetry and in prose (for the most complete and accessible account, see Kirkham and Maggi). Since the sixteenth century, however, his fame has resided in one particular vernacular form: the sonnet. In his poetic collection Rerum vulgarium fragmenta, more commonly and simply known as the Canzoniere, 317 of the total 366 are sonnets. These poems reflect on the experience of love and later of grief, centred on the poet’s beloved Laura, and have been so often imitated by later poets as to have given rise to a poetic movement named after the poet: Petrarchism. In the words of Jonathan Culler, “Petrarch’s Canzoniere established a grammar for the European love lyric: a set of tropes, images, oppositions (fire and ice), and typical scenarios that permitted generations of poets throughout Europe to exercise their ingenuity in the construction of love sonnets” (69).
    [Show full text]
  • The Song of Keats's Nightingale
    The Oswald Review: An International Journal of Undergraduate Research and Criticism in the Discipline of English Volume 10 | Issue 1 Article 3 2008 Catalyst and Inhibitor: The onS g of Keats’s Nightingale Jonathan Krol John Carroll University University Heights, Ohio Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarcommons.sc.edu/tor Part of the Literature in English, Anglophone outside British Isles and North America Commons, and the Literature in English, British Isles Commons Recommended Citation Krol, Jonathan (2008) "Catalyst and Inhibitor: The onS g of Keats’s Nightingale," The Oswald Review: An International Journal of Undergraduate Research and Criticism in the Discipline of English: Vol. 10 : Iss. 1 , Article 3. Available at: https://scholarcommons.sc.edu/tor/vol10/iss1/3 This Article is brought to you by the College of Humanities and Social Sciences at Scholar Commons. It has been accepted for inclusion in The sO wald Review: An International Journal of Undergraduate Research and Criticism in the Discipline of English by an authorized editor of Scholar Commons. For more information, please contact [email protected]. Catalyst and Inhibitor: The onS g of Keats’s Nightingale Keywords John Keats, Ode to a Nightingale, Romantic Era literature This article is available in The sO wald Review: An International Journal of Undergraduate Research and Criticism in the Discipline of English: https://scholarcommons.sc.edu/tor/vol10/iss1/3 1 Catalyst and Inhibitor: The Song of Keats’s Nightingale Jonathan Krol John Carroll University University Heights, Ohio n his poem “Ode to a Nightingale,” John Keats Idemonstrates a desire to leave the earthly world behind in hopes of unifying with the elusive bird in a fleeting, fantastical world.
    [Show full text]
  • English 201 Major British Authors Harris Reading Guide: Forms There
    English 201 Major British Authors Harris Reading Guide: Forms There are two general forms we will concern ourselves with: verse and prose. Verse is metered, prose is not. Poetry is a genre, or type (from the Latin genus, meaning kind or race; a category). Other genres include drama, fiction, biography, etc. POETRY. Poetry is described formally by its foot, line, and stanza. 1. Foot. Iambic, trochaic, dactylic, etc. 2. Line. Monometer, dimeter, trimeter, tetramerter, Alexandrine, etc. 3. Stanza. Sonnet, ballad, elegy, sestet, couplet, etc. Each of these designations may give rise to a particular tradition; for example, the sonnet, which gives rise to famous sequences, such as those of Shakespeare. The following list is taken from entries in Lewis Turco, The New Book of Forms (Univ. Press of New England, 1986). Acrostic. First letters of first lines read vertically spell something. Alcaic. (Greek) acephalous iamb, followed by two trochees and two dactyls (x2), then acephalous iamb and four trochees (x1), then two dactyls and two trochees. Alexandrine. A line of iambic hexameter. Ballad. Any meter, any rhyme; stanza usually a4b3c4b3. Think Bob Dylan. Ballade. French. Line usually 8-10 syllables; stanza of 28 lines, divided into 3 octaves and 1 quatrain, called the envoy. The last line of each stanza is the refrain. Versions include Ballade supreme, chant royal, and huitaine. Bob and Wheel. English form. Stanza is a quintet; the fifth line is enjambed, and is continued by the first line of the next stanza, usually shorter, which rhymes with lines 3 and 5. Example is Sir Gawain and the Green Knight.
    [Show full text]
  • A Close Look at Two Poems by Richard Wilbur
    Ouachita Baptist University Scholarly Commons @ Ouachita Honors Theses Carl Goodson Honors Program 4-16-1983 A Close Look at Two Poems by Richard Wilbur Jay Curlin Ouachita Baptist University Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarlycommons.obu.edu/honors_theses Part of the Comparative Literature Commons, and the Poetry Commons Recommended Citation Curlin, Jay, "A Close Look at Two Poems by Richard Wilbur" (1983). Honors Theses. 209. https://scholarlycommons.obu.edu/honors_theses/209 This Thesis is brought to you for free and open access by the Carl Goodson Honors Program at Scholarly Commons @ Ouachita. It has been accepted for inclusion in Honors Theses by an authorized administrator of Scholarly Commons @ Ouachita. For more information, please contact [email protected]. A CLOSE LOOK AT TWO POEMS BY RICHARD WILBUR Jay Curlin Submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements of the University Honors Program Ouachita Baptist University The Department of English Independent Study Project Dr. John Wink Dr. Susan Wink Dr. Herman Sandford 16 April 1983 INTRODUCTION For the past three semesters, I have had the pleasure of studying the techniques of prosody under the tutelage of Dr. John Wink. In this study, I have read a large amount of poetry and have studied several books on prosody, the most influential of which was Poetic Meter and Poetic Form by Paul Fussell. This splendid book increased vastly my knowledge of poetry. and through it and other books, I became a much more sensitive, intelligent reader of poems. The problem with my study came when I tried to decide how to in­ corporate what I had learned into a scholarly paper, for it seemed that any attempt.to do so would result in the mere parroting of the words of Paul Fussell and others.
    [Show full text]
  • Classroom Lessons
    Curriculum Supplement for Selected Poems from Language for a New Century: Contemporary Poetry from the Middle East, Asia, and Beyond Focusing on poetry from Afghanistan, Tibet, Kurdistan, Kashmir, Sudan, Japan, Korea, and China Compiled by Ravi Shankar [email protected] For additional resources on International Studies, contact Jamie Bender, Outreach Coordinator, University of Chicago Center for International Studies, at [email protected]. For additional resources on East Asia, contact Sarah Arehart, Outreach Coordinator, University of Chicago Center for East Asian Studies, at [email protected] Afghanistan A. Read Nadia Anjuman’s “The Silenced” from Language for a New Century: Contemporary Poetry from Asia, the Middle East & Beyond (W.W. Norton & Co.): “The Silenced” by Nadia Anjuman I have no desire for talking, my tongue is tied up. Now that I am abhorred by my time, do I sing or not? What could I say about honey, when my mouth is as bitter as poison. Alas! The group of tyrants have muffled my mouth. This corner of imprisonment, grief, failure and regrets— I was born for nothing that my mouth should stay sealed. I know O! my heart, It is springtime and the time for joy. What could I, a bound bird, do without flight. Although, I have been silent for long, I have not forgotten to sing, Because my songs whispered in the solitude of my heart. Oh, I will love the day when I break out of this cage, Escape this solitary exile and sing wildly. I am not that weak willow twisted by every breeze. I am an Afghan girl and known to the whole world.
    [Show full text]
  • Dialogical Odes by John Keats: Mythologically Revisited
    ISSN 1799-2591 Theory and Practice in Language Studies, Vol. 4, No. 8, pp. 1730-1734, August 2014 © 2014 ACADEMY PUBLISHER Manufactured in Finland. doi:10.4304/tpls.4.8.1730-1734 Dialogical Odes by John Keats: Mythologically Revisited Somayyeh Hashemi Department of English, Tabriz Branch, Islamic Azad University, Tabriz, Iran Bahram Kazemian Department of English, Tabriz Branch, Islamic Azad University, Tabriz, Iran Abstract—This paper, using Mikhail Bakhtin’s theory of dialogism tries to investigate the indications of dialogic voice in Odes by John Keats. Indeed this study goes through the dialogic reading of ‘Ode to a Nightingale’, ‘Ode on a Grecian Urn’, ‘Ode to Psyche’, and ‘Ode on Melancholy’, considering mythological outlooks. Analyzing Keats’s odes through dialogical perspective may reveal that Keats plays a role of an involved and social poet of his own time. Moreover, Keats embraces the world of fancy and imagination to free himself from sufferings of his society. Keats’ odes are influenced by expression of pain-joy reality by which he builds up a dialogue with readers trying to display his own political and social engagement. Applying various kinds of mythological elements and figures within the odes may disclose Keats’s historical response and reaction toward a conflicted society and human grieves in general. Index Terms—Bakhtinian dialogism, Keats’ Odes, pain, pleasure, mythology I. INTRODUCTION John Keats as one of the major poets of Romanticism, composed multiple popular poems and his odes gained the most attention of them. Going through his odes, it appears to the reader that Keats attempts to deal with different interpretation of pain and pleasure concepts.
    [Show full text]
  • “Ode on a Grecian Urn” and Go Down, Moses
    "ODE ON A GRECIA N URN" AND GO DOWN, MOSES: AN INTERTEXTUAL INQUIRY IN TO JOHN KEATS AND WILLIAM FAU LKNE Rl Jose Roberto O'Shea Universidade Federal de Santa Catarina The existence of an artistic legacy with which the artist is bound to come to terms has preoccupied a number of individ uals througho ut the history of art, and whe ther such legacy is mainly a burden or a blessin g-or both-rem ain s a controversial issue. In litera ture, this discussion has centered mainly around the notion of intertextuality and the study of sources and influences. Many critical theorists, disparate in time and point of view, have addressed the issue. Among othe rs, Waiter Jackson Bate, in The Burden of the Past and the English Poet (1970), Harold Bloom, in The Anxiety of Influence (1973) and in Poetry and Repression (1975), Jacqu es Derrida, in "Structure, Sign and Play in Th e Discourse of the Human Sciences" (1966) and in Of Grammatology (1967), and Julia Kristeva, in Semi6tica do Romance (trans . 1977), have attemp ted to construct or deconstruct a theoretical apparatus regarding the problem of in ter textuali ty. In the Int roduction to his interesting ly titled Books Speaking to Books, William T. Stafford remarks that he has been "listening to books speak to books for many years" (5), and he argues tha t, 1 All par enthetical documen tatio n, overall m echanics, as well as list of w ork s cited her ein com ply with the MLA Sty le Manual, by Walter S.
    [Show full text]
  • John Keats 1 John Keats
    John Keats 1 John Keats John Keats Portrait of John Keats by William Hilton. National Portrait Gallery, London Born 31 October 1795 Moorgate, London, England Died 23 February 1821 (aged 25) Rome, Italy Occupation Poet Alma mater King's College London Literary movement Romanticism John Keats (/ˈkiːts/; 31 October 1795 – 23 February 1821) was an English Romantic poet. He was one of the main figures of the second generation of Romantic poets along with Lord Byron and Percy Bysshe Shelley, despite his work only having been in publication for four years before his death.[1] Although his poems were not generally well received by critics during his life, his reputation grew after his death, so that by the end of the 19th century he had become one of the most beloved of all English poets. He had a significant influence on a diverse range of poets and writers. Jorge Luis Borges stated that his first encounter with Keats was the most significant literary experience of his life.[2] The poetry of Keats is characterised by sensual imagery, most notably in the series of odes. Today his poems and letters are some of the most popular and most analysed in English literature. Biography Early life John Keats was born in Moorgate, London, on 31 October 1795, to Thomas and Frances Jennings Keats. There is no clear evidence of his exact birthplace.[3] Although Keats and his family seem to have marked his birthday on 29 October, baptism records give the date as the 31st.[4] He was the eldest of four surviving children; his younger siblings were George (1797–1841), Thomas (1799–1818), and Frances Mary "Fanny" (1803–1889) who eventually married Spanish author Valentín Llanos Gutiérrez.[5] Another son was lost in infancy.
    [Show full text]