Auden: Dear though the Night is Gone: Love Poem by Auden: Summary

This poem, surely a serious one with complications, is undoubtedly very tough for the readers with some single interpretation to carry on. One can say it draws a picture of prostitution; someone can figure it out as the love story of the poet, which was a failure. Moreover, some new interpretations may come into play too. 
However, to summarize the poem as a whole with some definite idea is difficult. Still, if you read the poem carefully, you will come through the ideas of faith, revelation, illusion, and disillusion etc. too. The poet describes of a night spent with someone in a place where there are other couples too. (It might lead a mind to think of some brothel.) Moreover, other couples have hostile eyes for this couple which poet forms with his beloved/partner. The poet and his beloved/partner are making love and the other couples are sad, inactive, though in each other's arms. This situation might take us back to the 'wasteland' of Eliot where 'exploring hands encounter no defence.'
The situation in the poem is dense and sad. Love has been not at all a pleasure. 
The last part/stanza of the poem is very significant and most complicated. It's true that I am also unable to find something definite in that. However, we must make some ideas about the lines. So, the poet seems (to me) making a question to himself. Was he trying to taste the depth of love? Was he not ready to indulge in physical contact? 'That you then, unabashed, did what I never wished,' this line raises questions of dispute in the poem. Whom is he addressing to? To himself, or to his beloved/partner? 
One idea arises and that veers the other idea. 
Or it was some truth that the poet finds through the course of the night and falls aside of the conventional way? 

Dickens as Social Reformist: Was Dickens a Reformer?

Dickens as a Social Reformist

Victorian age is very important for the English country in many ways. She saw the flourishing of industrial revolution; she saw her people engaged in mechanic development; she saw her great sons Adam Smith, Ricardo, Malthus, J. S. Mill etc. imparting new theories to run the prospering economy of England. Moreover, the inventions in the Victorian period made the life of English people very luxurious and comforting. Some developments were meant for the people in general, while most of them were only meant to serve the ends of the rich. Railways, Electric Telegraph etc. were for the welfare of rich as well as poor. While the others like Telephone, Radio, Electricity were only for the people with good possession. Besides these, some major transformation came in existence is the field of education also. With these developments and transformations, where the English society seemed happy and satisfied, there was a class of the “have-nots” who were in search for their existence in the society growing with fast speed.

Dickens, novelist of the Victorian Period England, was highly unsatisfied with these rapid changes in the society. He did not like the interference of mechanic schedule in the life of people. He did not like the exploitation of the poor classes of the people. He did not like the child labour practice. In his novels, we can have the apparent examples of these disliking and hatred. Oliver Twist is a novel that deals with the problems of child labour. One very popular, Hard Times deals with the problems of education, utilitarianism, and unhappy marriage; it throws good light upon these problems and highlights the effects, indeed bad, that a selfish education can bring in life. Louisa does never realize what the meaning of blushing is! Tom does never know what the real education is. The Stone-Lodge represents the English Society that has become stony in the matters of heart and sentiment. Dickens did never like the society that only has the mind to think and not a heart to feel! He wanted a change; he kept trying for this to happen.

Dickens, as a child, himself has faced the situations that were not favourable. He had to face financial problems too. He had, at the soft age of 12, had to work in a shoe-blacking company. This experience, probably, made the idea of the great work Oliver Twist. Dickens says very much in the short sentence in this book, that is:

“The hardest and best-borne trials are those which are never chronicled in any earthly record, and are suffered every day!”

This simple sentence utters the numberless groans of many thousands of people who suffer the pains without any complaint or claim to be recorded! Dickens has a value and understanding for the problems of common and downtrodden.

In his great work, Hard Times, Dickens takes up the life of the poor circus persons and presents to us an ironic picture. He shows sympathy with the poor clown of the circus, Signor Jupe, who escapes from the troupe only to secure a better future to her daughter. The problems of bearing the expense of education is there reflected. Moreover, with this, Dickens adds the problem, rather a robbery that the circus troupe represents. He presents the commercialization of education, as well as he paints the commercialization of the leisure of the people. The phrase “melancholy elephants” adds to our heart a sympathy for the animals who are targeted brutally for the purpose.

Dickens, except these, takes up the problem of unhappy marriage in the Victorian society. For instance, in Hard Times, the marriage of Stephen Blackpool represents the agony of all the suffering husbands or wives. He is forced to live with or in with the fear of his drunkard wife who now and then comes to disturb his life and house. When Stephen goes for some advice from the master Bounderby, he aids to his pains only with the remark:

“Now I tell you what! (said Mr Bounderby, putting his hands in his pocket.) there is such a law…”

“But it’s not for you at all. It costs money. It costs a mint of money.”

Besides these, Dickens is undoubtedly a social reformist. He takes up the causes of the middle class people, and not as a detached novelist, but as one of those very people. To quote Cazamian, 

“No novelist before dickens has treated the lower middle classes on such broad lines or in so frank a way. He studies them not as a detached, superior kind of observer, but as one on their own level; a sympathy, an immediate community of impressions, and, as it were, an instinctive fraternity, thus impregnate his study.”

And further,

“… Such is the permanent foundation of his realism. But below it, in in the inner realms of consciousness, we feel the quivering image, the anguish of soul- debasing poverty.”

Therefore, on our own and upon the studies of these great scholars, we see that Dickens, whole his life, has devotedly worked as a writer whose works are always busy in solving or at least trying to solve the problems of the society. 

Hard Times: A Study of the Theme, Characters, and the Motive

 

Tennyson in his In Memoriam taught the Victorian world the lesson of Soul and tried successfully to pacify his own aching heart. So did the great scholar of that age, Arnold. He escaped with his gypsy and left the world exposed to material pursuits and selfishness. However, Dickens only could do what they could not do; Dickens showed the world the truth- the real figure of life. He tried to bring in what was expelled out from the mechanic life of the Victorian people.

Hard Times, one of the many masterpieces by Dickens, torches the growing utilitarianism in the Victorian society. Moreover, Dickens exposes the commercialization of education, manpower and even the leisure of people in the form circus. However, Dickens, the one ranked next only to Shakespeare in appeal, does not leave the world astray in the dry world of mechanism; he shows the way towards a better life with all the virtues of heart instead of the facts and figures world. For this purpose, Dickens draws the three noble and humble character in his novel- Louisa, Sissy, and the poor fated Rachael. These three ladies are tender heated, affectionate towards goodness and the aesthetic values in life and abhors the selfish people who are in the guise of goodness and welfare. On the other side, there are characters like Mr Gradgrind, Bounderby, M’Choakumchild, Tom and Harthouse. These characters, when unified together, take a pose of storm and are ready to slay the noble and gentle souls, crush them within an eye’s blink with the imposing education, loveless affection, ingratitude and faithlessness, and selfish ends.

When we examine from the beginning, where the innocents are being murdered, we can point that all attempts of blowing the little candles are in vain. Gradgrind, as a man as his name is, is always ready to crush the rose buds under his legs. In his school, in Stone-Lodge, everywhere he is reinforcing the facts and figures theory upon his children Tom and Louisa. His doctrine, however, cannot hold the knots of restriction upon the hearts of children fastened; very soon he finds Tom and Louisa ‘peeping with all might’ the circus act. His facts taste the first defeat:

“Thomas, though I have the fact before me, I find it difficult to believe…”

The tiny hole in the circus camp represents a ray of hope in the life of Louisa, as she very soon finds Sissy in her home to accompany her in the loneliness. Now, the stone man of Stone-Lodge, Gradgrind attempts every possible way to poison the heart of Sissy with facts and figures. Sissy, however, with a single ray of hope in life that a day her father would return, bears everything but keeps herself unchanged. She does not let the venom of dry facts and colourless figures enter inside her heart.

“… to the question, “What is the first principle of this science?” the absurd answer, “To do unto others as I would that they should do unto me.”

Sissy returns the golden rule from the Bible for the questions of science. She only accepts education and does not welcome the ugly selfish knowledge to grind one’s own axe. Here also, the little candle inside the heart of Sissy cannot be blown dark by Gradgrind and Choakumchild. Later, with only hope that Tom can get better position, Louisa, despite her all broken dreams, accepts the bully, Bounderby as her husband. She loves Tom and sacrifices her life almost for his good only! However, during the conversation of marriage proposal by Bounderby, when Gradgrind asks Louisa if she had some secret proposal from anyone else, she very humbly utters:

“… What other proposal can have been made to me? Whom have I seen? Where have I been? What are my heart’s experiences?”

This reply from Louisa exposes all about the dry and emotionless life of the girl at Stone-Lodge. Yet, the ray of hope that her brother could do well, wins over the virgin heart of this innocent lady…

Loveless marriage, wooing of a countryman, Harthouse and the faithlessness of Tom, the brother whom she loves, aids to the growing morbidity of Louisa. She returns back to Stone-Lodge, but only to change the once tender heart of the now stone man to softness once again. Moreover, the ray of hope again comes from the tiny hole, conspicuous in the discourse of Gradgrind and Bounderby.

“… The enlightenment has been painfully forced upon me, and discovery is not mine…”

“I-I had intended to recommend, my dear Bounderby, that you should allow Louisa to remain here on a visit, and be attended by Sissy, who understands her, and in whom she trusts.”

At last, we see that the pride-pyramid of Gradgrind’s facts and figures falls down and accepts its loss near faith, hope and charity. Another, one Rachael, I’d like to quote at last, nurses the mad wife of the thorn and thorn won Stephen Blackpool. Rachael becomes the friend to Sissy. Louisa is nurtured and loved by Sissy and her children grant Louisa the tender love that she lacked. Tom, the faithless brother is forgiven and sent away by the clever Sissy to save the cap of Gradgrind. It is Sissy, the sole solace, who pardons the refuge to everyone trapped in the world of facts and figures. Thus, the candle light horns the triumph over storms and keeps the world warm with a ray of hope from the tiny hole. 

The Demo Essay (The Education System of India)

Education is said to be the basic and essential need of the human beings. In the words of Vivekananda, “Education is the manifestation of perfection that is already within us.” Moreover, it is true and proved that without the education no country can touch the shores of development. Today, in our country India, we are facing a conflict of ideas; and this is the result of the education policy of our country that is baseless to an extent! No student is secure about his future whether he is studying in MBA, BA, and B. Tech or any other programs.

Except these facts, if we consider the basic structure of our education policy, we will find several bitter realities those chide the bombastic boasting of the Indian Government and Indian constitution. We know that the education for the children of six to fourteen is free of cost. However, this promise made in our constitution seems just a joke when we see the poor boys and girls begging in trains, sweeping in the homes of aristocratic families, selling tobaccos and other smoking materials etc. The other much anticipated program of the Indian Government was mid-day-meal policy; it failed in many ways; and the recent massacre were just the most grotesque failure of it! Therefore, instead of boosting the children to go to school, it has done the rather contrary work. No parents will send their children to the school to eat poisonous food, drink poisonous water, and die!

We have other conspicuous loopholes in our education system. Particularly, the most highlighted is the lack of qualified teachers in schools, colleges, and universities. We see daily in the newspapers the humorous news of school inspections and teachers failing to solve the sums of class three or failing to write their names on the blackboard! Who is responsible for this pathetic condition of the education system of the country who was once the ‘guru’ of the world? Indeed, we will look lefts and rights instead of searching for the real culprit; because we know that to an extent, the country people are also responsible for this situation, which is the real headache for us. 

And now, you need to carry on this essay in this way. You have to present the arguments in paragraphs P. All the best, I want to see you doing best. 

A Comparison Between Mathew Arnold and Tennyson

Paradoxically, if we say that Victorian age in the history of England suffered an enjoyment, it will be true to speak thus! The whole country, under the reign of their queen, Queen Victoria (1837-1901), underwent an all-round progress. Mechanically, the country touched the new heights of prosperity. Industrialization on a great scale marked the rise of new business era for England. Moreover, we must remember that this was the age in which England made the grip of dominance stronger in the colonized countries.

However, this growing prosperity and the decaying faith in the existence of supreme divinity did not lure the hearts of the great literary figures of Victorian age. The poets, writing in Victorian age, were in dire need of escaping to the countryside areas in search of peace and solace! John Clare stands as an example of this group of poets, who was a farmer and painted the rural life in his poetry. Another perfect and foremost example of this trend is Mathew Arnold who always remains with his ‘scholar’ in the countryside areas of Oxford and enjoys the company of nature and rustic people. Arnold despises the city life and advises the ‘scholar’ of his imagination and indirectly the fellow citizens to escape:

“But fly our paths, our feverish contacts fly!

 For strong the infection of our mental strife,

 Which, though it gives no bliss, yet spoils rest.”

Another contemporary of Mathew Arnold is Alfred Lord Tennyson. He also writes of the disappearing faith in the existence of God and the increasing interference of enlarging hands of Science and Mechanism in the society. In his protracted elegy, In Memoriam, he expresses the agony of his heart and in a way, the entire Victorian society:

“Our little systems have their day:

  They have their day and cease to be:

  They are but broken lights of thee,

  And thou, O Lord, art more than they.”

We can have the conspicuous glimpse of the conflict prevailed the Victorian age, in the hearts of Victorian people; and we can see the realization that the heart of this great poet, Tennyson, feels. Thus, we can say that the Victorian period saw the prosperity of mechanics and industries, which the governing body and the citizens liked, but the poets of higher spirit and noble soul, felt the coming danger of moral and religious decadence and tried to present their foresight to the society.

Victorian age bears two greatest poets of the English Literature of all time, the first is Alfred Lord Tennyson, and the other is Mathew Arnold. They both are genius on their place. No one can hold the dignity of another. They both enjoy the gift of heavens; they both have the poetic fire; the “Muse” has been very tender to her both sons! Therefore, to make an analogy amid these two great figures of the English Literature is a very difficult task. Still, we can try to exercise our wit to present the qualities and special merits of both of them as a poet. This effort will lead us to make certain perceptions that discriminate the two great poets, their style, their views to art and poetry, and more.

The View towards Art and Poetry:

The first and foremost point that discriminates the great literary figures is undoubtedly the view towards art and poetry; moreover, the two, Arnold and Tennyson are not the exceptions. They are certainly different in their perception about art and poetry, though, they are the representatives of the same age. Both the poets were aware of the falling standards of art in the age of Victorian Flourishing. Amid the topsy-turvy of faith and belief, both the poets had to choose their way different and set a standard of themselves. We have certainly to rank Arnold above to Tennyson in this regard. Arnold was very early to know what the standard of poetry should be; he decided the way of his poetic growth and always moved constantly on that like the Etna. For Arnold, “poetry is the criticism of life under the conditions fixed for such a criticism by the laws of poetic truth and poetic beauty.” Arnold, in his poetic creation, The Buried Life, compiled in Empedocles on Etna and other Poems, announces the weakness and crisis of the Victorian age:

“Alas, is even love too weak
To unlock the heart, and let it speak?
Are even lovers powerless to reveal
To one another what indeed they feel?”

This quote reveals the motive of Arnold and his poetry- only to reveal the truth and unbiased judgment, to announce the society of his time as it is, and to tell the ways of a content and alive life!

Moreover, we have to admit that Arnold knew the ‘poetic truth’ and the ‘poetic beauty’. However, when we have to make a judgment of Tennyson in the regard of his realization of art and poetry, we have a quote made by the great critic, IforEvans that is worth to quote:

 “….. Though Tennyson was charged with sometimes having one eye on the audience and, after he was made laureate, with having both eyes on the Queen.”

This remark says so much about the perception of Tennyson towards poetry. He had in view the audience, and then the Queen. However, it is the masterpiece of Tennyson, In Memoriam, and some other writings indeed, where Tennyson, to an extent, surpasses all the poets of his age or any age in the matter of realization the true meaning of poetry! The very opening line of the longest elegy written hitherto in English, In Memoriam, strikes our conscience with a grand force:

“Strong son of God, immortal Love,”

In this line, we have the mature and learned Tennyson, who enjoys a washed soul and solace after the protracted suffering of the loss of his friend, Arthur Henry Hallam. Tennyson announces in the same elegy:

“I hold it true, whate’er befall;

 I feel it, when I sorrow most;

‘Tis better to have loved and lost

Than never to have loved at all.”

However, if we are compelled and bond to compare the two great poets in this regard, that is, in the realization of the poetry and its motive, we certainly have to rank Arnold above Tennyson; Arnold was quick in realizing, Tennyson was late! Arnold, almost in each of his poems, speaks with the authority of his own propagated theory; Tennyson at the same time fails to follow the rhythm of In Memoriam in all of his poems! Thus, the first and foremost of the distinguishing points, announces Arnold as superior to Tennyson.

Style of Composing Poetry:

In the matter of style, it is indeed tough to fix that who is superior- Arnold or Tennyson. They both enjoy their own way of expressing their great ideas. However, Tennyson has been praised for his beautiful lyricism and Arnold has been charged of “Coldly efficient narrative.” Arnold emphasizes on the grand style of composition, while Tennyson bends towards the charming ways of expressing his ideas in the poems. For instance, if we consider the lines of Tennyson, in the fragment of his poem, The Eagle:

“He clasps the crag with crooked hands;

 Close to the sun in lonely lands,

 Ring’d with the azure world, he stands.”

Here we have the sight animated in front of our eyes; we can see; we can imagine; we can trust the poet of his imagination too. The lyricism is apparently visible. Moreover, the beauty of the lines is unchallenged! Now, let us concentrate on the lines of Mathew Arnold, in his poem, Dover Beach:

“Sophocles long ago
Heard it on the Aegean, and it brought
Into his mind the turbid ebb and flow
Of human misery; we
Find also in the sound a thought,
Hearing it by this distant northern sea.”

After the beautiful expression of the ‘calm sea’, ‘fair moon’, and other sceneries, the poet expresses his great ideas in a fashion suiting to it; in other words, he adds the ‘poetic truth’ and ‘poetic beauty’ to his ‘criticism of life.’ We all know the erudition of the great figure, Mathew Arnold, and in the words of IforEvans, he imparted something ‘permanent and major contribution’ to the English literature with his great prose writings. However, the same critic, IforEvans charges him of being not so great in the matter of being a poet. By and large, we see it in the case of his expression, Arnold is able to perceive great ideas; he is able to impart knowledge and wisdom to his verse; yet, he is not able to make his expression as beautiful as Tennyson!

The Influences on the both Poet: Their General Tendency to Follow

Any poet is not a poet at once; a poet is born and he is lulled amid some certain fancies and tendencies. Every poet has liking for poets of the past, or the contemporary, or a person or people of another areas of art. No poet can pave his was alone in the field of literary production without being affected by some other literary figure. Tennyson and Arnold are not the exceptions. These two great poets also reflect certain impressions of the older poets. Except some occasions, generally, both of the poets were unaffected by the growing mechanism of the Victorian age. We have the example of Locksley Hall where the poet Tennyson finds himself amid the mirage of Victorian bright diadem!

Arnold was in favour of the Ancient Classic masters and always tried to reinforce his verses with a universal message like them. Even in the great essay written by him, The Study of Poetry, Arnold tends to blow the triumph of the Ancient Masters and warns his readers to use them as the ‘touchstone’ jewels to brighten their readings. Tennyson, just contrary to Arnold, finds himself amid the Romantic remains. Except of some fixed numbers of examples, he leaves nothing of permanence for his readers to remember! His poems are the ‘day’s enjoyment’ except the elegy or long length that remains to suggest us the value of universal and eternal realm! However, we must not forget that the lasting phase of the career of Tennyson showed him as the magnificent poet who tries to follow the ancient style of writing:

“Where never creeps a cloud, or moves a wind,

 Nor ever falls the least white star of snow,”

Tennyson in these two lines stands in the rank of Homer! The beauty of the lines, the grandeur of the rhythm, everything we have to remark thus…

Now, to conclude the argument of the comparison between these two poets, I must leave it upon the readers to choose whether one is surpassing other or the two, just move along on the road to greatness.

The concluding verse of Arnold, the most worthy to quote of the poet who is very hopeless of the crisis of Victorian prosperity:

“But ah, though peace indeed is here,
 And ease from shame, and rest from fear;
 Though nothing can dismarble now
 The smoothness of that limpid brow;
 Yet is a calm like this, in truth,
 The crowning end of life and youth?”

And the concluding verse of the poet Tennyson:

“And it sings a song of undying love:

 And yet, tho’ its voice be so clear and full,

 You never would hear it; your ears are so dull,”

Both the poets stand dazzling on the ground of English Literature! To compare them, and to come to a solid ground of judgment, is too tough a task for any scholar! Still, it was my attempt to bring out their merits and qualities together. 

Written by Alok Mishra

Author and Poet

Student of MA in English Literature at Nalanda College, Biharsharif, Bihar

Greek Effect on the Poetry of John Keats or Keats Hellenism or The Hellenistic Approach of Keats or The Greek Note in Keats

Paper on the Greek Effect on the Poetry of John Keats

The German knowledge voracious exclaims after the covetable first glimpse of the eternal beauty of Helen:

“Was this the face that launched a thousand ships,

  And burnt the topless towers of Ilium…”

In this utterance, though a paradoxical truth, we have conspicuous evidence of a passion for beauty. Again, when we pay attention to one closing paradoxical and many a time anthologised:

“‘Beauty is truth, truth beauty,’ that is all

   Ye know on earth, and all ye need to know.”

Here we find the same passion for beauty, beauty that is truth. John Keats, whose span of literary career was too short to be another Shakespeare, owed much of his poetry to the ancient Greeks. That is why Shelley was compelled to remark, “John Keats is a Greek.” John Keats suffered a passion for beauty that ended only with his death. Though, we must remember that this passion was not infatuation; Keats knew the truth; Keats knew the beauty! It is a sure truth that Keats followed the ancient Greeks and the mythology created by them. My paper is dedicated to the ‘ever-unfortunate-and-sad’ poet John Keats and his Hellenism.

John Keats was acquainted to the wondrous world of ancient Greek through the translations and the dictionaries only; it means clearly that, then what knowledge he gained about the Greek world was scanty. John Keats, however, read, liked, and owed much of his Hellenism to Chapman. His sonnet, “On First Looking into the Chapman’s Homer” is an example of that.

Though clumsy were the sources, yet Keats’ imagination was phenomenal and he pierced deep into the world of ancient Greeks. A Pagan, for whom the only truth was beauty, be that beauty in ugliest creature like the serpent, or in the wonderful ‘Grecian Urn’, he started seeing every possible personification in the nature. It was the effect of his Greek reading that Keats saw the image of ‘Selene’ each time Keats saw the moon. He saw the nymphs dancing and ‘Dryads’ when he saw forest or a tree. Often we find Keats listening to Orpheus in his verses, giving a divine shape to ‘Autumn’, making a Goddess of human ‘Psyche’ and doing all sort of acts that force us to go in a state of nostalgia and live in the world of ancient Greeks!

Apart from his view of Gods present everywhere in nature, we find another Greek effect on his poetry in the form of his deep interest in Greek mythology. Keats was such fascinated with the myths of Greek that rare are his protracted verses those are orphan of Greek myths! The beauty of ‘Endymion’ and the act of ‘Selene’ we find in his first composed long and loosely handled narrative romance “Endymion.” This long poem is very famous for the opening line that strikes every bosom with the enormous beauty and a solace:

“A thing of beauty is a joy forever.”

“Endymion” throughout moves in the setting of ancient Greek myths and amid the Greek Gods. Other poems of Keats that ploy with the Greek myths are “Lamia”, “Hyperion”, and the “Fall of Hyperion” majorly in the lengthy poems. As the very titles of these pieces evoke, these deal with and lull ancient Greek mythology with painting of Keats’ imagination and his gifted gift of powerful lyricism! Among these, “Lamia” again countersigns the revival of ancient Paganism of Greeks in John Keats. Keats, in “Lamia” tries to favour the beauty even in the ugliest creature like serpent. The beauty, for a poet of beauty in pure sense, does never end, and in this poem, Keats presents the resemblance of grand opening line of “Endymion”:

“And soon his eyes had drunk her beauty up,

 Leaving no drop in the bewildering cup,

 And still the cup was full…”

Here, amid the setting of nymphs, monsters, and ancient Greek, Keats also carries the Greek hoisting flag of beauty with full swing.

Apart from the long narratives, the shorter poems of Keats also display conspicuous Greekness. The best known of them is perhaps “Ode on a Grecian Urn”. This ode sings of an ancient urn that displays the marvellous beauty to the eyes of the poet Keats. However, with beauty, Keats love is bare for the ancient Greek arts and once again, he displays it in the “Ode on a Grecian Urn”. Keats speaks of his love for the beauty for ancient Greek Urn in a manner like this:

“Heard melodies are sweet, but those unheard

  Are sweeter; therefore, ye soft pipes, play on:

  Not to the sensual ear, but, more endear’d,

  Pipe to the spirit ditties of no tone…”

The lines reflect the apparent passion of Keats for the ancient Greeks, their art, their creation, and everything about Greek! Keats, in short, suggests in his ode that art is superior to experience and men must realize it and not underestimate the value of ancient art.

He paints the war amid Greek Gods in “Hyperion” without any secure knowledge save some scanty readings and his imagination. Keats delights in the world of ancient Greeks and in the ‘vales’ where he finds nymphs, and trees raising their hands and dancing; he finds the sea Goddess in water, God Bacchus in wine, and the life in everything sought! Keats is a true Greek in his poems, in his imagination, in his perception, in his Paganism, and by birth! He found the truth in beauty, and beauty in the ancient ruins of the once glorious Greeks; therefore, he followed the footsteps of the ancient Greek masters and mixed his fancy and lustre of dazzling imagination to produce the poetry that was meant to lead the modern poets and fulfil the wish of young poet to remain in the list of English Poets after his death.

At last, to deduce the argument about the Greek effect on the poetry of John Keats, I have to add that a young learner, who was sad about the decaying virtue- beauty, found no other way than escaping the age and remain in the nostalgia of ancient glory. His poetry, that is fulgent with meaning and a pure Greek adoration of beauty, will ever be a landmark for the newcomers. However, some critics and poets, even one like Byron, claims the passion of Keats in the vulgar phrase: “Poetic masturbation.” It is nothing but only the pain of not realizing the truth! Keats is a pure poet who has indeed a passion for beauty. His art, his poetry is for the sake of poetry and nothing else. He is an English Greek…

                                                  An Apology for Keats and His Greekness

On Keats being a Greek

Let him live in solace, in nostalgia

Where he finds his Truth- beauty,

To adore that truth is his duty,

Whither shalt thou or they judge?

He remains the sole to glean

The myriad beauty so calm and clean,

And present the pure painted reminiscence

To the ignorant eyes of unknown immense!

Paper by Alok Mishra

(Author and Poet)

Pursuing MA in English from Nalanda College Biharsharif