"Ode to a Nightingale"

Poetry | John Keats

Evaluate Keats As an Escapist

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Do you think Keats wants to escape from reality Justify your answer from your study of Keats Or Evaluate Keats as an escapist John Keats - a renowned English Romantic poet is often associated with the escapist tendencies of the Romantic movement An escapist is a person who tries to avoid the harsh realities of life and wants to escape into the ideal world The ideal world is a world of imagination where life is full of enjoyment and free from all difficulties However Keats accepts the world as it is and returns to the world of reality Ode to a Nightingale The poem Ode to a Nightingale starts with the effect of Nightingale s song on the body and heart of the poet To him the song of the Nightingale is a symbol of everlasting joy For this reason being dissatisfied with the hard realities of real life he

wants to take shelter in the dream forest with the help of Nightingale s song In his imaginative forest he finds all the pleasures and enjoyment that he would like to have in the ideal world As the poet says That I might drink and leave the world unseen And with thee fade away into the forest dim However by the word forlorn Keats came back to the world of reality from the world of imagination Because the poet believes that the world of imagination can shelter us for a short time and cannot give us the solution to the hard realities of life In the poet s tongue Forlorn the very word is like a bell To toll me back from thee to my sole self Ode on a Grecian Urn In the poem Ode on a Grecian Urn Keats describes the eternal beauty of art and immortalizes the objects that have been carved on the Urn There are pictures of the youth and maiden lovers and beloveds pipers and trees The piper is always piping under the tree The lover on the Urn is always trying to kiss his beloved who is trying to avoid his kiss In this world of beauty lovers will never decay From the harsh realities of life Keats seeks refuge in the beauty of the world of the Urn The poet says She cannot fade though thou hast not thy bliss Forever wilt thou love and she be fair Ode on Melancholy In the poem Ode on Melancholy we find the temporality of beauty Beauty and joy are the real sources of melancholy Melancholy cannot be found in the sad and ugly things but in everything beautiful and joyful So the deepest kind of melancholy can be found in the showers of rain in the beautiful roses and the bright dark eyes of the beloved Beauty by its nature is short-lived and gives birth to melancholy in the minds of men The duration of beauty makes men sad Keats has also personified Melancholy as a goddess who dwells with the goddess of Beauty As the poet says She dwells with Beauty-Beauty that must die At the same time the goddess of Melancholy and the goddess of Joy dwell in the same temple The God of Joy always keeps his finger on his lips to bid farewell to his worshipper In the poet s tongue And Joy whose hand is ever at his lips Bidding adieu To conclude Keats is not a real escapist Although he tries to take shelter in the world of imagination which is an ideal world he cannot remain there for a long time and the hard realities make him take shelter there for a short time not for a long time

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