John Keats as an Escapist

John Keats as an Escapist

introduction

What is Escapism?

Escapism is a mental diversion from unpleasant or boring aspects of daily life, typically through activities involving imagination or entertainment. Escapism may be used to occupy one's self away from persistent feelings of depression or general sadness.

 John Keats Escapism

 Like all romantic poets, Keats seeks an escape in the past. His imagination is attracted by the ancient Greeks as well as by the glory and splendor of the Middle Ages. He rarely devotes himself to the pressing problems of the present. Hyperion, Endymion, and Lamia are all classical in theme, though romantic in style. Keats this finds an escape into the past from the oppressive realities of the present.

Also Keats’ themes are romantic in nature. Most of his poetry is devoted to the quest of beauty. Love, chivalry, adventure, pathos — these are some of the themes of his poems. Another strain that runs through his poetry is the constant fear of death, which finds very beautiful expression in his sonnet, ‘When I Have Fears’. Another theme of his poetry is disappointment in love, which can be seen in ‘La Belle Dam Sans Merci’.

What does the escapist?

 Escapist does not feel at ease in the world around him.

à He tries to escape by unrealistic imaginative activity.

à A poet escapes into a world of imagination.

à Poets generally live in a world of their own: they feel this world is not fit for them because of conditions and circumstances of life. So they want to escape from the realities of this real world.

Great escapist

® As we find in the poetry of great romantic poets Coleridge, Wordsworth, Shelley, and Keats. Like, Coleridge into supernaturalism. Wordsworth found that the world was too much with the people, so he escaped into the world of Nature and Shelley created a dream world of idealism. Keats created a world of Beauty and Truth around him.

Escapism is an English movement Romantic age  

Escapism is the life and soul of romantic poetry.

• ·        In 1798 the Lyrical Ballads were published.
• ·        These poems were composed by Wordsworth and Coleridge.
• ·        These poems were romantic in tone.
• ·        They equalized rustic life.
• ·         Romanticism was an artistic, literary, musical and intellectual movement that originated in Europe toward the end of 18th century.
• ·        The Romantic Movement started with the publications of the lyrical ballads.
• ·        These poems were characterized by imagination, emotion, subjectivity, love for nature, love and interest in the past, belief in the simplicity, freedom of expression and humanitarianism.
• ·        Romantic poetry is known for the treatment of love, life, and nature.

Escapism in Keats’s poems  

è In his poem „on first Looking into Chapman‟s Homer‟,

he discovered a new realm of wonder and beauty. He likes to live in such a realm of gold. He studied Greek myths and legends.

“Much have I travell’d in the realms of goldAnd many goodly states and kingdom seen”

 (on first Looking into Chapman’s Homer)

These lines show his love for Greek art, culture, and literature to such an extent that Shelley called him a Greek.

è His famous poem Endymion‟ is based on a Greek legend where the goddess Moon comes down to earth and falls in love with a mortal. Greek gods and goddesses were his frequent companions. He wandered through the middle ages in search of love and romance.

“A thing of beauty is a joy for ever:Its loveliness increases; it will neverPass into nothingness, but still will keepA bower quiet for us, and asleepFull of sweet dreams, and health, and quiet breathing.” ( Endymion)

è Keats is known as escapist. In his poem “Ode to a Nightingale” Keats describes the tendency of escapism. He poured this idea of escape very beautifully. He desired to go away from this real-world in the world of Nightingale because of this real world is full of strife, sadness, and grief. After listening to the sweet song of Nightingale, the poet wants to escape from the miseries and sufferings of the world. He wants to go to the world of the nightingale as the bird knows no human sorrows and sufferings. Poet is not happy with this world as this world is a miserable place and he found sadness only in his life so he wants to go away from here.

“… Fade far away, dissolve and quite forget… The weariness, the fever, and the fret…” (Ode to a Nightingale)

 “Ode to Nightingale”, he wants to “fade far away” and “quite forget” the “weariness, the fever, and the fret”.

è Just as when he saw a beautiful Urn in British Museum, he forgets his conditions, even he elaborates on the pictures depicted on the Urn.

Ah, happy, happy boughs that cannot shedYour leaves, nor ever bid the Spring adieu.  (Grecian Urn)

Keats longs to escape from the bitter realities. Therefore, we see that Keats is so disgusted with the real-life that heals ways try to escape from it.

The Odeon Grecian Urn is not a dream of unutterable beauty nor is the urn itself the song of an impossible bliss beyond mortality. It has a precious message to mankind, not as a thing of beauty which gives exquisite delight to the senses, but as a symbol and prophecy of a comprehension of human life to which mankind can attain. Keats was not an escapist from life, as he is sometimes supposed to be.

John Keats Romantic Escapist

Keats was a true romantic poet because his attention was not only beauty but also the truth. He saw beauty in truth and truth in beauty.

“Beauty is truth, truth beauty, — that is all

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

He persistently endeavored to reconcile the world of imagination with the world of reality. Therefore, Middleton Murray calls Keats “a true romantic.”

“Where are the songs of Spring? Ay, where are they?Think not of them, thou hast thy music too.”

At one time he regrets the songs of Spring and but then he sees the beauties of Autumn and involves himself in them. He instantly forgets the pain of losing songs of Spring and starts admiring Autumn.

“Keats was so preoccupied with the beauty that he turned a blind eye to the actualities of life around him.” (Stopeford Brooke)

è In the Ode to Melancholy, he points out how sadness inevitably accompanies joy and beauty. The rose is beautiful indeed but we cannot think about the importance of beauty without its thorn. It is therefore impossible to escape from inevitable pain in life.

Melancholy dwells with beauty, "beauty that must die,"

are thrilled with aching hopelessness. In ‘Ode to Melancholy’, he says,

“dwells with beauty — beauty that must die”

Melancholy arises from the transience of joy and joy are transient by its nature. Therefore Keats accepts life as a whole — with its joys and beauty as well as its sorrows and despair.

To quote the words of Middleton Murray about ‘Ode on a Grecian Urn’,

“These lines contain deep wisdom purchase at the full price of deep suffering. They are symbols and prophecy of a comprehension of human life to which mankind can attain.”“There is something of the innermost soul of poetry in almost everything he wrote.” (Tennyson)

The romantic quality in literature has been defined by Peter as,

“The addition of strangeness to the beauty.”

John Keats is the Most Escapist among Romantic Poets:

John Keats has a good power of imagination. He does not find any difficulty in its creation. In that world, he quests for beauty. Several reasons are there due to which he prefers an ideal world to the world of reality. He does so because of he

·        quests for Beauty.

·        wants to forget pains and sorrows.

·        finds peace and harmony in imagination.

·        loves past.

Sorrows and Sufferings Make John Keats an Escapist

è In “Ode to Autumn” he creates a gloomy atmosphere.