Keats Occupying A Prominent Position Among the Writers of English Ode:
It is no exaggeration to say that the regular ode reached its culmination in the hands of John Keats. After the completion of The Eve of St. Agnes, Keats was chiefly engaged in the completion of the unique ode. To his credit goes the composition of over a dozen odes which have no parallel and are a class by themselves. E. De Selincourt has assigned a Sovereign place to Keats as a writer of odes. “In the odes he (Keats) has no master; and their indefinable beauty is so direct and so distinctive an effluence of his soul that he can have no disciple.” Robert Bridge is of the view, “Had Keats left us only his odes, his rank among the poets would not lower than it is, for they have stood apart in literature.”
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| John Keats As A Writer of English Odes |
Keats's Odes May Be Called “Modern”:
Keats imitated neither Pindar nor Horace. His odes are essentially romantic with a regular and single structure and are singularly free from the declamatory or rhetorical note which is the common bane of odes and from which Wordsworth's odes are not free. Some of Keats's odes belong to irregular class. He excels in the stanzaic form which is regular but highly complex. Almost all his stanzas are regular and similar. Dissimilar stanzas are rather rare to find.
personal and subjective:
The salient feature of Keats's odes is that they are intensely personal and subjective. In them we find full and impassioned expression to his feelings and thoughts. There is nothing artificial and every line or word seems to have emanated from nature. Nature has been portrayed in all its richness, luxuriance and variety. Art and mythology have been put to outstanding poetic use. They are written in a strain, intense indeed, but meditative and brooding. He has sketched beauty in all its sensuousness. But he has not forgotten to paint beauty in its transience and permanence. In fact the whole mystery of life ... birth decay and death ... has found a poetic vision in his odes. The love of romance and joy, in spite of multiplicity and change, is instinct with fervour. The odes of Keats are full of genuine and intense emotions.
A Combination of Form and Content:
Keats's odes are superb from the viewpoint of combination of form and content. Dignity of thought is accompanied by lyrical fervour. Keats is known for the felicity of phrasing. This distinctive quality of his way is best seen in his odes. His remark, “I fall upon fine phrases like a lover”, is fully applicable to the use of fine poetic diction in his odes. But pompous phraseology, artificial and turgid expression, bombast and rhetoric etc. do not find expression in his odes. The themes dealt with in his odes are dignified and exalted. Style and tone are in accordance with the sublime nature of thought. Images are appropriate and tangible. Shelley's remark that “Keats was a Greek” is especially true of his odes. Keats has been truly Hellenic in his endeavour to preserve the ideal of beauty both external and internal. It is on account of various qualities of Keats's ode that they have been highly praised and called “pure gold of poetry— Virgin gold”.
Keats' Composing His Best Odes:
1819 was perhaps the best period for Keats from the viewpoint of his poetic output. It was during eighteen nineteen that Keats composed his six great odes. They are, Ode to a Nightingale, Ode on a Grecian Urn, Ode to Psyche, Ode to Autumn, Ode on Melancholy and Ode on Indolence. Of these the first two are based on his own moods. Ode on a Grecian Urn and Ode to Psyche were inspired by ancient Greek sculpture and mythology. Ode on Indolence was again based on a mood of lethargy and langour. In truth, they mark the very apogee of Keats's poetic powers. Swinburne has showered high praise on Keats excellence as shown in the art of writing odes. He observes that “Of these perhaps the two nearest to absolute perfection, to the triumphant achievement and accomplishment of the very utmost beauty possible to human words, may be that To Autumn and that on Grecian Urn; the most radiant, fervent, and musical is that To a Nightingale; the most pictorial, and perhaps the tenderest in its ardour of passionate fancy is that To Psyche, the subtlest in sweetness of thought and feeling is that On Melancholy. Greater lyrical poetry the world may have seen that any that in these; lovelier it surely has never seen, nor ever can it possibly see.”
There are some of his finest Odes:
Ode to a Nightingale:
Ode to a Nightingale is perhaps the finest ode of Keats. It is the most passionately human and personal. Keats did not have any particular bird of Hampstead in his mind, he thought of the nightingales’ song which had been beautiful and delightful for centuries. Charles Brown points out that “Keats felt a tranquil and continual joy in the song of a nightingale”. The song transported the poet into the world of imagination. The poem, as we are told by Keats's friend was written in the morning but in it the Queen Moon is on her throne and its rays are reflecting on the ground through the dense foliages of the trees growing there. The nightingale in the type of the race imagined as singing in a far off scene of woodland mystery, of verdurous glooms and winding mossy ways.
At the time of the composition of the ode Keats was passing through a great agony. His younger brother had died a little earlier and he was deeply affected by his premature death. He felt the torture of the pangs of jealous and unrequited love. He was painfully conscious of his own serious illness which was consuming him swiftly. He had to face the brutal criticism of the Reviews. All this contributed to his agony and dejection and he expressed his desire to escape from the woes of the world, “Where youth grows pale and spectre thin” , to the fairy land , to the
“ ............... melodious plot
Of beechen green, and shadows numberless.”
For Keats the song of the nightingale became the symbol of beauty that abides. He sought refuge in beauty from “the weariness, the fever and fret” of earthly existence, “where but to think is to be full of sorrow and leaden - eyed despairs”. It saddens his heart to see that youth and beauty are perishable and life is sad and heroic. He had known love but it did not provide him with any consolation for it was awakened by beauty which is transitory. Borne on the invisible wings of poetic imagination, he escapes from this world of realities and sorrows to the world of ideal beauty where joy, beauty and romance reign supreme. For the time being the poet becomes oblivious of the world of woe. He meditates on the fate of man in the world and draws a comparison between man and the nightingale. The nightingale is immortable and happy whereas man is mortal and miserable. However, the vision soon disappears and he is awakened to the sordid realities of life.
The ode is charged with deep passion. It abounds in images rich in colour, tone and touch. Diction is consistent with the elevated theme of the ode. Epithets have been employed most appropriately and they call up vivid pictures. From every point of view it is a unique ode. Robert Bridges has praised it highly in these words, “I could not name an English poem of the same length which contains so much beauty as this ode.”
Ode On a Grecian Urn:
On a Grecian Urn is another great ode of Keats. In Ode to a Nightingale the song of a nightingale transports the poet into the world of imagination. In Ode on a Grecian Urn the artistic pictures carved on the urn, carried the poet into the world of lasting beauty, romance and love. This ode contrasts the unsatisfying human life with art, which is everlastingly beautiful. “The sight, or the imagination, of a piece of ancient sculpture had set the poet's mind at work on the one hand conjuring up the scene of ancient life and worship which lay behind and suggested the sculptured images ; and on the other speculating on the abstract relations of plastic art of love.” (Colvin)
The urn which inspired Keats to write this beautiful poem belonged to Lord Halland and is still preserved in the garden at Halland House, Kenistone. On the urn are carved various pictures and scene of a sacrifice. There is an altar decorated with leaves and flowers, a priest stands close by and a heifer is being brought there to be sacrificed. Most of the people of the town are going in a procession with the heifer, so the streets of the town are shown empty.
“And little town, thy streets for ever more
will silent be.”
There are some other pictures carved on the urn and they have been described very beautifully. The central idea of the ode is the impermanence of life as contrasted with the permanence of the principles of beauty as embodied in art. What art loses in reality, it gains in permanence. Life is real but this reality is followed by satiety and decay. And in art, not only there is permanence in what is portrayed on the urn but there is also permanence in what is left out. The poet reveals his philosophy of life, beauty and art by reflecting on the scene sketched on the urn. He establishes the superiority of art over poetry, which is evident from the following line:
“Heard melodies are sweet, but those unheard are sweeter”.
Besides, the beautiful description of the scene depicted on the vase, the poem abounds with lofty thoughts. In it we find the identification of art with eternity — “Thou, silent form dost tease us out of thought, as do the eternity.” In it the poet has asserted the identity of beauty and truth. These immortal lines came out from his pen:
“Beauty is truth, truth beauty, —that is all
Ye know on earth, and all ye need to know.”
The silent urn conveys to us the most important message that “Beauty is truth, truth beauty” which is taken as the cardinal principal of Keats's poetic creed. According to him the life of art and imagination is more real and valuable than that of fulfilment. The joy that art provides is more abiding than any material object can. The music of the marble pipes, the unuttered melody will never be heard, hence, there will always remain the curiosity to know about that music. They are the perennial source of happiness. The lovers painted on the urn will never be able to satisfy their passion. Hence, there love will always remain as intense as it has ever been. Thus, the moral of the urn is that in the midst of change and mutability art, which celebrates Beauty and Truth as the supreme ideal, is permanent. Compton Rickett rightly observes:
“The solace of romance is exchanged for the solace of art in the ode on a Grecian Urn. Human life and happiness may be brief, yet art may enshrine them with an ideal beauty that outlives the years. The figures and all they symbolised are gone, but Art has given them a lasting durability and so links the ages together.”
Ode to Psyche:
In this ode Keats's ardent love of classical legend is clearly revealed. It is rightly famous for the recreation of the ancient pagan faith, its fervour of devotion, its sense-appealing rituals, its unquestioning characters and its appeal to our imagination. He had taken pains to write it. He says that the poem is “the first and the only with which I have taken even moderate pains. This I have done more leisurely.” In a letter to George and Georgiana Keats, Keats wrote the reason why he wrote this poem, “You must recollect that Psyche was a embodied as a goddess before the time of Apuleius the Platonist, who lived after the Augustan Age, and consequently the goddess was never worshipped or sacrificed to any of ancient fervour and perhaps never thought of in the old religion. I am more orthodox than to let a heathen goddess be so neglected.”
The Legend of Psyche was told by Apuleius in The Golden Ass. An Elizabethan Scholar named Adington rendered the book into English. Below is given the story of the Psyche in brief:
Psyche was the daughter of a king in Greece. Aphrodite became jealous of her beauty. His mother sent Cupid, the god of love, to inspire Psyche for some mean fellow Cupid fell a prey to her beauty and began to love her. He took her to a beautiful valley and went to meet her there every night when darkness prevailed all around. She saw the beauty of Cupid and lighted a lamp. Unfortunately a drop of hot oil fell on Cupid's shoulder. This enraged him and he disappeared.
Psyche wandered about in search of Cupid. At last Aphrodite found her and kept her as her slave. She was asked to do extremely difficult tasks. But with the help of birds and aunts, she was able to accomplish them all. Finally, Aphrodite forgave her. Psyche regained her old lover Cupid and was made immortal. The essence of the legend of Psyche narrates the purification of the human soul by passion and suffering.
In the ode, Keats apologizes Psyche for revealing her secrets even to herself. There appeared in his dream two beautiful creatures lying side by side among flowers in a forest. He guessed that they were Cupid and Psyche. As she had not been immortalized, she was never properly worshipped. Keats presents himself as her worshipper. Keats emphatically says that Psyche is an incarnation of Beauty and not of the human soul.
In this ode Keats has displayed great delicacy of feeling. It borders on the voluptuous. The description of the mythic lovers, Psyche and Cupid, lying in close embrace, is sensuous and impassioned:
“Saw two fair creatures, couched side by side
........... ……….. ………….. …….. …….. ……
They lay calm - breathing on the bedded grass,
Their arms embraced, and their pinions too;
Their lips touched not, but had not bade adieu,
As if disjoined by soft - handed slumber
At tender eye - dawn of aurorean love.”
The last stanza of the poem gives incidentally a clear and detailed description of Alpine scenery. The temple for the worship of Psyche will be built on some “untrodden region of his mind”.
“Where branched thoughts, new grown with pleasant pain
………….. ………… ……………….. …………. …………..
Fledge the wild - ridged mountain steep by steep.”
He expresses not only the mystery of “pleasant pain” in all kinds of creative activity but with an outstanding power he portrays an impressive picture of the Alpine mountains with their grandeur and desolation.
Ode to Autumn:
The Ode to Autumn was composed in September 1819. It contains the record of his quiet days at Winchester. It was written at a time when Keats was at the height of his powers. In a letter to Reynolds, Keats has described the background of the composition of the Ode to Autumn: “How beautiful the season is now ... how fine the air ... a temperate sharpness about it ... I never liked stubble-fields so much as now ... aye, better than the chilly green of the spring. Somehow a stubble-field looks warm in the same way that some pictures look warm. This struck me so much in my Sunday's walk that I composed upon it.” The outcome was one of the most poetic and the completest of all his (Keats’s) ode - To Autumn. It reveals such a serene and untroubled mood as we vainly wish that it might have been his last word to us.
The ode is characterised by the poet's simple, sensuous and direct love of nature. It presents a beautiful picture of a rich autumnal day with its long twilight and glowing sunset. Here the poet expresses his sense of joy and contentment which presents a contrast to the pain and despair found in his Ode to a Nightingale. The mellow fruitfulness of the season is seen in every object. He is delighted to breathe in this atmosphere of peace and plenty. He no longer desires for the song of spring, for autumn has its own music.
The ode consists of three stanzas. These three stanzas present three different pictures of Autumn. All the three pictures are superbly drawn. In the first stanza the idea of richness has been emphasised. Autumn is the season itself. In it the trees are laden with fruits ripened to the core. In the second stanza, Autumn has been personified as a woman who is doing the work of a reaper, winnower, gleaner and wine - maker and so on. The third stanza of the ode contains the description of the scene of the sunset. Though the songs of spring are over, yet the poet is in a cheerful mood. The feeling of sadness is kept in the background. He is happy to find that Autumn has its own beauty and joy which in no sense are inferior to the beauty and joy of spring. It symbolises the continuation of life in nature. Nature is never at rest or dormant. There always take place changes in it. The ode is marked with its classic economy which is indeed its source of beauty. All the words seem to possess nature's perfection, but for the opening line of Stanza III, the whole of the poem is flawless.
Ode on Melancholy:
In this ode Keats reveals his view of melancholy which is different and distinct. For him there is a blending of joy and beauty in melancholy. In this ode, the perception is profound, only those who have the faculty of experiencing the extremist joy will know what real melancholy is. It should be kept in mind that Keats does not regard melancholy as a vulgar passion or mean pursuit. The poet finds the source of the deepest melancholy in eternal beauty. It is concerned with all that is beautiful and joyful. For melancholy, we are not to look in disease or death or poverty but on the most beautiful objects, which are only fast fading manifestations of the everlasting principle of beauty. It is akin to the divine. It falls from heaven like a weeping cloud and fastens drooping flowers, it feeds itself on a morning rose or on the peerless eyes of a beautiful and beloved woman when she “some rich anger shows”. For Keats melancholy is closely associated with beauty that must decay and joy that is transient. The conception of melancholy is in keeping with Keats ' outlook on life. Again melancholy is close to pleasure which merges into pain. The poet emphatically says that only those who can appreciate the depth of melancholy can appreciate raptures of joy. If man had not known the great ideal of beauty or joy, he would not have felt the contrast so much.
Ode on Indolence:
One of Keats's letters contains the description of his mental state when he composed the Ode on Indolence. “This morning I am in a sort of temper, indolent and supremely careless ... In this state of effeminacy the fibres of the brain are relaxed in common with the rest of the body, and to such a happy degree that pleasure to show of enticement and pain, no bearable power. Neither poetry, nor Ambition, nor Love have any alertness of countenance as they pass by me; they seem rather like figures on a Greek vase ... a man and two women whom no one put myself could distinguish in their disguisement. This is the only happiness, and is a rare instance of the advantage of the body overpowering mind.”
The poet is dozing on grass. Three figures appear before his eyes. It appears to him as if they were carved on the sides of a vase which slowly moves round and round. He sees this sight twice, but he does not recognize them as he is deeply lost in indolence. As he perceives them the third time, he recognizes them. They are Love, Ambition and Poetry. He wakes from his drowsiness and gets restless. He is filled with the desire to have wings so as to fly in their pursuit. But he checks himself. When he perceives the figures the fourth time, he asks them to go away. It strikes his mind that indolence is better than Love, Ambition and Poetry. He is not the least willing to undergo strain which all these three figures urge him to do. He does not wish to come out of the state of indolence and prefers to wander in his dream world. He bids the figures be gone:
“Vanish, ye Phantoms! from my idle spright
Into the clouds, and never more return!”
The ode represents a fleeting mood of the poet. Here he longs to remain in the state of indolence, which is rather rare with him. It may be because of his bodily weakness that this kind of mood prevailed upon him. The three figures— Love, ‘a fair maid’, Ambition, ‘pale of cheek and ever watchful with fatigued eyes’, and Poesy, ‘maiden most unmeek, ‘his demon’— have allegoric significance. There arises in him the temptation to have a glimpse of them and wishes wings to follow them. But soon after he dismisses them declaring that Love is but folly, Ambition is a ‘short fever – fit’ of ‘a man's little heart’, Poetry ‘has not a joy’ at least for him. He reveals his love for indolence which is sweet as ‘drowsy noons’. He loves evening ‘steeped in honied indolence’.
This ode of Keats is expressive of a mood of lingering, languid laziness which is different from his moods in odes like To a Nightingale and Ode on a Grecian Urn. It can be the result of his bodily weakness and listlessness. Perhaps the indolent mood is reflected in the less highly wrought composition of the ode. From the artistic point of view this ode is not of the level of his other odes written during this period. A. R. Weekes rightly says, “Beautiful as it is in places, it falls short of their level of workmanship: it is noble verse, but not Keats at his modest.”
May Ode:
“The fragment of the May Ode” is regarded as an immortal ode of Keats. It is known for the famous passage of inimitable beauty descriptive of the Greek poets:
“Leaving great verse unto a little clan” (Robert Bridges) The poet exhibits his instinctive understanding of the nature and life of the ancient poets,
“Who died content on pleasant sward”
and never aspired for a memorial or a mausoleum and were happy to have a few sincere listeners with perfect ears. Keats prays to Maia for their heavenly life on earth, their vigour and sweetness.
