Analysis of John Keats
John Keats was an English Romantic poet. Along with Lord Byron and Percy Bysshe Shelley, he was one of the key figures in the second generation of the Romantic Movement, despite the fact that his work had been in publication for only four years before his death. During his life, his poems were not generally well received by critics; however, after his death, his reputation grew to the extent that by the end of the 19th century he had become one of the most beloved of all English poets. He has had a significant influence on a diverse range of later poets and writers. Jorge Luis Borges, for instance, stated that his first encounter with Keats was the most significant literary experience of his life. Keats’ poetry is characterized by sensual imagery, most notably in the series of odes. Today his poems and letters are some of the most popular and analyzed in English literature. John Keats suffered many hardships losing his family to tuberculosis, orphaned as a child and was “mastered and enslaved by a pining, degrading lovesickness” (Brown) for a woman named Fanny Brawne, whom he was never able to wed. However with all his trials and tribulations he was very passionate about his poetry; the rich, sensuous way in which he wrote demonstrates it in poems such as “Bright Star” and “To Autumn”.
“Bright Star” by John Keats, expresses the poet’s desire to be like a star. In the poem the tone is melancholic while the theme is the desire to live in an unchanging state. Keats uses rhyme and literary techniques to reveal these ideas. The melancholic tone is expressed throughout the poem. He begins with the use of apostrophe, by addressing the star. “Bright star! Would I were steadfast as thou art” (line 1). His desire is to be the impossible, unchanging like a star. Although he understands that a star is “sleepless” (line 4), he acknowledges this as a positive trait being “patient” (line 4). He also recognizes that the star is alone, but refers to this as “splendour”(line 2), giving the impression of the bittersweet existence of the star. The imagery of the next few lines involves the observation of life’s great spirituality as he refers to “the moving waters at their priestlike task” (line 5) and the snow on the mountains (White). Keats seems to feel that watching life changing from afar would be better than living in it and having to change with it. He ends the poem by saying that he would like to live as a star “or else swoon to death” (line 14). It is apparent that Keats understands the sacrifices of living as a star, but acknowledges its benefits as well.

The theme of the poem is the desire to live in an unchanging state. This is achieved by Keats metaphorical analysis of the star. The entire poem personifies the star as a human creature that watches patiently from above. Keats also relays his message through the use of oxymoronic ideas such as “sweet unrest” and “patient sleepless” (line 5). This concludes that Keats knows the impossibility of his desire to live in an unchanging state. The descriptions of the “earth’s” (line 7) gifts represent what is changing and the star represents what is “steadfast” (line 9) and what he desires to be. He finds comfort “pillow’d” (line 10) in this locale which helps express the theme (Keats).

Another example of Keats’ fie poetry is “To Autumn”. In “To Autumn”, a superficial reading would suggest that John Keats writes about a typical day of this season, describing all kind of colourful and detailed images (Ode). The poem is an ode that contains three stanzas, and each of these has eleven lines. With regard to the meaning of the poem the author makes an intense description of autumn at least at first sight. The first stanza begins showing this season as misty and fruitful, which, with the help of a “maturing sun”, ripen the fruit of the vines. Next, one can clearly spot a hyperbole. Keats writes that a tree has so many apples that it bends (line 5), while the gourds swell and the hazel shells plumps. Finally, Keats suggests that the bees have a large amount of flowers. And these flowers did not bud in summer but now, in autumn (Ode). As a consequence, the bees are incessantly working and their honeycombs are overflowing since summer. In the second stanza, there is an obvious personification. The poet starts asking a rhetorical question (line 12) to autumn which now is not only a woman but a gleaner. However, this woman is apparently resting in a granary or in the landscape, “Or on a half-reaped furrow sound asleep, Drowsed with the fume of poppies…”As she is not working with her hook, some flowers, that were going to be cut, remain untouchable (lines 17 and 18). Also we can see an image of her hair gently moving. The stanza ends with autumn patiently watching the “last oozing” of cider (Ode). The third stanza continues again with rhetorical questions. In the first one Keats asks the woman where the sounds of the spring are. And the second one is just a repetition of the same question. However, the poet tells autumn that she has her own sounds, although some of them are sad, “Then in a wailful choir the small gnats mourn” (Keats). On the contrary, the “full-grown lambs’ bleat loudly, the crickets sing, a red-breast whistles, and swallows warble in the sky. Keats also describes a day that is dying, ending, and, as a consequence, is getting rose” (lines 25 and 26). The last lines of this stanza consist of a combination of the autumn sounds, of the animal sounds (lines from 30 to 33). Although one may think John Keats was simply describing the main characteristics of autumn, and the human and animal activities related to it, a deeper reading could suggest that Keats talks about the process of life. Autumn symbolises maturity in human and animal lives. Some instances of this are the “full-grown lambs”, the sorrow of the gnats, the wind that lives and dies, and the day that is dying and getting dark (Ode).

An unmistakable sign of consumption in February 1820 however broke all his plans for the future, marking the beginning of what he called his "posthumous life" (Brown). He could not enjoy the positive resonance on the publication of the volume "Lamia, Isabella & C.", including his most celebrated odes. In the late summer of 1820, Keats was ordered by his doctors to avoid the English winter and move to Italy. His friend Joseph Severn accompanied him south, first to Naples, and then to Rome. His health improved briefly, only to collapse finally. Keats died in Rome on the 23rd of February, 1821. He was buried on the Protestant Cemetery. On his request, the following lines were engraved on his tombstone: "Here lies one whose name was writ in water." (Brown)

Works Cited

Brown, Charles. "Life of John Keats." English History. 27 Feb. 2011. 2004 .
Keats, John . "Bright Star." Poem Hunter. 25 Feb. 2011. .
Keats, John . "To Autumn." Poem of the Week. 26 Feb. 2011. .
"Ode to Autumn." Poem Shape. 26 Feb. 2011. 2009 .
White, Michelle. "Sonnet Structure in John Keats' "Bright Star"." Suite 101. 25 Feb. 2011. 4 Dec. 2009 .