On Tuesday from
9:00 on I studied for the next day’s Romantic Literature exam. Studying always
makes me sleepy and so at 11:30 I took a siesta until 13:00.
For lunch I had chili-garlic
flavoured green pea snacks.
At around 14:30 I went to bed again,
thinking that I would sleep for an hour. I only slept for fifteen minutes and
dreamed that I lived that I was playing my guitar in an apartment full of piles
paper like I would have had if I were going to university without the benefit
of a computer in which to store information. I was looking at the piles and
feeling guilty for not doing something about them.
At 18:00 I took a nap for an hour and dreamed I was in the same
apartment as in the previous dream and thinking about getting dressed fancy to
go out.
For dinner I had three boiled potatoes with margarine and continued
studying.
By the end of the day I had made a three and a half page document of
comparisons between the various authors that I’d studied in my course. The
biggest file was on Shelley compared to Keats:
While Shelley and Keats were both poetic experimenters and sometimes covered the same subjects, Shelley was much more self-reflexive than Keats. They both wrote unique odes or hymns to abstractions. Comparing Shelley’s “Hymn to Intellectual Beauty" and Keats’s “Ode On Melancholy", both beauty and melancholy are abstractions. Shelley stresses the importance of not trying too hard to capture beauty while Keats grabs hold of melancholy in the form of an angry woman. Keats will use a subject to represent an abstraction such as the nightingale as a symbol of freedom in "Ode to a Nightingale". The poem is more about the abstractions of freedom and transcendence than it is about the bird. Shelley on the surface is more self-reflexive than Keats, although “Ode to a Nightingale” is quite self-involved. Keats claims the poet is a chameleon with no self. This may have been his downfall in terms of recognition. While Shelley also does not want to pin things down he knows that a poet needs to have a recognizable style. In “Ode on Melancholy” and “Ode to a Nightingale" Keats takes opposite views. His idea of negative capability to some extent works at counter odds with self-reflexivity or it could be seen to expand the self. It may be however that all poetry is self-reflexive and that Keats merely dances around his own self-consciousness more than Shelley. But in the conclusion of “Hymn to Intellectual Beauty” Shelley talks about fearing the self and loving mankind, which can be seen as a paraphrase of Keats’s negative capability. Neither one wants to draw conclusions too much but this urge to be objective is more prominent with Keats. Shelley is afraid of the frail spells solidifying abstractions just as Keats is. Keats does not directly address the political like Shelley and Byron. Shelley attacks the monarchy indirectly through addressing the ruins of past monarchy in “Ozymandias" but also directly in “England in 1819". It is hard to be political and to be uncompromisingly objective at the same time and so Keats tends to write clear of politics. But one does not become a famous voice if one is a master of disguise that no one knows. In St Agnes Eve Porphyro steals away a daughter from a family with royal blood and so in a sense this can be seen as a subtle attack on the monarchy. It can also be seen as an outsider poet like Keats coming to claim recognition from those titled poets with the advantage of class like Byron and Shelley. This however is a fantasy and one cannot secretly win recognition. Like Keats, Porphyro blends with the shadows and sneaks into the world of entitlement. Then he disguises himself as himself in a dream. In their respective poems about autumn, although Shelley’s Ode to the West Wind is more political and more dynamic because it is the wind of autumn being addressed. The active living breath of autumn is the very essence of that season while Keats's approach is again more that if a spy in the house of poetry. Shelley calls out to the wind of autumn and demands audience with it. While Shelley envisions himself as a leaf in the wind one almost expects him to grab the reins from it and take over. In his pleas to the wind he almost seems to be directing it. The alternating, less predictable terza rima rhyme scheme lends itself to more of a sense of change while Keats simpler rhyme is more gentle and meditative. Shelley’s “Ode to the West Wind” is more self-reflexive than Keats’s “To Autumn". Shelley is personally involved with the autumn wind while Keats is watching autumn from an objective distance. Keats’s wind gently winnows while Shelley's wind brings about permanent change. For Shelley: The great secret of morals is going out of one's own nature, and an identification of oneself with the beautiful which exists in thought, action, or person, not one’s own. A man, to be greatly good, must imagine intensely and comprehensively; he must put himself in the place of another and of many others; the pains and pleasures of his species must become his own. When Shelley is putting himself in the place of another we still recognize that it is Shelley doing so and so he maintains a voice.
While Shelley and Keats were both poetic experimenters and sometimes covered the same subjects, Shelley was much more self-reflexive than Keats. They both wrote unique odes or hymns to abstractions. Comparing Shelley’s “Hymn to Intellectual Beauty" and Keats’s “Ode On Melancholy", both beauty and melancholy are abstractions. Shelley stresses the importance of not trying too hard to capture beauty while Keats grabs hold of melancholy in the form of an angry woman. Keats will use a subject to represent an abstraction such as the nightingale as a symbol of freedom in "Ode to a Nightingale". The poem is more about the abstractions of freedom and transcendence than it is about the bird. Shelley on the surface is more self-reflexive than Keats, although “Ode to a Nightingale” is quite self-involved. Keats claims the poet is a chameleon with no self. This may have been his downfall in terms of recognition. While Shelley also does not want to pin things down he knows that a poet needs to have a recognizable style. In “Ode on Melancholy” and “Ode to a Nightingale" Keats takes opposite views. His idea of negative capability to some extent works at counter odds with self-reflexivity or it could be seen to expand the self. It may be however that all poetry is self-reflexive and that Keats merely dances around his own self-consciousness more than Shelley. But in the conclusion of “Hymn to Intellectual Beauty” Shelley talks about fearing the self and loving mankind, which can be seen as a paraphrase of Keats’s negative capability. Neither one wants to draw conclusions too much but this urge to be objective is more prominent with Keats. Shelley is afraid of the frail spells solidifying abstractions just as Keats is. Keats does not directly address the political like Shelley and Byron. Shelley attacks the monarchy indirectly through addressing the ruins of past monarchy in “Ozymandias" but also directly in “England in 1819". It is hard to be political and to be uncompromisingly objective at the same time and so Keats tends to write clear of politics. But one does not become a famous voice if one is a master of disguise that no one knows. In St Agnes Eve Porphyro steals away a daughter from a family with royal blood and so in a sense this can be seen as a subtle attack on the monarchy. It can also be seen as an outsider poet like Keats coming to claim recognition from those titled poets with the advantage of class like Byron and Shelley. This however is a fantasy and one cannot secretly win recognition. Like Keats, Porphyro blends with the shadows and sneaks into the world of entitlement. Then he disguises himself as himself in a dream. In their respective poems about autumn, although Shelley’s Ode to the West Wind is more political and more dynamic because it is the wind of autumn being addressed. The active living breath of autumn is the very essence of that season while Keats's approach is again more that if a spy in the house of poetry. Shelley calls out to the wind of autumn and demands audience with it. While Shelley envisions himself as a leaf in the wind one almost expects him to grab the reins from it and take over. In his pleas to the wind he almost seems to be directing it. The alternating, less predictable terza rima rhyme scheme lends itself to more of a sense of change while Keats simpler rhyme is more gentle and meditative. Shelley’s “Ode to the West Wind” is more self-reflexive than Keats’s “To Autumn". Shelley is personally involved with the autumn wind while Keats is watching autumn from an objective distance. Keats’s wind gently winnows while Shelley's wind brings about permanent change. For Shelley: The great secret of morals is going out of one's own nature, and an identification of oneself with the beautiful which exists in thought, action, or person, not one’s own. A man, to be greatly good, must imagine intensely and comprehensively; he must put himself in the place of another and of many others; the pains and pleasures of his species must become his own. When Shelley is putting himself in the place of another we still recognize that it is Shelley doing so and so he maintains a voice.
No comments:
Post a Comment