Remembering
John Keats in the bi-centenary year of his Death
ELSA online Meet Sunday, 9 May, 2021
Darkling I Listen!
Prof. Nibir Ghosh opened
the meet which was held on 9th May, 2021 on the occasion of
bi-centenary year of the death of John Keats, an
English Romantic lyric poet who devoted his short life to the
perfection of poetry marked by vivid imagery and great sensuous appeal. Prof.
Ghosh highlighted the contrast between the poet’s life and his poetry as the
former was full of pain while his poetry had an ecstasy beyond description. That
his life was short and his poetry is permanent was the theme of discussion of
the meet. Each one of the members offered valuable insights into a topic of
universal concern for all. Dr Mukesh Vyas highlighted John Keats’s unique
diction in using choicest words for deep emotions. He appreciated John Keats
for his sensuousness, classical and literary illusions and for coining new
words like “easeful Death”. Ms. Dhruvee Sinha deliberated on Keats’ Negative
Capability as the poet preferred emotions to keep the intellectual self away. Dr. Shrikant Kulsreshtha recited a short poem
of Keats. Mr. Saurabh Agarwal talked about Keats’s Letters by sharing
his insightful ideas on the range and scope of his letters. Ms.
Anjali Singh deliberated on Keats’ Theory of Life. Dr. Manju found John Keats as the worshipper
of poetry. His rejection of ideas and reason strengthens his passion through
which he is able to see the permanent, beautiful truth just like a devotee is
able to see God through his faith. The ecstasy of salvation is felt in the
immortality of art. Dr. Rajan Lal highlighted the significance of imagination
in the poems of John Keats. Dr Deena Padayachee from South Africa and Ryan
Gilbert also shared their insightful ideas.
The meet came to an end with the insightful ideas of Prof Ghosh
who mentioned the famous quote by Keats:
"Beauty is truth, truth
beauty,—that is all
Ye know on earth, and all ye need to
know."
He
said that Keats’s poetry was composed under the strain of illness yet it is an
astonishing body of work, marked by careful and considered development, --technical,
emotional, and intellectual -- and it inspires humanity not to give up
under any unfavorable conditions.
The Meet concluded with a silent prayer for the sudden and untimely demise of Mr. Shravan Kumar who, ever since the inception of ELSA, was an integral part of the society.
‘None can usurp this height…’:
Remembering John Keats on the Bi-centenary of his
Death
Nibir K. Ghosh
If anyone
unfamiliar to the phenomenal poetic talent of John Keats cares to visit Keats's grave at the New
Protestant Cemetery in Rome, he or she is bound to wonder at the words engraved
on the tombstone: “This Grave/ Contains/ All That Was Mortal of/
A Young English Poet/ Who/ On His Death-Bed/ In The Bitterness/ Of His Heart/
At the Malicious Power Of / His Enemies/ Desired These Words To Be/ Engraved/ On
His Tombstone/ ‘Here Lies One/ Whose Name/ Was Writ In Water.’ - Feb 24, 1821.”
While on his deathbed, Keats had requested his friend Joseph Severn that the
only words that he wanted on his tombstone should be: "Here lies one whose
name was writ in water." Perhaps, in order to do justice to the name of
Keats,
As an ardent
admirer of Keats’s life and work, I find it significant to see the extended
epigraph against the backdrop of the lines that Keats wrote in the opening
Canto of The Fall of Hyperion - A Dream:
“None can usurp
this height,…
But those to whom the miseries of the world
Are misery, and will not let them rest.”
As a poet
agonizingly troubled by the “weariness, the fever and the fret of living,”
Keats may have desired to transcend the frontiers of mortality by soaring higher
and higher on the viewless wings of poesy or in the company of Bachus and his
pards. Yet, he also must have known even then that he had the supreme ability
to transform his own agony as well as the miseries of the world into
exquisitely beautiful lyrics that would engrave his name with sharpness of
steel on the history of centuries to come. Keats’s lines from The Fall of Hyperion remind us of
another genius, Mirza Ghalib, who expressed in similar terms how creative
geniuses contend with the slings and arrows of misfortune:
“ranj se khungar hua insaan to mit jata hai ranj
mushkilein mujh par pari itni ke asan ho gayi.”
(Once you get accustomed to suffering, suffering it ceases to be;/ So many hardships have befallen me that they have become easy).
In the Indian context, I do not know of any student of English literature who has not read the Odes of Keats either out of compulsion of examinations or for the sheer pleasure of enjoying the renderings of one of the greatest poets of all times. The same may be surmised in relation to poetry lovers in various countries of the world, including “faery lands forlorn” where Keats is read and appreciated in resonance with what Shelley visualized in Adonais, his famous tribute to the memory of Keats: “his fate and fame shall be/ An echo and a light unto eternity!"
Even if we do not take into account the sparkling genius of the poet as evident in his numerous works, I am certain that the dazzling glitter of his few Odes may suffice in enshrining his name in the hall of fame reserved for the immortals. His Odes, especially "Ode to a Nightingale," "Ode to Autumn" and "Ode on a Grecian Urn," stand out as some of the most beautiful and enduring poems ever composed in the English language. The impact of his Odes on the young generation in diverse times, climes and spaces can be best summed up in his own words from "Ode on a Grecian Urn”:
“When
old age shall this generation waste,
Thou
shalt remain, in midst of other woe
Than
ours, a friend to man, to whom thou say’st
‘Beauty
is truth, truth beauty,’—that is all
Ye know on earth, and
all ye need to know.”
Of all the gifts that an inspired poet is endowed with, W.H. Auden placed uppermost “the gift of a very high order for memorable language.” In Keats’s ruminations on life-death, beauty-truth, ecstasy-anguish, transient-permanent, joy-sorrow, mortal-immortal, Autumn-Spring binaries, what remain uppermost are particular lines that remain etched in one’s memory even with a single reading. His imaginative flights of fancy mingle harmoniously with linguistic virtues of strength, precision and clarity; the verbal structures so created are bound to provide emotional as well as intellectual nourishment to the reader.
Note: This is an extract from my Foreword to Darkling I Listen: Diction in the Odes of John Keats (2014) authored by Dr. Mukesh Vyas, Gandhinagar, Gujarat.
Remembering
John Keats on bi-centenary death anniversary E-meet on 9th May 2021
Mukesh Vyas
John Keats’s poetry shows a clear movement and progression from his liking for a life of sensation to his like for a life of thought. “O for a life of sensations rather than of thoughts” – Benjamin Bailey, 22nd December, 1890.
The same development of progress of thought may
be seen in the odes also which shows his poetic power at its best and reveals
him as one of the great poets of English literature. In my present talk, the
word diction is used simply to imply the choice and use of words in poetry.
What guides the poet in his choice of his words? One way to answer this
question is to say that those words are best which are most communicative of
the vision of the poet. John Keats is acknowledged to be both as a great poet
and a conscious artist. He had a fascination for words and phrases in a letter
to Benjamin Bailey 14th May, 1890, ‘I look upon fine phrases like a
lover’.
Common words such as ‘pain’, ‘sorrow’, ‘tears’,
‘pale’, ‘weeping’ express sadness and the expression is made more powerful
through such words as ‘numbness’, ‘weariness’, ‘groan’, ‘despair’, ‘vain’,
‘drowsy’, ‘fatigue’, ‘annoy’. The experience of pain and suffering in the ode
to Nightingale is conveyed through ‘pains’, ‘numbness’, ‘aches’ and
‘drowsy’. All these words when united, also suggest a stage of oblivion or death.
Death, too has been expressed through different words – ‘dies’, ‘quiet-breath’,
‘to cease’:
‘For many a time
I have
been half in love with easeful Death,
Call’d him soft names in many a mused rhym,
To take into air my quiet breath;
Now more than ever seems it rich to die,
To cease upon the midnight with no pain’. –
Stanza 6, line 1-6
The classical allusions are of ‘Dryad’- the
tree nymph and ‘Flora’- the goddess of flowers, both represent life and joy in
the ode to a Nightingale.
A reference to ‘Ruth’ in ode to a Nightingale
is an example of literary allusions. The name refers to a Biblical legend. The
character of ‘Ruth’ represents the feeling of grief, compassion and lonliness.
Keats has used some of the compound words like
‘Sunburnt-Mirth’ and ‘Purple-Stained mouth’. The word ‘Purple-Stained mouth’
carries a tactile suggestion. Keats suggest both tactile and visual sensations
through the word ‘Mossy’.
Keats uses coinages. The word ‘easeful’ in the
ode to a Nightingale, ‘For many a time I have been half in love with easeful
Death’ - Stanza 6, lines 1-2. The adjective easeful when applied to death,
suggests a death that proves a peaceful and even a pleasant experience.
Through the diction in the Keats’s odes, the
use of words shows the variety, richness and high suggestive power of Keats’s genius.
Former Principal, Govt. College, Gandhinaar, Gujarat.
John Keats: The Worshipper of Poetry
Manju
John Keats is one of the best romantic poets who worshipped nature but Keats is the one who worshipped poetry. Almost all the romantic poets had the preference of emotions to reason but none of the romantic poets worshipped poetry as john Keats did. Most of the Romantic poets were literary critics like S T Coleridge and P B Shelley who wrote his Defence of Poetry. In that way they were the theorist also but John Keats did not write any theoretical documents except his letters. Keats expressed his views on poets and poetry in his letters that he wrote to his friends, relatives and even to publishers. In one of his letters to Benjamin Bailey–which Keats wrote early on November 22, after having arrived at Dorking, he writes: “I am certain of nothing but of the holiness of the Heart’s affections and truth of imagination” Generally such words like holiness and sacredness are used in religion and it seems as if poetry is Keats’s religion where he devoted himself to poetry as a true devotee does it to God.
Emotions and
passion are the ways to achieve ecstasy of permanent and immortal truth like
salvation is achieved through faith. Imagination plays a significant role in
this process as the permanent truth is only seen with imagination as he writes:
“What the imagination seizes as Beauty must be truth,”. He prefers imagination
to reason as reason keeps on changing while imagination is permanent. The
beautiful truth is perceived and conceived by imagination. Thus Keats is
creating a spiritual world calling is invisible hence cannot be seen with the
ordinary eyes. One needs to have passion to enjoy beauty that comes through
imagination as the poet writes: “The
Imagination may be compared to Adam’s dream–he awoke and found it truth,” and this is the reason why he cries: “O for a Life
of Sensations rather than of Thoughts!”. It can be only a poet like John Keats
that he could compose the songs of delight though there was nothing except pain
he experienced in his life.
Dr Manju, Associate Professor, UILAH, Chandigarh University
‘Beauty is Truth, Truth Beauty’: A
Reflection on Keats’s Negative Capability
Dhruvee Sinha
In
a pandemic-ridden age, the poems that resonate with us the most are the ones by
John Keats— a poet living in an epidemic. Keats had his fair share of experiencing
death; the demise of his family members— his father, mother and brother shaped his work as did his own ailments. He was aware that the persistent
cough would be his end. The post-mortem of his body revealed that tuberculosis (or consumption
as it was then known)
had ruined his lungs, just like Covid does now. The youthful English poet passed away at just
25 in 1821. A close contact with death had instilled in him a fear of death
even while he lived. He knew he could not escape it, none of us can. So, he
tried to find a way to romanticise the end as well.
In his poems, the idea of death is thousand fold stronger than life— even in a letter written to Frances “Fanny”, of the Brawne family who he was engaged to, but could not marry due to the shortage of a fixed income on Keats’s behalf. In this letter, he says: “I have two luxuries to brood over in my walks, your Loveliness and the hour of my death.” His ability to appreciate death led him to value things that were not usually understood. He coined the phrase 'negative capability' in a letter to his brothers George and Thomas in 1817. In this correspondence, he outlined a novel concept of writing: “I mean Negative Capability, that is when man is capable of being in uncertainties, mysteries, doubts, without any irritable reaching after fact and reason”. It is the skill to perceive a beautiful truth even when it is not backed by absolute logic that Keats applauds in Shakespeare. He was inspired by Shakespeare’s writing not just in form, but content. For instance, there are similarities in Hamlet’s monologue and Keats’s poem On Death. Keats asks, comparing death to sleep, “can death be sleep when life is but a dream?” and in Hamlet, Shakespeare has asked a rather similar question, “For in that sleep of death what dreams may come?”
Beauty is truth, truth beauty – that is all
Ye know on earth and all ye need know
(Ode on a Grecian
Urn, lines 49-50)
Negative capability has been employed
to explain the capacity
to observe, reflect, and function past any assumption of a preordained ability
of the human being. It is indeed a dismissal of established
ideas and predetermined laws of reality. He insisted that the
poet be receptive rather than obsessing over reason. He suggested not to pursue absolute knowledge of every unknown phenomena or doubt. The term identifies the limitations of a
logical construct and its effect upon the
individual, but realizes individual’s will to oppose, defy, and exceed this constrained context.
With all his eccentricities, Keats was a poet of his age. And yet, he is also a poet of our age. A poet who lived in an epidemic, couped up in isolation. A poet of lockdown, exasperation, disillusionment, doubts and even hope.
NIT, Patna.
Now
is forever: Keats’ Theory of Life
Anjali
Singh
Forever…an adverb and an adjective,
meaning – ‘for all future time, for always continually’ and ‘lasting or
permanent’, respectively.
Moving swiftly to the ‘Person’ of our
today’s ELSA meet – John Keats. I would like to share my thoughts as reflected
by his works and words. Keats died young, a mere youth of 26! His life had been
a constant struggle till the end. However, when the universe imposes
challenges, it also balances with ‘blessings’. The ‘Nightingale’ poet had the
gift of poetic expression. In a short life and a shorter poetic career, he
expressed more than expected. His theory being – make the most of the present
and what one has.
I would like to share two of his quotes in
this regards:
1. ‘I
scarcely remember counting upon happiness – I look not for it if it be not in
the present hour – nothing startles me beyond the moment. The setting sun will
always set me to rights, or if a sparrow comes before my window I take part in
its existence and pick about the gravel.’ (Letter
to Benjamin Bailey dated 22 Nov 1817)
2. When by
my solitary hearth I sit,
When no fair dreams before my
“mind’s eye” flit,
And the bare heath of life presents
no bloom;
Sweet Hope, ethereal balm upon me
shed,
And wave thy silver pinions o’er my
head. (Ode To Hope)
Reading about Keats, I arrive at the
following understanding that I will express in condensed form too: He attempted to condense his ‘theory of life’
in his poems. Since he was aware about the facts of his life, he chose
to write about hope and optimism. The fact that ‘Present’ is the only reality;
one must focus on the ‘now’ as it is the only thing that will remain forever.
Thus ‘present’ is the ONLY permanent
reality. I thank Keats for choosing to let his poems speak this philosophy of
his on life.
Dr. B.R. Ambedkar University, Agra
Keats and the importance of his
letters
Saurabh Agarwal
Keats didn’t leave us a legacy of essays that would help us understand
the man he was or the philosophy he was trying to develop. The task of mapping
his poetic mind can be successfully accomplished through the study of his
letters. To understand why Wordsworth wrote what he wrote has to be understood
with the reference to the Preface of Lyrical ballad. It is from this Preface we
come to know that “All good poetry is the spontaneous overflow of powerful feelings” for
Wordsworth. Keats in one of his letters tells us how important his writing
of poetry is.
“I find that I cannot exist without
poetry—without eternal poetry—half the day will not do—the whole of it—I began
with a little, but habit has made me a Leviathan—I had become all in a Tremble
from not having written anything of late—the Sonnet over leaf did me some
good.”
For Keats the importance of imagination and concept of beauty was utterly important. For any person who wishes to take poetry writing seriously will find this sagacious advice from Keats admissible. Thus he wrote:
“In Poetry I have a few Axioms, and you will see how far I am from their
Centre. First I think Poetry should surprise by a fine excess and not by
Singularity—it should strike the Reader as a wording of his own highest
thoughts, and appear almost a Remembrance—Second Its touches of Beauty should
never be half way thereby making the reader breathless instead of content: the
rise, the progress, the setting of imagery should like the Sun come natural too
him—shine over him and set soberly although in magnificence leaving him in the
Luxury of twilight—but it is easier to think what Poetry should be than to
write it—and this leads me on to another axiom. That if Poetry comes not as
naturally as the Leaves to a tree it had better not come at all.”
His emphasis on the role of imagination and beauty in poetry was seen at the pinnacle in poems like Ode to Grecian Urn. This importance has categorically mentioned by him in one of his letters.
“I am certain of nothing but of the holiness of the Heart’s affections and the truth of Imagination—What the imagination seizes as Beauty must be truth—whether it existed before or not—for I have the same Idea of all our Passions as of Love they are all in their sublime, creative of essential Beauty.”
Keats On Death
Shrikant Kulsrestha
Born of humble parentage in 1795, Keats’s father was
manager of a livery stable in Moorefields, who died when he was 8; his mother
remarried, but died of tuberculosis when he was 14. From early period his
poetical bent displayed itself as he studied Spenser, Chapman’s Homer, and the
Renaissance poets. He was as fortunate in his friendships with Hazlitt and
Leigh Hunt as he was luckless in his love with Fanny Brawne. In 1819 he was
apprenticed to an apothecary-surgeon; but the call of poesy was too strong to
be resisted, and from 1817 onward he lived the life of a man of English
letters. He left England for Italy in 1820 and died of consumption in 1821.
Although he has penned myriads of poems like- Endymion
in 1818, Lamia, Isabella, The Eve of St. Agnes, Ode on a Gracian Urn in 1820;
besides these Hyperion, Ode to Autumn, On First Looking into Chapman’s Homer,
La Bella Dame Sans Merci, and The Last Sonnet (Voyage to Italy) etc. But I have
found ‘Keats On Death’ as his most apt, influential and pertinent for this
E.L.S.A. MEET AS THE PANDEMIC Corona is its culminating point; everywhere
people are groping in fear of inevitable death which may be caused by this air
transmitted and fatal Corona virus. Thus, Keats has jotted very beautifully
lines on death. He explains that man terrifies from death but reality is that
man relieves from death and he struggles and gets pains and miseries in life.
Thus, death is the ultimate bliss for him. He has jotted the poem as-
Can
death be sleep, when life is but a dream,
And scenes of bliss pass as a phantom by?
The transient pleasures as a vision seem,
And
yet we think the greatest pains to die.
How
strange it is that man on earth should roam,
And
lead a life of woe, but not forsake
His
rugged path; nor dare he view alone
His
future doom which is but to awake.
In the first part of the poem, the poet contradicts the idea of death being associated with sleep. In the line “Can death be sleep, when life is but a dream,” he creates an idea that when we awake, we are dreaming. People try to participate in this world in order to survive. We do things for the sake of saying we have done something. We are not continuous in what we need to do in order to exist. Last concluding lines imply that our real battle is not our death but us being alive.
ELSA and Shravan Kumar ji
For all the regular participating members of ELSA who invariably gathered for the monthly meetings at Goverdhan Hotel, Agra, the name of Mr. Shravan Kumar needs no introduction. He was the lifeline of ELSA. Always the first to arrive and the last to leave, Shravan ji's contribution to the continuous growth of ELSA simply cannot be measured in words.
Apart from his insightful deliberations and comments based on his real-time experience of elevating human concerns, he always preferred to work behind the limelight. Unconcerned about his professional stature, he would not hesitate to make everyone feel comfortable. He exuded an aura of friendship that was truly infectious.
When, on account of the COVID crisis we switched over to the virtual mode, he would always make it a point to be present irrespective of his other pressing engagements. He may not be with us in his mortal frame but his spirit will always be with us in the very depths of our hearts. We thank you profusely, Shravan ji, for showering so much love on the work ELSA is doing. We reassure you that you will continue to remain our guiding spirit now and ever.
On behalf of all members of ELSA.as well as on my.own personal behalf, our heartfelt condolences are offered to the members of the bereaved family. -- Nibir K Ghosh and all at ELSA.
.
