Keats Escapism

KEATS' ESCAPISM 1. Imagination and nature as a source of poetry KEATS is probably the only romantic poet apart from BLAKE, whose present rank is obviously higher than it was in the nineteenth century and the rank given to him by critics and poets of that period. He formulated his own views about nature, function and place of poetry. According to KEATS, the proper organ of poetry was the imagination and its ultimate aim was the creation of beauty by going as close to nature as possible. The major characteristic of KEATS poetry especially in his odes in an unending pursuit of beauty . KEATS pursued truth indeed but truth for him was beauty. He was gifted with extraordinary sensibility and had an ardent passion for the beauty of the visible world.

2. Keats indifference to outside world KEATS had no interest in the world outside. According to STOPFORD BROOK, all the poetry of KEATS' time was influenced by the political and social aims, which were forced into actuality by the French Revolution - WORDSWORTH, COLERIDGE, SCOTT, BYRON were all affected in one or the other way by it. But in the poetry of KEATS', the ideas of the Revolution have not found a place. And again according to STOPFORD BROOKE: "KEATS was so pre-occupied with beauty that he turned a blind eye to the actualities of life around him."

3. Causes of Keats Escapism There are many other causes for his escape from actual life, the removal of George and his wife, physical ailment aggravated by the Scottish tour, the sting of sexual passion and finally, the fatal decline of Tom. So all the things compelled him to take refuge in the imaginary ideal world of Flora and Pan, free from the pains and sufferings of the actual world. But the fact is that, he was not altogether, an escapist. It was only a short phase in his life. And with the passage of time he was able to accept life with its realities and actualities. "Ode to a Nightingale" is KEATS' experience with the bird. He acquires a full imaginative participation in the untroubled life of the nightingale and says:

"Thou wast not born for death, immortal bird No hungry generations tread thee down" But at the end of the poem, he suddenly comes back to the actual world of worries and difficulties.

4. Keats return to the world of Reality "Ode on a Grecian Urn" is a contrast between life and art. Here KEATS' seeks consolation in the permanent beauty of art. The Urn to him is a symbol of still unravished beauty in the midst of human misery. But again he faces the final realization that the world of an even though imaginative world cannot provide a permanent refuge to man. So man must come back to the world of reality after a

brief stay in the world of imagination. That is why KEATS comes back to the real world, saying that Urn does not have the organism of life and the "marble figures" on the Urn are "cold". "Ode on Melancholy" deals with the strange dilemmas of human life, in KEATS' peculiar style.

"Ay in the very temple of Delight Veil'd Melancholy has her Sovran shrine." These are imagined moments of heightens consciousness of KEATS. It means that man must enjoy the pleasures of life to their full intensity because these pleasures can’t be over at any moment, but one should prepare oneself for the gloomy period of one's life well in advance.

5. Keats maturity and realization of reality "Ode to Autumn" is a mature poem of KEATS' odes. In other odes we see him as a romantic KEATS but here he is able to communicate the feelings of fulfillment by resolving dream and reality. We see him accepting the reality when he says.

"Where are the songs of spring? Ay where are they? Think not of them, thou hast thy music too." By observing all these poems it seems that KEATS is looking for some experience or image, which will suspend the process of age, time, decay and weariness; pain and loss and carry him through the act of poetic imagination into a vision which combines intense joy with stability and peace. But at last the poet is called from contemplation of his central image to recognize the fact of time and transience and realize that the earlier image is incomplete.

6. Keats-not an escapist rather an explorer So we cannot write all these as "escapism". KEATS is not an escapee, he is an explorer. The poetic ventures of these poems start from a base-camp in the painful realities of living, and they return from there when they must. So because of this reason MIDDLETON MURRAY says: "KEATS submitted himself steadily, persistently, unflinchingly to life and had the capacity to see and feel what life is" So it is obvious that KEATS is not an escapist. It was only a short phase in his life that he wanted to escape from the miserable truth of reality, what KEATS termed "Misery and heartbreak, pain, sickness and oppression." But soon he realizes the fact and wants to embrace the world with all its miseries and sufferings, with an openness of mind and life and death, happiness and pain, health and disease, spring and autumn are the integral part of life.