John Keats Research Paper

The Romantic Era was a literary movement that lasted from 1750 to 1870 throughout Europe, the United States and Latin America. It praised imagination over reason, emotions over logic, and intuition over science - making way for a vast body of literature of great sensibility and passion. An example of a poet that embraces these traits is John Keats which can be evident in throughout his poems. Keats uses strong imagery as well as personify objects, which can be evident in one of his poems ‘Ode on a Grecian Urn (1819)’. Another poem similar is ‘La Belle Dame Sans Merci (1819)’ which is inspired by the sickness and death of his brother. Both use romantic tenet such as Nature and imagination.

To begin with, John Keats’ poem ‘Ode on a Grecian Urn’

This outlines the

The poem was written shortly after John Keats brothers death as a result of tuberculosis, John Keats uses this as an inspiration for La Belle Dame Sans Merci Ballard and possibly as means to cope with his brother's death. The influence his brothers battle with illness and subsequent death can be seen through the following quotation “I see a lily on thy brow, With anguish moist and fever-dew, And on thy cheeks a fading rose, Fast withereth too.” This is evident through both his descriptions which describe fever and the growing paleness of his brother through the use of a metaphor. This indicates to the responder that the death of John Keats brother is a clear influence in the writing of this poem. The text is host to the romantic tenants of the imagination and the sensual appreciation of nature. The romantic tenants of the imagination are evident through his representation of his brother as a knight who is symbolic of nobility, the woman outlines the romantic tenant of the supernatural as she is depicted as a siren and a angel of death. These tenants are evident through the following quotations “And this is why I sojourn here, Alone and palely loitering, Though the sedge is withered from the lake, And no birds sing.” The knight is symbolic of John Keats brother this use of this symbolism indicates the romantic tenant of the imagination via