The Benefits of Pain and Suffering Explored By John Keats
Name:Tremayne Gomes
Student Number:211476462
Professor:Bruce Flattery
Course: English Romantics
Date: Apr/19/15
The Benefits of Pain and Suffering Explored By John Keats
Johnathan Keats was not accustomed to an easy life as he went through an immense amount of suffering having lost his father, mother and brother before the age of twenty-four. As most would wonder, how does one who has gone through so much pain and suffering make sense of it all? In response to this question, Keats in his poetry emphasized making positives out of unfortunate circumstances and in poems such as Ode to Melancholy and Fall to Hyperion he establishes the belief that pain could be beneficial to life and something worth embracing. He states this perspective himself in a letter he wrote to George and Georgina Keats in May 1819 stating “Do you not see how necessary a world of pains and troubles is to school an intelligence and make it a soul? A place where the heart must feel and suffer in a thousand diverse ways...” (Melani). As a poet Keats saw it as part of his goal to make sense of this universal feeling and normalize the aspect of human suffering and in the two poems mentioned above we can understand his unique view on this theme. In Ode to Melancholy the subject matter is light as Keats tells us that we must accept both qualities of life pain and pleasure suggesting that we not shy away from our inner troubles. However, in Fall of Hyperion the tone is much more mature and serious as the work strongly suggests that one can only be a great poet by emphasizing with human anguish and Keats criticizes poets who refuse to talk about the dark realities of life.
Ode to Melancholy In Ode to Melancholy Keats suggests to his readers that they should accept feelings of melancholy and sadness instead of fighting them. He believes that when people are suffering they naturally want to make themselves numb to these negative emotions, but instead they should become more
Student Number:211476462
Professor:Bruce Flattery
Course: English Romantics
Date: Apr/19/15
The Benefits of Pain and Suffering Explored By John Keats
Johnathan Keats was not accustomed to an easy life as he went through an immense amount of suffering having lost his father, mother and brother before the age of twenty-four. As most would wonder, how does one who has gone through so much pain and suffering make sense of it all? In response to this question, Keats in his poetry emphasized making positives out of unfortunate circumstances and in poems such as Ode to Melancholy and Fall to Hyperion he establishes the belief that pain could be beneficial to life and something worth embracing. He states this perspective himself in a letter he wrote to George and Georgina Keats in May 1819 stating “Do you not see how necessary a world of pains and troubles is to school an intelligence and make it a soul? A place where the heart must feel and suffer in a thousand diverse ways...” (Melani). As a poet Keats saw it as part of his goal to make sense of this universal feeling and normalize the aspect of human suffering and in the two poems mentioned above we can understand his unique view on this theme. In Ode to Melancholy the subject matter is light as Keats tells us that we must accept both qualities of life pain and pleasure suggesting that we not shy away from our inner troubles. However, in Fall of Hyperion the tone is much more mature and serious as the work strongly suggests that one can only be a great poet by emphasizing with human anguish and Keats criticizes poets who refuse to talk about the dark realities of life.
Ode to Melancholy In Ode to Melancholy Keats suggests to his readers that they should accept feelings of melancholy and sadness instead of fighting them. He believes that when people are suffering they naturally want to make themselves numb to these negative emotions, but instead they should become more
Citations: 1.Melani, Caryl. "Excerpts from Keats 's Letters." New York University. Web. 20 Apr. 2015. 2.Keats, John. John Keats: The Complete Poems. London: Penguin Classics, 1977. Print. 3.Schmidt, Hendrik. “Aspects of Classicm In John Keats ' Poetry From Endymion To The Fall of Hyperion