John Keats
(1795-1821)
The good really do die young is never more evident than in the life of John Keats. As a man who could be considered a pop-star of the Romantic Age, his less than a decade run on this period had a huge impact. His most famous works were his many Ode’s. The Ode’s hit several topics including the social high controversy to the social low controversy, while also including many personal letters to family and friends. Within in our first chat we discussed the meaning of romance , and I believe, I may be wrong, that Dr. Glance said that romance is like an unattainable goal or unrealistic. Now, out of all the poets so far, I believe that Keats’ style is the one that does this better than anyone else. His idea of Negative Capability was placed in several poems. Negative Capability is a self-conscious oxymoron of the way of life. Lets take Ode to Nightingale for example. The very first line “My heart aches, and a drowsy numbness pains.” The oxymoron here is that there is no way you can be numb and feel pain. This idea really shows the hurt for his brother in this poem. I feel that pain often is paired with confusion and for him to show that in his writings were brilliant.