John Keats Essays

Analysis of “La Belle Dame Sans Merci” The poem “La Belle Dame Sans Merci” by John Keats is a poem full of imagination, dreams, romanticism, and mystery. It tells us of a knight wandering about the cold bare countryside, where he meets a mystical woman. It is hard to tell from the poem whether or […]

“On the Grasshopper and Cricket” by John Keats is a one stanza poem with Interesting rhyme scheme. The poem is one stanza but seems divided In two for summer and winter. For the summer portion (first eight lines) the rhyme scheme is BAOBAB. The winter portion (remaining six lines) the rhyme scheme Is ABACA. This […]

The Eve of St. Agnes opens in a cold, desolate chapel where the reader is presented with religious imagery: the Beadsman, the rosary, the pious incense and picture of the Virgin Mary. The Beadsman is a stark contrast to the other characters because he rejects worldly pleasures and is in constant isolation so that he […]

In this extended piece of writing I am going to compare and contrast ‘Exposure’, a poem written by Wilfred Owen, to a poem written by Ted Hughes, ‘Thistles’.’Exposure’ is a poem about the men who are fighting in the First World War and are suffering from the effects of the weather and the formidable conditions […]

The romantic era rose out of and in response to the logical, more retrained forms of literature composed in the age of reason. It promoted the exploration of creativity in thinking, the joys of discovery and the enthusiasm and wonder evoked by mans complex relationship with nature. John Keats “On First Looking into Chapman’s Homer” […]

Poets find consolation in nature through various writing techniques. These include the use of similes, metaphors and imagery. Often, poets use personification in order to give nature, and natural objects human characteristics. Romanticists wrote poems expressing the beauty of nature in order to revolt against the Industrial Revolution. The Industrial Revolution took place between the […]

During the Victorian era, there was significant transformation as a result of the industrial revolution. Urban areas rapidly expanded, causing an influx of rural residents seeking employment in factories and mills to escape impoverishment in the countryside. The disappearance of the countryside was a fast-paced development that caused writers like John Keats, Gerard Manley Hopkins, […]

A lot of Romantic era poets wrote about change, the change from misery to happiness. Many wrote about there sadness and problems they had but then spoke of what could help them become happier such as another person, an object, nature or even just song. “London 1802” by William Wordsworth “Ode to a Nightingale” by […]

Although written over 80 years apart, the ballads “La Belle Dame Sans Merci” and “A Trampwoman’s Tragedy” share similarities. Both convey a vague sense of love and possible death, with a dreamy or illusory tone and innocent main characters. “La Belle Dame Sans Merci” was written by John Keats on April 21, 1819 as a […]

In my essay, I want to discuss the different aspects of love, which are presented by several of the Romantic poets who wrote during this period of great poetic creativity. I am going to discuss how one group of poets saw love as a pleasant experience, whilst the other group of poets see love as […]

In this piece, I will discuss how love can be a painful encounter for certain individuals, using “La Belle Dame Sans Merci” and “Bredon Hill” as examples. These two poems illustrate distinct aspects of love: one explores the physical repercussions of love, while the other showcases the emotional aftermath of love. I will begin by […]

Predominantly found in Keats’ poetry, there are noticeable contrasting relationships between reality and ideals, rationality and imagination, as well as physical sensations and logical reasoning. Keats experienced a pronounced dichotomy between the allure of aesthetic beauty and physical sensation versus intellectual clarity and reason. For Keats, genuine perception involved pure sensation devoid of mental limitations. […]

O golden-tongued Romance with calm luting! Fair plumed Syren! Queen of far off! Leave melodizing on this wintry twenty-four hours. Shut up thine olden pages, and be deaf-and-dumb person: Adieu! for one time once more the ferocious difference. Betwixt damnation and impassion’d clay Must I burn through ; one time more meekly assay The bitter-sweet […]

John Keats’s poetry was greatly influenced by the Romantic Period and the Romantics, appreciation and exaggeration of nature’s beauty. Keats’s believed that the deepest meaning of life lay in the appreciation of material beauty, and that this beauty could be found in many different objects. He expresses this idea through the form of poetry. ‘To […]

“When I Have Fears” by John Keats and “Mezzo Cammin1” by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow can both be seen as poems written to show that death is inevitably drawing nearer. In both poems, symbols and diction are used to help the reader contrast the two separate works, and through these techniques, these two men elucidate on […]

Ode on a Grecian Urn was inspired by a collection of Greek sculpture which Keats saw in the museum. Partly, perhaps, the inspiration for the poem was derived from a marble urn which belonged to Lord Holland. In giving us the imagery of the carvings on the urn, Keats was not thinking of a single […]

When I have fears that I may cease to be, by John Keats, portrays the poet’s fear of dying young and being unable to fulfill his ideal as a writer and loses his beloved. Based on the use of sensuous imagery, it is clear that visual image dominates the use of imagery and there are […]

Keats uses many methods to tell the story in his poem ‘La Belle Dame sans Merci. The story is first hinted at in the title, which translates as ‘The beautiful woman without mercy. For those who know of Keats’ background, it is easy to associate this poem with his instinctive distrust of women. Keats’ mother […]

Eternity and immortality are phrases to which it is impossible for us to annex any distinct ideas, and the more we attempt to explain them, the more we shall find ourselves involved in contradiction – Wiiliam Godwin, Political Injustice. The writers of the Romantic period found in immortality a topic which was not only of […]

Individualism, Balance and Nature Hannah Costley Veering away from the conventional attitude, fuelled by ideas of individualism and political liberty, authors, poets, intellects and playwrights played a part in the Romantic Movement of 1790-1860. Influenced by the French Revolution and the works of Jean Jacques Rousseau and William Godwin, intellectuals and artists strove to breakaway […]

Hobbes and Locke were both natural law theorists and social contract theorist, but their views on social contract differed. First, according to Locke, people give up their own rights with the main objective of exacting retributions for their own crimes so that they can get impartial justice that is backed by overwhelming forces. Therefore, people […]