John Keats Poetry Thread

[Menang]

Discuss and share interpretations, favourite poems, analysis' and other resources you find!

[saaaaaam]

This probably won't help you at all but watch Bright Star! It has beautiful imagery.

[Menang]

This probably won't help you at all but watch Bright Star! It has beautiful imagery.

Haha, thanks! I'll try to get around to doing that when I get time.



Has anyone starting studying Keats yet?

I've been trying to write a couple of close-analysis practices, but I'm dismally failing.
Working on Ode to Psyche now. :S

[fady_22]

I have some 3 passage essays on Keats. They aren't very good at all, and that is why I chose not to do Keats for the exam.

I'll share these, though.

[Menang]

I have some 3 passage essays on Keats. They aren't very good at all, and that is why I chose not to do Keats for the exam.

I'll share these, though.

Hmmm. There's no actual passage essays in these uploads - just sets of 3 passages to practice from (which is still useful ).
Did you maybe upload the wrong documents?

[fady_22]

Haha, no.
I didn't want to upload them. They are terrible. But just to see what you should NOT do, I'll upload what I can find.

[Menang]

oOoooh right, I understand now.

Sorry, I must have misinterpreted.

I haven't read them thoroughly to tell if they're "what not to do", but write you wrote on Ode to Psyche is proving useful!

Thanks!

[fady_22]

I had never done poetic analysis before, so I didn't know how to identify techniques very well. There is really no mention of techniques in my essays, which is something that you should include.

[Menang]

I had never done poetic analysis before, so I didn't know how to identify techniques very well. There is really no mention of techniques in my essays, which is something that you should include.

Hmmm... what exactly do you mean by techniques? I did refer to things like use of enjambments and punctuation in my analysis of When I have fears but mostly I just refer to specific words and what it conveys... :S

[fady_22]

Poetic techniques.
I think the structure of the poem is just as important as what is contained within the poem, and you should comment on this in your essays. Don't be too reliant on imagery.

[Menang]

Poetic techniques.
I think the structure of the poem is just as important as what is contained within the poem, and you should comment on this in your essays. Don't be to reliant on imagery.

Thanks.

So things like form, structure (rhyming, length of stanzas etc) would also be important, yeah?

Something like this:

The length of this quatrain is cut short; the abrupt end of his contemplation is marked by a colon in the middle of its fourth line, representing the abrupt end death will bring, resulting in unfinished love and unachieved ambitions. The last three and a half lines of the poem convey a stark change in tone; instead of the intensely built up descriptions of nature, of creativity or of love, it describes a “wide world” where Keats “stand(s) alone”.

?

[fady_22]

That is exactly what I meant.

[Menang]

That is exactly what I meant.

Awesome, thanks so much!

[Menang]

Hello fellow lit-students!

I have here a practice close analysis on On the Sea (Just a paragraph on the poem - no emphasis on actual interpretation or throughline like in an actual essay). Could someone maybe please have a look and critique it? Harsh criticism is good. I've been trying really hard to convey the "feel" of the poem (that's my weakness, according to my teacher) so I'm focusing more on that.

   On the Sea opens with a sense of the mystical – the sibilis present in “whisperings” and “desolate shores” evoke a sense of both isolated serenity and supernatural secrecy, setting the scene for Hecate’s “spell”, where this is again present in “shadowy sound”. This appeals to the reader’s sense of hearing – conjuring sounds of echoes of the whispers, soft and shadowy in the hollow cavern. The grandeur of the sea’s waves is represented in the long, drawn out vowels of “thousand” and the imagery of “gluts twice ten thousand caverns” and “swell”, evoking a picture of a powerful force that occupies an unimaginably massive space. This, as well as the understated sense of the mystic, sets the sea apart as something extraordinary, something beyond the daily lives of human beings. The second quatrain marks a change in focus for the sea – the alliteration of the quick, abrupt consonants in “’tis” and “gentle temper” redirects the reader’s attention to the more minute details of the sea, evoking images of the individual grains of sand on the beach, or the distinct drops of water. This is reiterated in “scarcely”, “very smallest shell” and “lightly moved” – Keats immerses the reader in the finest movements and details of the scene, drawing them in to fully experience the calmness brought by the sea. The poem ends with a sextet that abruptly changes the tone and mood of the poem – Keats is proclamatory in his call to all who are tired and disturbed. The use of “Ye” to begin the sextet, and again in “sit ye near” and “until ye start” directly commands the reader to go to the sea, thus portraying the sea as a place of restoration. The plosive descriptions of the symptoms of ordinary living – “eyeballs vex’d and tired”, “hearts disturb’d” and “uproar rude” are discomforting to the reader, forcefully disrupting the previously fluid description of the waves and the shells. Finally, the image of “sea nymphs quired” ends the poem on a brighter note, alluding to a spark of inspiration and enchantment and music, and bringing about ideas of all that is creative.

Thanks!

[EvangelionZeta]

Very briefly annotated - can't do too much, or else it hurts the integrity of my tuition, although your writing is excellent anyway (meaning that there wasn't that much to critique).

Only problem I would have is that this is a commentary, not a close analysis, but you've already covered that in your in-post disclaimer.  In the actual thing, just remember that this part of the analysis should be a bit more structured; other than that, you're pretty much set, and I would say that the sky's the limit for you.  =)