THE NOTION OF NEGATIVE CAPABILITY 1

The Notion of negative capability in Keats’s odes that we have studied

Boshko Gochevski
English Literature 4
Professor Anchevski
June 7, 2013
THE NOTION OF NEGATIVE CAPABILITY 1

John Keats is by many considered to be one of the major Romantic poets and one of the

best poets in English literature in general. What makes these considerations stand on a firm

ground is the mere fact that no other poet or author in England, including Shakespeare, Spenser

or Milton, reached at least the same achievements by the time of his death, in his 26th year.

Furthermore, he did not just establish principles, but devotedly followed them in his writings,

which is a worthy indication of his innovativeness. The innovation of the notion of negative

capability is probably what Keats is most famous for, in the realm of philosophy.

But first let us see what in fact negative capability means. “…[T]hat is when man is

capable of being in uncertainties, Mysteries, doubts, without any irritable reaching after fact and

reason.” A paraphrase of negative capability would be ‘a resolution of remaining content with

“half-knowledge”, as he says, without trying to solve the doubts and ambiguities’, which is the

opposite of what Coleridge did in his Biografia Litararia. That was in fact the principal reason

for Keats’s notion. “What is important about the notion for Keats is that it was an enabling half-

truth” (Watts, 1996, p. 34). As a strict follower of his principles, he incorporated them in most of

his output. More precisely, the theory of negative capability is most evident in two of his five

great odes, and those are “Ode to a Nightingale” and “Ode on a Grecian Urn”.

What can be more evident of this notion than the concluding questions of "Ode to a

Nightingale”?

Was it a vision, or a waking dream?

…………….—Do I wake or sleep?

After a meticulously composed ode “of pervasive darkness…and mystery” (Stone, 1992,

p. 79), which through his condition of synesthesia brings us almost side by side with the bird in

its flight or singing on a branch, is it really worth trying to solve the doubt whether we “wake or
THE NOTION OF NEGATIVE CAPABILITY 1

sleep?” This note of doubt, as Stone claims “constitutes an assurance that, wherever the poet’s

mind may soar, his feet will remain on the ground.”(p.79) Although the answer is discerning,

Keats enjoys initiating questions denoting doubt. Doing that, he follows his theory of negative

capability.

The quality of evidence in “Ode to a Nightingale” goes into a quantity of evidence in

“Ode on a Grecian Urn”. Throughout the poem we come across words like “quietness”,

“silence”, “unheard” or “cold” which denote stillness that does not speak, thus leaves us in

“uncertainties, Mysteries, doubts”. Furthermore, the poem is replete with interrogative words

such as “who” or “what” that can be found eight times throughout. What Keats would like to say

is that even though he is surrounded by doubts and mysteries on a daily basis, which exhibits few

of them in the poem in form of questions, he is capable of remaining content even when he has

them not answered.

Living without his deceased parents from his early age, taking care of his younger

brothers, one of whom dies too, and being aware of his untimely death-to-come, he had to find

reasons and ways to abide the conditions of his miserable life. One of these ways is exactly

living on the principles of negative capability. Though primary connection of this notion is with

poetry, yet it has much to do it with his private life. Nevertheless Keats, after death, had the last

laugh. He has lasted, his critics have not. "I would sooner fail than not be among the greatest"

said Keats. Is he among them? Yes, he most certainly is.

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References:

Stone B. (1992). The Poetry of Keats. In The Spring Odes of 1819(pp. 72-85). England: Clays
Ltd, St Ives plc.

Watts C. (1996).A Preface to Keats. In Beauty and “Negative Capability” (pp. 33-34).
Singapore: Longman Singapore Publishers Pte Ltd.