Escapism is the most important ingredients of romantic poetry.

John Keats is called the most romantic

poet of his era because he is the most escapist of them all. He was born in an era when everyone was
talking about revolutionary ideas. It was the only subject matter to write on but Keats kept himself away
from it. He is a pure poet. Poetry of Keats has no morality. He writes poems that directly hit the senses.
His poems are entirely based on imagination. Poetry for the sake of poetry is his agenda. Every ode of
John Keats is evident that he is an escapist. He always finds a way of creating fancy world so that he may
forget worries of his life.

Poetry of Escapism:

Poetry of escapism is associated to John Keats. If a poet writes romantic poetry than he definitely is an
escapist. This kind of poetry deals with imagination. John Keats finds this world brutal, therefore, he
wants to go far away from it. Even he is ready to accept death as witnessed in “Ode to Nightingale”.
Sufficiently, poetry of escapism is the name of fleeing from real world and living in the world of
imagination.

John Keats is the Most Escapist among Romantic Poets:

John Keats has a good power of imagination. He does not find any difficulty in its creation. In that world
he quests for beauty. Several reasons are there due to which he prefers ideal world to to world of reality.
He does so because he

quests for Beauty.

wants to forget pains and sorrows.

finds peace and harmony in imagination.

loves past.

Quest for Beauty:

John Keats loves beauty. For him, “A thing of beauty is joy forever”. In pursuance of it, he creates a fancy
world. His vision helps him in this regard. “Ode to Nightingale” is an example of it, wherein he creates a
perfect imaginary world. This ode is a dream but it pleases the senses aesthetically. It should be
remembered that romantic poets do not seek for a perfect world; instead they create it with the help of
their imagination.

John Keats does not only find beauty in nature but also in art. “Ode to Grecian Earn” can be referred in
this context. He says that art is beautiful and everlasting In this ode too, he escapes to fancy world and
quests for beauty.

Sometimes he finds beauty in art, sometimes in song of nightingale and somewhere he appreciates
nature. He can find beauty in each and everything even in truth. In “Ode to Grecian Urn”, he writes:

“Beauty is truth, truth beauty, —that is all / Ye know on earth, and all ye need to know”

Hence, pursuance of beauty forces John Keats to be an escapist.