Name: Muhammad Raees

Registration No: 1938-FLL/BSENG/F18

Section: B

Life Of John Keats

Most of the Romantic poets have a miserable life. John Keats also had great miseries in life.
His experience of life was highly transient and impermanent. He was sure that this life is
temporary and mortal and he attempted to make this life immortal by means of art and
imaginations. This Idea is reflected in his poems. Below are some experiences of his life that
has been reflected in his work.

Escapism from sufferings

The life of John Keats was full of miseries. His father died at the age of 9 and his mother
remarried and broke up after some time. His mother also died when he was 15 years old. His
brother suffered in Tuberculosis that was a fatal disease in those times and then died in 1818.
He became itself a victim of this fatal disease. In those times he also fell in love with a girl
named Fanny Brawne but was unable to marry her because of his fatal disease. Now In such
circumstances he was well aware about the reality of this world and everything in this world
was impermanent to him. He faced a harsh reality of life. In his famous poem “Ode to
nightingale” , He wanted to escape from the reality and deserved to fly away with nightingale.

Fade far away, dissolve, and quite forget

What thou among the leaves hast never known,

The weariness, the fever, and the fret

Here, where men sit and hear each other groan;

In the above stanza he wanted to escape from the reality because he explained that this
life is full of miseries and sufferings. We can observe his experience about the life. He expressed
this thought in many places in this poem.

That I might drink, and leave the world unseen,

And with thee fade away into the forest dim: -

He says that he would like to drink a cup of wine or Hemlock or From Lethe in order to forget
the miseries of life. As we have already said that his real life was too short and full of sufferings.
Imaginations have no bounds, so the beauty of imaginations is limitless.

Mortality of life
John Keats suffered from Tuberculosis and was sure that he would not live long. So he
realized the mortality of life. Beside his father and mother died in his childhood, his own
brother died in front of him. He saw so many tragedies in his life that he realized the transience
of this world. He was of the view that only art will remain and physical body is temporary and
will soon comes to an end. This is completely true, John Keats died centuries ago but he is still
alive in hearts of the people because of his great work in the field of literature.

Where palsy shakes a few, sad, last gray hairs,

Where youth grows pale, and spectre-thin, and dies;

Where but to think is to be full of sorrow

And leaden-eyed despairs,

In the above stanza, he is talking about his own life. Like “where youth grows pale”
indicate to the death of his own brother who died in youth and he himself was a victim of it and
was sure that he will also die in his youth.

Miseries of life
Keats own life was full of miseries, hence he wanted to seek the real pleasure only in
abstract things and imaginations, He tried to create a world of imaginations that is so beautiful
that he deserved to die in such an ecstasy. He received harsh criticism from the critics of that
time and his work was not appreciated. He was a great romantic poet and likewise all the
romantics he also made excessive use of imaginations. According to him the only pleasure lies
in imaginations and beauty of nature.

Darkling I listen; and, for many a time

I have been half in love with easeful Death,

Call’d him soft names in many a mused rhyme,

To take into the air my quiet breath;

Now more than ever seems it rich to die,

 In this poem he made his imaginative world so beautiful that he wished to die in such moments and
will feel no pain if he dies in such an environment. Keats was known as a poet of beauty. He creates
beauty through his imaginations. Actually Keats loved a girl but he was unable to marry her because of
Tuberculosis and he knew that he will die soon. So he was hurted by the fate of life. In Ode on a Grecian
Urn he convey this idea that in real life even if you love a girl and you unite together but sooner or later
your love will comes to an end because you will grew older and ultimately you will die. As well your
beloved will also goes through the same stage.

Bold Lover, never, never canst thou kiss,

Though winning near the goal yet, do not grieve;

She cannot fade, though thou hast not thy bliss,

For ever wilt thou love, and she be fair!

In the above line he might have observed a figure on a Grecian urn that was placed in a
museum and was thousands of years old. In the figure a man is trying to kiss a girl, though it is
only a figure so has been paused in such posture. Keats says that if you were in real life, then
although you may have kissed her but ultimately you might be dead and in this posture your
beloved is in front of you that is always young and beautiful.

For ever warm and still to be enjoy'd,

For ever panting, and for ever young;

So in fact John Keats failed in real life love, So he wanted to say that this image is of much
more value than the reality. John Keats was not succeeded in his love, So with the help of
imagination he is trying to enjoy the eternal love.