John Keats: Day 1

"O for a Life of Sensations rather than of Thoughts!"
letter to Benjamin Bailey, Nov. 22, 1817

Points of Reflection

1. how does the meter and rhyme scheme contribute to tone in both Keats's "La Bella Dame Sans Merci" (Apr 1819; 1820) and his "Ode to a Nightingale" (May 1819; 1819)?

2. what aural effects does Keats create in "To Autumn" (Sept 19, 1819; 1820)?

3. explain Keats's claim that the "Cold Pastoral" on the urn of Keats's "Ode on a Grecian Urn" (1819; 1820) proves itself a "friend to man" (ll.45, 48). With what, that is, does the piece of visual art described here provide the viewer?

4. do the following words from Keats's letter to Benjamin Bailey (Nov 22, 1817) anticipate similar ideas in Browning's "Abt Vogler," or are the two positions on the human condition (and eternity) fundamentally different? " . . . another favorite Speculation of mine, that we shall enjoy ourselves here after by having what we called happiness on Earth repeated in a finer tone and so repeated . . ."

"La Belle Dame Sans Merci" (c.1902)
Frank Dicksee

Paul Marchbanks
marchban@email.unc.edu