Hellenism in keats poetry or keats is a Greek

Just as Hellenism in literature especially in English literature makes it more attractive, John Keats has further enhanced that Archdiocese by using his ingenious Hellenism

Temperamentally, john Keats nourished the same outlook towards life and poetic art as the Greek did and he had profound kingships with the Greek in spirit as such the infinite treasure in the domain of Greek literature, sculpture, and mythology often fascinated him, through his study of the translated Greek classic, Classical directory, and Greek sculpture, he discovered the gems and jewels of Greek literature.

 

Though Keats was an English man by birth he belonged to Greece in temper. Most of his poems are written in Greek background and context English social and political aspects sway very little impact upon him. He was never imbued with the zeal and commitment to reform society as we find with Shelley. He found no philosophy or doctrine in nature as we find with words worth. He was a poet pure and simple and devoted himself to poetic arts. He hated to employ poetry as a vehicle of preaching any ideology. He let his imagination wander in the realm of Greek mythology and art. He exploited Greek myth, legend, and the Greek way of life to enrich and embellish his poetry. His numerous use of imagery manifests his gent for the Greek taste and attitude. The ode on a grecian urn is a monument of the poet’s power entering imaginatively into another world. The readers feel that they are transported entirely to the Hellenic world of beauty, love, festivity, and ritual.

 

Keats’s attitude to nature is particularly peculiar personally natural forces and phenomena. Natural phenomena were named after and led by a particular God or goddess. The sun for example is not a lifeless object; it is represented by Aurora the sun god. He sees the moon and the Goddess with a silver bow coming down. In his poetry every tree comes to have its Dryads, every wood its fauns and satyrs and every spring is a nymph. In fact, the globe of Greek pagan religion lives once more within the poems of john keats with all its sensibility and joy and with all the surprise and mysticism of the flora and fauna. The Greeks had a deep sense of beauty, which was their inborn quality. 

The simplicity and directness of expression which form an important feature of Greek poetry are conspicuously present in Keats's work. Furthermore, his attitude towards life is coloured with the same fatalistic tone as marked by the works of Greek dramatists.

William Wordsworth poet of Nature read more on this link

 

 

In his Odes, we find a blend of romantic impulse with classical restraint. He follows the same orderliness purity and form as the Greeks did in their poetry. His odes express an amazing sense of proportion in the Greek style and project a well-designed evolution of thought. At the same time odes have all the spontaneity and freedom of imagination that characterized romantic poetry. In fact, keats works craved‘s much for Greece with the romanticism of the Elizabethans. Keats in fact brings about a rare union of classical discipline guided by the example and present of the ancient with more intrinsically precious matter which the artist finds in romantic.

 

Hellenism is a word derived from Hellenes the name of a tribe that in the ancient times of prehistoric migration had settled in the part of Thessaly. Hellenes lived in a country named Hellas and The Roman gave the name of Hellas Grecia. Now we undoubtedly may call Hellenes Greek. Our question is that how far Keats is Hellenic being an English man. Fundamentally Hellenism may be defended as a love of Greek art literature culture way of life and such. Considering his entire attitude Shelley once called Keats was a Greek. Here I shall try to explain the points upon which Keats has been called a Greek.

 

First, we notice that hellenism in keats poetry is crammed with Hellenic traits and Greek qualities. The themes and subjects of his poetry have been taken from Greek legends and stories. The themes of his major work such as ‘Endymion,’ ‘Hyperion,’  ‘Lamia,’ ‘Grecianurn,’ ‘Psyche’ etc are taken from Hellas. Learning by heart The Classical Dictionary he was familiar with gods and goddesses of Greek mythology. Diana, Venus, Cupid, Bacchus, Flora, Dryad are the pagan gods and goddesses who have taken place in Keats's poems. For example, the nightingale becomes the ‘’Light winged Dryad of the trees’’, the poet longs for a cup ‘full of the true, blushful Hippocrene’’, and the poet would like to fly to the perfect world of the nightingale ‘’not Charioted by Bacchus and his pards’’. Again a great measure of Keats imagery come from old pagan rituals, censer, shrine, Fane, Pipe, sacrifice, etc.

 

John Keats a poet of beauty read more click this link 

Greek literature also creates an impact upon Keats mind, especially Homer, the blind epic poet, of ancient Greek has captivated his youthful mind. He has read a lot of Homer's writings including, Illiad. The effect of Elgin marbles is a source of his hellenism in literature. The sight of these marbles enabled him to see the ``Calm grandeur’’ of Greek art, its majesty, symmetry, and simplicity. Obviously, Beauty was the goddess of Keats's life and he burnt incense at the altar of Beauty in all its forms and phases, physical, intellectual, and spiritual. From his philosophical concepts of beauty, we come to know that he mingles beauty with truth.

Keats attitude toward nature is particularly Hellenic and the personification of the powers of nature as in the ode to autumn is a peculiar Hellenic quality. He has a great appeal of nature in the consciousness of primal bodily kinship with the earth and quick sensitiveness of its magic of colour, sound, odour, touch, and in the imaginative apprehension of the living forces. I mean that the sensuous appeal makes him more Hellenic. Like the Greek the people's woods and glades. He imagines Dryad in the groves. He combines the classicism of Greece with the romanticism of Elizabethan. He affects the rare union of classical disciples guided by the examples and precepts of the ancient with more precious matter which the artists find in romanticism.

 

Finally, we may say that keats is a greek for the simplicity and directness of expression of his best works. His artistic quality his compound words, compactness, diction follows the Greek artists. He also has the Greek zest for the enjoyment of life. His love of Greek literature and mythology, inclination to pagan gods and goddesses, the admiration of Greek sculpture, its calm and symmetry, above all, his earnest passion for beauty and simplicity, clarity, all prove that Keats is wholehearted, a Greek