Ode to a Nightingale, Ode on a Grecian Urn, and Ode to Autumn Essay

Ode to a Nightingale, Ode on a Grecian Urn, and Ode to Autumn The unconcerned reader of John Keats poetry would most certainly be impressed by the exquisite and abundant detail of its verse, the perpetual freshness of its phrase and the inordinately rich sensory images scattered throughout its keys. But, without a deeper, more intense reading of his poems as mere parts of a larger whole, the reader whitethorn miss specific themes and ideals which be not as readily apparent as are the obvious stylistic hallmarks. Through Keats eyes, the world is a military post full of idealistic smash, both artistic and natural, whos inherent immortality, is to him a constant reminder of that man is irrevocably subject to decay and death. This theme is one which dominates a large portion of his late poetry and is most readily apparent in three of his most famous Odes To a Nightingale, To Autumn and on a Grecian Urn. In the Ode to a Nightingale, it is the ideal beauty of the Nightingales song - as permanent as nature itself - in the Ode on a Grecian Urn, it is the graven image of beauty as art transfixed and transfigured forever in the Grecian Urn - and in the Ode to Autumn it is the exquisiteness of the season idealised and immortalised as part of the natural wheel - which symbolise eternal and idealistic images of profound beauty. In Ode to a Nightingale, Keats uses the central symbol of a bird to exemplify the perfect beauty in nature. The nightingale sings to the poets senses whose ardour for its song makes the bird eternal and thus reminds him of how his own mortality separates him from this beauty. The poem begins My heart aches, and a drowsey numbness pains (Norton 1845). In this first line Keats introduces his o... ...fused by the true essence of his subjects for a bird must die and an urn must crumble and are but symbols of things imagined. Keats however, does discover his elusive eternal beauty in his Ode to Autumn, realising that it is mothe r nature, with her ever recurring seasons and perfection of purpose that is profoundly beautiful. Growing, maturing and dying are no longer avoided in Ode to autumn, they are embraced and accepted as necessary for the continuity of the seasons cycle. Keats, through his poetry, is constantly reminding us that the moment, whether short of duration or eternally present, is to be savoured for all things that exist in mans world are subject to decay and death because our ability to perceive them is limited. The world is no longer simply a place of song birds, pleasing art and proceeds laden trees, but a world of profound and everlasting beauty.