John Keats ( ) Here lies One Whose Name was writ in Water

Quotations  Love is my religion - I could die for it.  Beauty is truth, truth beauty, - that is all Ye know on earth, and all ye need to know.  A thing of beauty is a joy forever.  The poetry of the earth is never dead.

 one of the greatest English poets  a major figure in the Romantic movement  One of the Revolutionary Romantic poets

 I. Life and Literary Career  II. Features of Keats’ Poetry  III. Main Works  IV. Selected Poems

I. Life and Literary Career  born in London  very humble origins  Father: the keeper of a livery stable, killed in a fall from a horse when Keats was eight  Mother: died of tuberculosis when he was fourteen

Keats House is close for remodeling until October 2008.

 educated at the Clarke's School  At 15, left school and was apprenticed to a surgeon.  studied medicine in London from1815 to 1816  But he left this profession very soon.

 He read much of Spenser, Milton and Homer.  It was Spenser who awakened in Keats his dormant poetic gift  The first verses which he wrote were in imitation of the Elizabethan Poetry.

Leigh Hunt:  a radical journalist and minor poet  a well-known literary critic  a vital influence on the early Keats  encouraged Keats to take himself seriously as a writer  cultivating Keats with a taste for liberal politics as well as for the fine arts

 Hunt also introduced him to other leading literary figures of the day, among whom were Hazlitt, Lamb, and Shelley.  Hunt and his circle provided Keats with a friendly and encouraging audience.  But Keats had his difficulties at first.

Keats was driven by  an increasingly independent sense of his own artistic potential  a burning ambition to measure himself against the greatest English poets: Spenser, Shakespeare, Milton, and Wordsworth.

 The year 1818 was a difficult one for Keats.  He was able to take the negative reviews of Endymion in his stride( 适应 …), but personal problems began to weigh heavily on him.  As the eldest of four children, Keats felt a special responsibility and closeness to his two brothers and his sister.

 Keats worked hard to earn extra money to help his brother George who had emigrated to America, ran into financial difficulties..

 His younger brother Tom contracted tuberculosis, and Keats cared for him constantly, running the risk, as he well knew, of contracting the disease himself.

 In the autumn of 1818, Keats fell desperately in love with Fanny Brawne,  they soon engaged  an immediate marriage impossible made by Keats's  poor health, poverty, relentless devotion to poetry The year came to a dismal end with Tom's death in December.

 took a much-needed vacation from London in January 1819  spent a few days with some very good friends near the southern coast of England.

 Keats's career was to be cut tragically short just as he was beginning to realize his full potential.  The first clear signs of the tuberculosis he had always feared became apparent in February 1820.

 He weakened rapidly during the spring and summer.  His close friend, the painter Joseph Severn, persuaded him to spend the fall and winter in Italy.  But Keats had given up all hope of recovery.  He died in Rome on February 23, 1821.

 He told his friend Joseph Severn that he didn't want his name to appear on his tombstone, but merely this line: “Here lies one whose name was writ in water.”

 Severn honoured that wish, as the gravestone shows -- Keats is commemorated just as ‘A young English poet’.

II. Features of his poetry

 the odes: Keats's most important and mature works  the subject matter: the poet's abiding preoccupation with the imagination as it unites with the beautiful.

 He has the power of entering the feelings of others--either human or animal.  With vivid and rich images, he paints poetic pictures full of wonderful color.

Keats’s poetry characterized by  exact and closely-knit construction  sensual descriptions  force in imagination  giving transcendental values to the physical beauty of the world

 Keats's poetry: sensuous, colorful and rich in imagery, which expresses the acuteness of his senses.  Sight, sound, scent, taste and feeling: give an entire understanding of an experience.

ode ： definition  a lyrical verse  an ancient form originally written for musical accompaniment.  In general, the ode of the Romantic genre is a poem of 30 to 200 lines that meditates ( 沉 思 ) progressively upon or directly addresses a single object or condition.

 The initial model for English odes was Horace, who used the form to write meditative ( 沉思冥想的 ) lyrics on various themes.  The earliest odes in the English language, using the word in its strict form, were written by Edmund Spenser.

III. Main Works  On First Looking into Chapman’s Homer, 初读 查普曼译菏马史诗有感  Endymion, 安狄米恩  Lyrics: To Autumn, 秋颂  Unfinished: Hyperion, 许佩里恩

 Lamia, Isabella, The Eve of St. Agnes, and Other Poems. including:  Ode on a Grecian Urn, 希腊古瓮颂  Ode on Melancholy, 忧郁颂  Ode to a Nightingale, 夜莺颂  Isabella, 伊莎贝拉  The Eve of St. Agnes, 圣亚尼节前夜

IV. Selected Poems  i. Ode on a Grecian Urn  ii. Ode to a Nightingale  iii. Endymion  iv. Lamia  v. Isabella

i. Ode on a Grecian Urn  1. Introduction  2. Meter  3. Figures of Speech  4. Structure

1. introduction  a lyric poem written in 1819  one of Keats's “Five Great Odes of 1819” which also included  Ode on Melancholy  Ode to a Nightingale  To Autumn

Its inspiration is considered to be:  a visit by Keats to an exhibition  Keats's experience with the aesthetic theories of Haydon, Keats's friend and painter  his collection of Grecian prints

 reflects upon the images on an ancient Grecian urn  addresses his discourse to the images of Ancient Greeks on the urn.

2. Meter  Each stanza has 10 lines written in iambic pentameter.  thou STILL|un RAV|ished BRIDE|of QUI|et NESS,  thou FOS|ter CHILD|of SI|lence AND|slow TIME

3. Figures of Speech  The main figures of speech in the poem are apostrophe and metaphor in the form of personification.

 A.  A. Apostrophe ：  顿呼  a figure of speech in which an author speaks to a person or thing absent or present.

 B.  B. Metaphor:  a figure of speech that compares two unlike things without using the word like, as, or than.  C.  C. Personification:  a type of metaphor that compares an object with a human being.  In effect, it treats an object as a person.

 Apostrophe and metaphor/personification occur simultaneously in the opening lines of the poem when Keats addresses the urn as "Thou," "bride," "foster-child," and "historian" (apostrophe).  In speaking to the urn this way, he implies that it is a human(metaphor /personification).

 D.  D. Assonance ： 准押韵，半谐韵，半谐音 bride of quietness, Thou foster-child of silence and slow time  E.  E. Alliteration ： 头韵 Thou foster-child of silence and slow time, Sylvan historian, who canst thus express

 F.  F. Anaphora ： 首语重复法 What men or gods are these? What maidens loth? What mad pursuit? What struggle to escape? What pipes and timbrels? What wild ecstasy?

 G.  G. Paradox What mad pursuit? What struggle to escape? (The images move even though they are fixed in marble)  H.  H. Oxymoron ： 矛盾修饰法 those [melodies] unheard peaceful citadel (citadel: fortress occupied by soldiers)

4. Structure  a strict structural pattern with each stanza containing 10 lines with ten syllables  The complex rhyme scheme of the poem shows a high level of complexity.

 The 3 rd and 4 th stanzas end with a structure of CDECDE  The 2 nd stanza ends CDECED

 The poem transitions from a scene depicting a lover eternally pursuing a beloved without fulfillment to a scene that describes a village in which its people ventured off to perform a sacrifice.

 The final lines of the poem declare that “Beauty is truth, truth beauty, that is all/ Ye know on earth, and all ye need to know”, a line which has provoked critical consideration.

 The poet has absorbed himself into the timeless beautiful scenery on the antique Grecian Urn: the lovers, musicians and worshippers on the Urn exist simultaneously and for ever in their intensity of joy.

 They are unaffected by time, stilled in expectation.  This is at once the glory and the limitation of the world conjured up by an object of art.

 The urn celebrates but simplifies intuitions of ecstasy by seeming to deny our painful knowledge of transience and suffering.  It shows the contrast between the permanence of art and the transience of human passion.

 希腊古瓮颂 你委身 “ 寂静 ” 的、完美的处子， 受过了 “ 沉默 ” 和 “ 悠久 ” 的抚育， 呵，田园的史家，你竟能铺叙 一个如花的故事，比诗还瑰丽： 在你的形体上，岂非缭绕着 古老的传说，以绿叶为其边缘； 讲着人，或神，敦陂或阿卡狄？ 呵，是怎样的人，或神！在舞乐前 多热烈的追求！少女怎样地逃躲！ 怎样的风笛和鼓谣！怎样的狂喜！ 听见的乐声虽好，但若听不见 却更美；所以，吹吧，柔情的风笛；  不是奏给耳朵听，而是更甜， 它给灵魂奏出无声的乐曲； 树下的美少年呵，你无法中断 你的歌，那树木也落不了叶子； 卤莽的恋人，你永远、永远吻不上 ， 虽然够接近了－－但不必心酸； 她不会老，虽然你不能如愿以偿， 你将永远爱下去，她也永远秀丽！ 呵，幸福的树木！你的枝叶 不会剥落，从不曾离开春天； 幸福的吹笛人也不会停歇， 他的歌曲永远是那么新鲜； 呵，更为幸福的、幸福的爱！

永远热烈，正等待情人宴飨， 永远热情地心跳，永远年轻； 幸福的是这一切超凡的情态： 它不会使心灵餍足和悲伤， 没有炽热的头脑，焦渴的嘴唇。 这些人是谁呵，都去赶祭祀？ 这作牺牲的小牛，对天鸣叫， 你要牵它到哪儿，神秘的祭司？ 花环缀满着它光滑的身腰。 是从哪个傍河傍海的小镇， 或哪个静静的堡寨山村， 来了这些人，在这敬神的清早？  呵，小镇，你的街道永远恬静； 再也不可能回来一个灵魂 告诉人你何以是这么寂寥。 哦，希腊的形状！唯美的观照！ 上面缀有石雕的男人和女人， 还有林木，和践踏过的青草； 沉默的形体呵，你象是 “ 永恒 ” 使人超越思想：呵，冰冷的牧歌！ 等暮年使这一世代都凋落， 只有你如旧；在另外的一些 忧伤中，你会抚慰后人说： “ 美即是真，真即是美， ” 这就包括 你们所知道、和该知道的一切。 查良铮 译

ii. Ode to a Nightingale  It expresses the contrast between the happy world of natural loveliness and human world of agony.  Here the aching ecstasy roused by the bird's song is felt like a form of spiritual homesickness, a longing to be at one with beauty.

 The poem first introduces joy and sorrow, song and music.  Death and rapture which free him into the world of dream.

 My heart aches, and a drowsy numbness pains My sense, as though of hemlock I had drunk, Or emptied some dull opiate to the drains One minute past, and Lethe-wards, had sunk; 'Tis not through envy of thy happy lot, But being too happy in thine happiness --- That thou, light-winged Dryad of the trees, In some melodious plot Of beechen green and shadows numberless, Singest of summer in full-throated ease.

1  我的心在痛，困盹和麻木 刺痛着感官，如饮过毒酒 又像刚把鸦片吞服， 于是向着忘川沉沦： 并不是我嫉妒你的好运， 而是如此地快乐着你的快乐 — 因为在林间嘹亮的天地里， 你呵，羽翼轻盈的森林女神。 你躲进山毛榉的葱绿和阴影， 舒展歌喉，歌唱着夏季。

 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; Where palsy shakes a few, sad, last gray hairs, Where youth grows pale, and specter-thin, and dies; Where but to think is to be full of sorrow And leaden-eyed despairs, Where Beauty cannot keep her lustrous eyes, Or new Love pine at them beyond tomorrow.

3  远远地、远远地隐没，让我忘掉 你在树林中从不知道的一切， 忘记这疲劳、热病和焦躁， 这使人对坐而悲叹的世界； 在这里，青春苍白、削瘦、死亡， 而 “ 瘫痪 ” 有几根白发在摇摆； 在这里，稍一思索就充满了 忧伤和灰眼的绝望， 而 “ 美 ” 保持不住明眸的光彩， 新生的爱情活不到明天就枯凋。

6 我在黑暗里倾听；呵，多少次 我几乎爱上了静谧的死亡， 我在诗里用尽了好的言辞， 求他把我的一息散入空茫； 而现在，哦，死是多么富丽： 在午夜里溘然魂离人间， 当你正倾泻着你的心怀 发出这般的狂喜！ 你仍将歌唱，但我却不再听见 — 你的葬歌只能唱给泥土一块。

 或许这同样的歌也会激荡 露丝忧郁的心，使她不禁落泪， 站在异邦的谷田里想着家； 就是这声音常常 在失掉了的仙域里引动窗扉： 一个美女望着大海险恶的浪花。

8 呵，失落了！这句话好比一声钟 使我猛省到我站脚的地方！ 别了！幻想，这骗人的妖童， 不能老耍弄它盛传的伎俩。

别了！别了！你怨诉的歌声 流过草坡，越过幽静的溪水， 溜上山坡；而此时，它正深深 埋在附近的峪谷中： 噫，这是个幻觉，还是梦寐？ 那歌声去了： —— 我是睡？是醒？

 By combining a tingling anticipation with a lapsing towards dissolution, Keats manages to keep a precarious balance between mirth and despair, rapture and grief.

 The ultimate imaginative view of “faery lands forlorn” evaporates ( 消失 ) in its extremity as the full associations of the word "toll" the poet back from his near-loss of self-hood to the real and human world of sorrow and death.

iii. Endymion  based on the Greek myth of Endymion and the moon goddess.  marked a transitional phase in Keats’s poetry.

 a handsome young shepherd  lived a perfectly peaceful life in a quiet, lovely valley  keeping his flocks of sheep on Mt Latmos

 Sometimes when his sheep grazed happily on some rich grass around, he would lie down on the meadow and sleep soundly, completely free from worldly griefs and cares ．

 One clear, bright night, as Artemis(Selene, Diana 月亮、 狩猎女神 ) drove her carriage across the heavens, her eyes chanced upon a beautiful youth sleeping in the peaceful valley below ．

 Her heart beat with love and admiration ．  She came down from her moon carriage and gave a quick but passionate kiss on his face ．

 Even the sleepy Endymion was fascinated at the sight of the fair maiden as he opened his eyes ．  But the vision disappeared so soon that he regarded the whole scene as a dream ．

Diana & Endymion

 Every night Artemis floated down to steal a kiss from the lips of the sleeping shepherd until her occasional carelessness of duty caused the suspicion of Zeus ．

 The father of gods and men decided to remove the earthly temptation to the goddess forever ．

 He called for Endymion on to him and ordered him to choose between death in any form and everlasting youth in perpetual dreamy sleep ．

 The shepherd chose the latter, and he still slept on Mt Latmos, with the moon goddess sadly visiting and kissing him every night ．

 July 1820  the third and best of his volumes of poetry, Lamia, Isabella, The Eve of St. Ages, and Other Poems  The three title poems all deal with mythical and legendary themes of ancient, medieval, and Renaissance times. iv. Lamia

Lamia  In Greek mythology, Lamia was a Queen of Libya who became a child-murdering daemon.  In later writings she is pluralized into many lamiae (Greek lamiai).

 half-woman and half-serpent.  Her name comes from the "gullet" (Greek: Laimos), since she devoured human children.  Loved by Zeus

 Hera discovered the affair and stole away Lamia's children, whereupon Lamia in her grief became a monster and began murdering children.

 Zeus granted her the power of prophecy as an attempt at appeasement, as well as the related ability to temporarily remove her eyes.

 The poem tells how the God Hermes hears of a nymph who is more beautiful than all.  Hermes, searching for the nymph, instead comes across a Lamia, trapped in the form of a serpent.

 She reveals the previously invisible nymph to him and in return he restores her human form.  She goes to seek a youth of Corinth, Lycius, while Hermes and his nymph depart together into the woods.

 the sage Apollonius reveals Lamia's true identity at their wedding feast.  she returns to her serpent state.  Lycius dies of grief.

The poem explores Keatsian themes such as  the tension between reason and sensation  the illusory ( 虚幻的 ) but potentially redemptive ( 补偿性 的 ) quality of poetry and love

Her two brothers:  discovered the love affair  trick Lorenzo away  murdered him  buried him in a forest

And she forgot the stars, the moon, and sun, And she forgot the blue above the trees, And she forgot the dells where waters run, And she forgot the chilly autumn breeze; She had no knowledge when the day was done, And the new morn she saw not: but in peace Hung over her sweet Basil evermore, And moisten’d it with tears unto the core.

 Her wicked brothers found out the secret.  So they stole the pot and discover the head.  Isabella, deprived of her last consolation, died heart- broken.

每当我害怕 每当我害怕, 生命也许等不及 我的笔搜集完我蓬勃的思潮， 等不及高高一堆书在文字里， 象丰富的谷仓，把谷子收好； 每当我在繁星的夜幕上看见 传奇故事的巨大的云雾征象， 而且想我或许活不到那一天， 以偶然的神笔描出它的幻相；

每当我感觉，啊，瞬息即逝的美人！ 我也许永远都不会再看到你， 不会再陶醉于无忧的爱情 和它的魅力！于是，在这广大的 世界的边缘，我独自站立、沉思， 直到爱情、声名，都没入虚无里。

大连外国语大学 2004 《英美文学》 The following excerpt is from a poem written by A Robert Frost B Carl Sandburg C Robert Burns D John Keats  No, no, go not to Lethe, neither twist Wolfs-bane, tight-rooted, for its poisonous wine; Nor suffer thy pale forehead to be kiss'd By nightshade, ruby grape of Proserpine; ………… And drown the wakeful anguish of the soul.