Wednesday 11 February 2009

Thought poetry is sweet, but spoken poetry is sweeter

We have talked a lot about the form that poetry takes and how that needs to be taken into consideration when considering the overall artistry of a poem. But with Keats' poetry you must also consider the sound of the spoken word. His ability to use alliteration is genius. Take the poem "Ode to a Nightingale" for example, in the 17th line "With beaded bubbles winking at the brim," if you read it in your mind you may just miss it, but if you say it out load then all the sudden your lips are making you feel the bubbles of whatever wine the guy is longing for. Again in line 50, "The murmurous haunt of flies on summer eves" if spoken there is a movement and a vibration made that makes you think of the flies.
It is too bad that Keats died so young because it would have been nice to have more of his poetry and to see how it would have evolved through the years. I think part of the reason he was so good was because he truly wrote according to his rules about having the emotion take over you so strongly that the poetry either flows out spontaneously, or you don't write anything. This belief of his does not take away from any of the other writers greatness, but I only think it adds to his. That sudden spark of genius, like Handel's' "Messiah", is awe inspiring. Perhaps that is what is meant by '"Beauty is truth, truth beauty,"-- that is all Ye know on earth, and all ye need to know", perhaps what he is talking about is living so much in the moment that we are being true to ourselves, to our lives, to the opportunity we have to exist, and by so doing we will be caught up in the beauty of the moment and thus find that the beauty of our soul lies in the moment. The pictures depicted on the urn could not fulfill the measure of creation. They will never die, they will never experience anything but that singular moment, and in that moment Keats finds great beauty, beauty that moves him to the point of "wild ecstasy", and perhaps each and every moment if it could be frozen in time would be that beautiful. Truth in the moment, truth to be able to live in the moment and be truly human, but also to live in the next moment, and the one after that and so on, experiencing every beauty in each moment is also being true to ourselves, and is anything more beautiful than that?

1 comment:

  1. I agree, you really miss half of the poem if it is read in your mind. There is something that brings the poem alive when it is read aloud. Especially with these last few poems we have been reading, most of the meaning and creativity is in the way the words are formed. After reading the posting I went back and re-read Grecian Urn and it really has a different feel. Great insight!

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