Imagination in Keats
Imagination in KeatsImagination in Keats
John Keats was writing in an era of romanticism where imagination, freedom, and innovation were becoming present in the writers of this time period. "Ode on a Grecian Urn" is a renowned poem written by Keats during the romantic era. If a person were to read any of Keats poems, one would realize that a newly emergent style is present in all of his works. "Ode on a Grecian Urn" exhibits signs of imagination through the work with the ideas it speaks about. Since imagination is the highest ideal and the most important thing in the world, Keats brings this idea to life with the descriptions of music, love, and youth. He wants the reader to imagine a world through the urn and not to see what would be present if the urn could act out the apparent scenes it portrays.
Keats writes about seeing a man playing the pipes and how sweet the music is. The urn has placed a frozen image in time of people playing music and he writes about how the music is sweeter unheard. "For ever piping songs for ever new." To the speaker, the unheard song is forever new and wishes for the music not to play to the sensual ear for fear of damaging the thoughts of sweet music in his head. He is afraid that the beauty the urn exhibits will tell a greater tale then the image he sees. The speaker must believe that the imagination is the greatest thing because he wishes not to hear any of the music. He would rather look to the urn and see a man pictured smiling and staying on key then having the real thing present and playing.
The piping music is the ideal form of music when viewed from the urn. Since the urn has pictures frozen in time, one can see the pipe players always pictured the same way. This idea can make the observer hear the unheard music in his head and create a new song in his mind. Keats wanted to show the whole realm of imagination and he does this by explaining the sweet music and the pictures it portrays. "Ode on a Grecian Urn" shows full imagination because it deals with the observer's imagination toward the urn. "Heard melodies are sweet, but those unheard are sweeter�" The point that Keats wanted to get across is that many people could look at the same urn and have a mental picture in their mind and by using their imagination create thoughts that are pleasurable to them.
The urn also includes pictures of love. Keats explains how "two bold lovers never kiss," and how much more pleasurable that picture is then seeing them kiss. He realizes that love has two sides to it and he sees the side of anticipation. "More happy love, more happy, happy love." Since the act is never completed, he does not know the whole story. The loves...
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