John Keats

INTRODUCTION:
John Keats was an English Romantic poet who lived during the 19th century. In his short-lived life, he
faced many ordeals and had to witness death and suffering that shaped him as a poet and reflects in his
work. The ideas and themes he used in his poetry have become associated with ROMANTICISM. Keats'
development of ideas commonly associated with the core philosophical tenets of Romanticism is shown
to be pervasively evident in the following poems: Endymion, Ode on a Grecian Urn, and Ode on a
Nightingale Etc.
SENSUOUSNESS:
Means something that has is realted with our five senses. Sensuousness is that trait of poetry which
influences our five senses i.e., hearing, seeing, touching, smelling and tasting. Sensuous poetry appeals
to our senses.
As a Sensuous Poet:
Keats uses incredibly sensual language to illustrate how he is feeling and what he is imagining which
gives the odes a sensual feeling of being alive. In Keats' "Ode to Autumn" he is using a large amount of
sensual language to try and take us to the place in his mind, his choice of words are hugely important for
making Autumn a sensual Ode. His poetry makes us hear, see, smell, taste and touch the object he
describes. The poetry of Keats is characterized by ‘sensuous’ uses of language. The sensuousness of
Keats is a striking characteristic of his entire poetry. All his poems including his great odes contain rich
sensuous appeal. The odes, which represent the highest poetic achievement of Keats, are replete with
sensuous pictures. Now, we will discuss his sensuousness with examples of his various Odes and poems
in detail.
‘Ode to Nightingale’
“Ode to Nightingale” is one of the most remarkable poems of sensuousness. In the second stanza of this
ode, there is a description of the gustatory sensation of drinking wine.
There are references to the visual and auditory senses too.
The poet also paints the picture of a drunken whose mouth is purple stained because of the red wine he
has drunk:
“With beaded bubbles winking at the brim, And purple-stained mouth,”
In ‘Ode on a Grecian Urn’ Keats’ senses reflected:

Heard Melodies are sweet, but those unheard are sweeter,
Therefore, yet soft pipe play on, Not for the sensual ear, but more endeared,
Pipe to the spirit ditties of no tone
Here John Keats describes the sense of hearing. The speaker is tempted by the eternal newness of the
piper's unheard song. Here in these lines shows that Keats had a unique gift of communicating with
senses. The sense in his poetry is so deep that Louis MacNeice calls him “Sensuous Mystic.”
Keats heard a Nightingale’s song in the garden and compose a poem ‘Ode to the Nightingale’ to inspire.
The most sensuous odes of him when heard the song of a Nightingale:-
The happy Queen-Moon on her throne Clustered around her starry fays
But there is no light…….
Beauty was the creed of Keats, so he escapes in to the world of beauty away from the work- a day
world of weariness. He says: Beauty is truth, truth beauty….. In the sense of sight
John Keats also describes beauty and says: Her hair was long, her foot was light And her eyes were
wild……
In the sense of touch he says in his poem ‘La Belle Dame Sans Merci’:- The sedge is withered from the
lake And no birds sing.
In the sense of Smell Keats describe beauty of Nature. I can’t see what flowers are at my feet Nor what
soft incense hangs upon the boughs, But in embalmed darkness, guess each sweet.
Conclusion:
Keats always selects the objects of his description and imagery with a keen eye on their sensuous
appeal. This sensuousness is the principal charm of his poetry. A general recognition of this quality leads
to the consensus that Keats’s poetry is particularly successful in depicting, representing or conveying
‘reality’ or experience that his poetic language displays a kind of ‘solidity’ or concreteness capable or
convincing the reader of the reality of what it communicate and persuading him, almost, to imagine that
he is literally perceiving the objects and the experience that the verse describe.

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John Keats

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INTRODUCTION:

There are references to the visual and auditory senses too.

“With beaded bubbles winking at the brim, And purple-stained mouth,”

In ‘Ode on a Grecian Urn’ Keats’ senses reflected:

But there is no light…….

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