Analysis of on Sitting Down to Read King Lear Once Again

John Keats immortalized many of his experiences in poems; when he saw the Elgin marbles, he wrote sonnets commemorating the moment, and his explorations of favorite fiction usually led to Keats reflecting upon his reading, and finding a way to apply it, then, to his life, his views his way of looking upon the globe. At that place are some scholars, for example, who find myriad similarities between Keats' Odes and 'King Lear', a play that featured heavily in Keats' life. 'On Sitting down to Read King Lear Once Again' was written in 1816.

          On Sitting Down to Read King Lear One time Again                    John Keats                    O aureate-tongued Romance with serene lute!     Fair plumed Syren! Queen of far abroad!     Leave melodizing on this wintry solar day,  Shut up thine olden pages, and be mute:  Bye! for once once again the fierce dispute,     Betwixt damnation and impassion'd clay     Must I burn through; in one case more humbly assay  The bitter-sweet of this Shakespearian fruit.  Main Poet! and ye clouds of Albion,     Begetters of our deep eternal theme,  When through the old oak forest I am gone,     Permit me not wander in a barren dream,  Just when I am consumed in the burn down,  Give me new Phoenix wings to fly at my desire.

Explore On Sitting Down to Read King Lear In one case Again

• 1 Summary
• ii Detailed Assay
• iii Historical Background

Summary

In the poem, Keats fights against his ulterior urge to create in gild to indulge in 1 of his greatest passions: that of re-reading the play, King Lear, one of the almost influential of all of Shakespeare'south work. 'King Lear' is a play about family and misery, duty and birthright, and how one's opinion can atomic number 82 to tragedy. Information technology is 1 of Shakespeare's most revered plays, played constantly over the years to crowds of packed audiences; and it is no secret why the play itself is one of Keat'due south favourites. 'Rex Lear' is all about bamboozlement and joy and misery, things that Keats himself saw echoed and repeated in his own life, and tried to echo and echo in his own work.

Detailed Analysis

Lines one-4

O gold-tongued Romance with serene lute!
   Fair plumed Syren! Queen of far away!
   Leave melodizing on this wintry day,
Shut up thine olden pages, and be mute:

Characteristic of Keats' work, the poem opens by referencing his own piece of work: he calls information technology a 'golden-tongued romance with serene lute', thereby referencing his own classical leanings, knowing full well that the verse form. He references the 'syren', which were Greek creatures, sea nymphs that played tunes to lure sailors into the h2o and to their expiry; they are normally conflated with beauty, and so their inclusion in the opening lines is to show the beauty of his ain muse, the beauty of writing poetry, that he is putting aside so that he tin focus on the play. He references, of course, the 'queen of far away', which might talk near Keats' own difficulties composing, simply without farther reference, this would be incommunicable to verify. Largely, the opening stanza is effusive enough to set the scene of what will be a short and brief introduction into Keats' romantical leanings.

He bids, then, for his muse to exist all the same and quiet – 'shut upward thine olden pages, and be mute' – and begs her to become away. Note the expansive manner that he sends his muse away, and the referencing to 'wintry', which brings upwardly an image of loneliness.

Lines 5-8

Good day! for once once more the fierce dispute,
   Betwixt damnation and impassion'd clay
   Must I burn through; over again humbly assay
The biting-sweet of this Shakespearian fruit.

In the second part of 'On Sitting Down to Read King Lear Once more', he talks about what he volition do instead of creating poesy: he is going to read 'the bitter-sweet of this Shakespearian fruit'. It is worth noting the way that he says 'must I burn through', placing the human activity of reading 'King Lear' as an almost-compulsion, equally though it is something that he must desperately become through before the twenty-four hour period is over. His feelings for the play are so strong that he is setting bated what John Keats believed to exist his calling in club that he could read it.

'Bittersweet' fully references the play, as the penultimate tragedy of King Lear is that when he is reunited with his disgraced girl, Cordelia, and has attained her forgiveness, Cordelia dies.

Lines 9-fourteen

Chief Poet! and ye clouds of Albion,
   Begetters of our deep eternal theme,
When through the old oak forest I am gone,
   Let me non wander in a barren dream,
But when I am consumed in the fire,
Give me new Phoenix wings to fly at my desire.

Shakespeare is the 'Chief Poet'; it is no secret that Keats profoundly admired the corking masters of English literature, which included, Milton and Shakespeare, and that there was a resurgence of their work during the Romantic era which led to a greater revisitation of the themes that they wrote about. For Keats, Shakespeare was the master of tragedy and beauty. His plays, even the tragedies, are a bear witness of mastery in the English language, and information technology is idea that Keats certainly aspired to write some way like to Shakespeare, but this would, again, be difficult to approve. 'Albion' references to the United Kingdom, the land where Keats and Shakespeare wrote.

Keats finishes the poem with this musing: he does not want to wander 'in a barren dream', which could reference a mural that he himself has created, a landscape that is barren only considering he has non yet written the poem that he was to take written, just that he wants to be 'consumed in the fire'. It could be taken that Keats himself, although lauding his muse earlier, has no inspiration left to write something that would consume him, and is instead of putting it off and then that he could read through King Lear, one of his greatest inspirations. The supposition follows on with the final line – 'requite me new phoenix wings to fly at my desire', thereby showing that Keats would like a new variety of muse, a new way of writing, and a amend way of viewing the world, all of which he thinks he can attain through a re-reading of Male monarch Lear.

IT is not ane of Keats' most infamous poems, just 'On Sitting Downwards to Read King Lear Once again' provides a rarely-seen side of Keats. The reader is used to Keats the effusive poet, the Keatsian dialogue betwixt tragedy and happiness, and the reflection upon beauty, but this verse form is well-nigh simplistic compared to the rest of Keats' piece of work. It does not sink into the dreams that Keats has and so often written nearly, or focus on the dazzler that has taken identify in all of his piece of work, simply instead provides a view of the author that somehow humanizes him far more anything else he has written. In the verse form, Keats' insistence that he does nothing but reading allows the reader to witness him in a less than a thrilling land, and while it does not dissolve any of his mastery and mystery, it deepens Keats as a character.

Historical Background

He wrote a long letter to George the next spring nigh his ideas of salvation. "The whole appears to resolve into this; that Human being is originally 'a poor forked creature' subject to the aforementioned mischances as the beasts of the forest." Human could exist saved by forming an identity in the face of hardship, through the world'due south "vale of Soul-making" and not through any Christian otherworldly "vale of tears." Every bit Lionel Trilling points out, this is also the story of King Lear, "the history of the definition of a soul past circumstance." This "tragic salvation" was "the only conservancy that Keats institute information technology possible to excogitate": "the soul accepting the fate that defines it." And as it happens, Keats had introduced his "system of salvation" by slightly misquoting a line of Lear's in which the king calls Edgar, disguised equally poor Tom, a "poor bare, forked animal," a scene before Edgar says, "The foul fiend haunts poor Tom in the voice of a nightingale." Keats wrote "Ode to a Nightingale" early that May, shortly afterward his letter to George.

– Comparisons between Keats and Male monarch Lear, past Adam Plunkett.

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