Assignment - 3 - Ode and Keats

TOPIC OF THE BLOG:-

This blog is part of an assignment for the paper 103 - Litrature of The Romantics, Sem - 1, 2022.

ODE AND KEATS

TABLE OF THE CONTENTS:-

• Personal Information
• Assignment Details
• Abstract
• Keywords
• Introduction
• John Keats
• What is an Ode?
• The Pindaric Ode
• The Horatian Ode
• Common Characteristics of Ode
• Odes by John Keats
• Morden Thoughts on Ode
• Works Cited

PERSONAL INFORMATION:-

Name:- Pooja Anilbhai Bhuva

Batch:- M.A. Sem 1 (2022-2024)

Enrollment Number:- 4069206420220005

E-mail Address:- poojabhuva2002@gmail.com

Roll Number:- 17

ASSIGNMENT DETAILS:-

Topic:- Ode and Keats

Paper & subject code:- 103 - Literature of the Romantics & 22394

Submitted to:- Smt. Sujata Binoy Gardi, Department of English, MKBU, Bhavnagar 

Date of Submission:- 7th November, 2022

About Assignment:- In this assignment I try to explore how Keats related to Ode, Types of Ode and How many he wrote and Influenced by it.  

ABSTRACT:-

'A lyric poem typically of elaborate or irregular metrical form and expressive of exalted or enthusiastic emotion.'

- ('Ode on a Grecian Urn') John Keats

Odes written by other Poets and by John Keats had a notable difference. Not only with other Poets but his own works differentiated from each other. It's really interesting to see how his Sonnets and other forms of Poetry different when one compares with his Odes. 

KEYWORDS:-

Ode, Lyric, Horatian Ode, Pindaric Ode, Emotions, Romantic, Enthusiasm, 

INTRODUCTION:-

When one wants to know about Ode, they should start from the Poetry. Poetry is the musical utterance of man's emotional self. It expresses feelings or noble thoughts in the beautiful language. If one can see from the outer look, Poetry is divided into Subjective poetry and Objective poetry. The Subjective poetry is personal in character while The Objective poetry is impersonal. The subjective poetry is sub - divided into six types:-

1. The Lyric 
2. The Ode
3. The Sonnet
4. The Song
5. The Elegy
6. The Hymn

"The Ode lives upon the Ideal, The Epic upon the Grandiose, The Drama upon the Real."

- Victor Hugo 

Poetry, of course it's base of Ode but Ode is a more meaningful and thoughtful form of Poetry. John Keats, Alexander Pope, William Wordsworth, Allen Tate, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, Thomas Gray, Percy Bysshe Shelley and many more Poets give a different meaning to Ode. But the most impactful Ode is by John Keats. 

JOHN KEATS:-

John Keats was born on 31 October, 1795 in London, England and died on 23 February 1821 in Rome, Italy. A great Poet of the Romantic period in the same era in which Percy Bysshe Shelly and George Gordon Byron developed. His is best known for his works like 'Endymion', 'Hyperion', 'Isabella', 'La Belle Dame sans merci', 'Lamia', 'Ode on Grecian Urn', Ode to Psyche', 'Ode to a Nightingale', 'On First Looking into Chapman's Homer', 'On Indolence', 'On Melancholy', ' Poems', 'Sleep and Poetry', 'The Eve of St. Agnes', 'The Fall of Hyperion', 'To Autumn', etc. (Hough)

His father's name is Thomas and his mother is Jennings Keats. He was the eldest of four children. Even though he lived a small life, he had the most remarkable career of any English Poet. Republic fifty-four poems. Although he is now seen as part of the British Romantic literary tradition, in his own lifetime Keats would not have been associated with other major Romantic poets. Although Keats had a liberal education in the boy’s academy at Enfield and trained at Guy’s Hospital to become a surgeon, he had no formal literary education. (John)

WHAT IS AN ODE?

The word 'Ode' has descended from the Greek word which means a 'song'. It was used by the Greeks for any kind of lyric verse, and any kind of song sung, with the musical instrument by the lyre or to the accompaniment of some sort of dance. The Ode is a special kind of lyric. It is more dignified, stately and elaborate than a simple lyric and originated in ancient Greece. The first Ode was written by the Greek poet Pindar. Later on the Ode was practiced with certain changes by the Roman poet, Horace. 

In English Literature, Ode may be defined as a lyric poem of elaborate metrical structure, solemn in tone and usually taking the form of address, very often to some abstraction or quality. 

'A strain of enthusiastic lyric verse, directed to fixed purpose and dealing progressively with one dignified theme.'

- Edmund Gosse

There are from the ancient times Two Kinds of Ode exist:-

1. The Pindaric Ode
2. The Horatian Ode 

THE PINDARIC ODE:-

This Ode was also called Choric Ode. Pindar was the greatest lyric poet of ancient Greece. He is considered as the father of the Pindaric or Choric Ode. It was written in the dialect of the district of Doria and that is why it is known as the Dorian Ode. Thomas Gray used this type of Ode in his Poems. It is a three stanza structure which is repeated throughout the poem like Strophe, Antistrophe - that is melodically harmonious - and Epode. It is a formal type of form. 

THE HORATIAN ODE:-

It is called Horatian Ode after the name of the great Latin poet Horace. This Ode also known as Lesbian Ode as it had florished in the Island of Lesbos. In the poems of Andrew Marvell he used the Horatian type of Ode. It is a two or four line Stanza that share the same Meter, Rhyme Scheme and Length. It traditionally explores intimate scenes of daily life. 

COMMON CHARACTERISTICS OF ODE:-

• The Ode is in the form of an address, often to some abstraction. 
• It is not written about but written to.
• It has lyric enthusiasm and emotional intensity. 
• It is a spontaneous overflow of the poet's emotions. 
• Usually the theme of an Ode is dignified and exalted. 
• It has high seriousness.
• An Ode has an elevated style which covers its elaborate theme. 
• The development of thought in an Ode is logical in clear.
• Its metrical pattern may be irregular but it is always elaborate. 

But when we talk about particular characteristics or rules to write Poem, Song, Ode, Ballad or any other lyrical form every poet has Liberty to make change in any of it. So, in The English language Odes were written very freely and beautifully by famous Poets like Ben Johnson, John Milton, Thomas Gray, Spencer, Collins, John Keats, PB Shelley and Lord Alfred Tennyson. 

ODES BY JOHN KEATS:-

John Keats wrote his famous Odes in 1819 and these Odes also known as 1819's Odes by John Keats. These Odes include 'Ode on a Grecian Urn', 'Ode on Indolence', 'Ode on Melancholy', 'Ode to a Nightingale', 'Ode to Psyche' and 'To Autumn'. 

ODE ON A GRECIAN URN:-

Written:- 1819

Published:- 1820

This is his most famous work in his life and describes the beauty of an Urn. After looking at the pattern of the Urn he was really impressed by it and wrote a very beautiful Ode. It is a five stanza Ode and each Stanza has 10 lines. An urn is a work of art, and Greek Urn in its basis has been known for the outstanding pictures adorned on its sides. The first four stanzas of the poem consist mainly of the description of such things, and he defines the painted sides of imagined Urn. The first picture is about the boys chasing some girls naked. The second picture is about a man and woman lying under a tree, and the man is playing music. In the Urn, a man was singing a pipe song without being tired. At that time, he did not attend the song, but he felt the sensation and beauty of pipe music. In the last he described that the paintings of branches, maidens, and weeds will never get rotten because they have been frozen for eternity. 

ODE ON MELANCHOLY:-

Written:- 1819

Published:- 1820

The poem started with the lines in which Keats abandons to go towards the Lethe River even if you are sad. The Poisonous water of the Lethe River will not give you satisfaction even after erasing your memory. Further he says Your forehead might become pale of sickness and sadness but don’t allow the nightshade to overcome your body. Even if the wine of the underworld queen is looking attractive and you want to drink it, don’t allow yourself to show your weakness that you are miserable and depressed. The last lines of the poem is like Melancholy never forgets those who taste its low power. 

Through this poem he describes that nothing lasts forever, not beauty, not happiness, not sadness, not sorrow or any emotions and anything in this world, not even this world. 

MORDEN THOUGHTS ON ODE:-

Modern Literature or Modern thought is important in every aspect and in every planning. We consider modern time very important to literature because modern time means new ideas, new thoughts, new plans, unique writing, and so on. When one talks about modern literature or any topic of literature they imagine writers and poets like Virginia Woolf, D.H. Lawrence, James Joyce, Joseph Conrad, E.M. Forster, Marcel Proust, A.L. Huxley, Franz Kafka, William Faulkner, T.S. Eliot, Edith Sitwell, W.B. Years, Auden, Stephen Spender, etc. But apart from this famous writer, what other people thinks it's also interesting to know. 

'If an offer comes my way, I would love to sing in every Indian language. It will be like an Ode to my fans from every corner of the country.'

- Yo Yo Honey Singh 

He is a famous Indian singer who is famous for his rap style singing. He is a good example of popular culture. He considered Ode as an important emotion to express his feelings. Through this line one can say, it doesn't matter what type of song You sing or write, but Ode is important and common for all types. It's an emotion that can be expressed in every language and in every form. 

'No poet is required to write in stanzas, or indeed in regular forms at all. Coleridge's 'Dejection: an Ode' has a rhyme scheme and sequence of long and short lines that goes without regular pattern, following the mood and whim of the poet. Such a form is known as irregular Ode.'

- James Fanton

What this Poet told us I totally agree with. As William Wordsworth says, when we are full of feelings and there is spontaneous overflow we write from the heart and it gets the deepest meaning. The style of Irregular Ode followed by coleridge as he is a writer of fiction and spirituality.  

WORKS CITED:-

Hough, Graham Goulder. "John Keats". Encyclopedia Britannica, 27 Oct. 2022, https://www.britannica.com/biography/John-Keats. 

“John Keats.” Poetry Foundation, Poetry Foundation, www.poetryfoundation.org/poets/john-keats. 

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