Nature and Beauty in Keats Great Odes

Seminar paper from the year 2002 in the subject American Studies - Literature, grade: 3 (C), University of Leipzig (FB Anglistics), course: PS: Romantic Poetry, language: English, abstract: This writing focuses itself on John Keats, who lived a short time between the 18th and the 19th century (he was born in 1795 and died in 1821), and his conception of Beauty and Nature. He is considered to have been of great importance at his time, since, by exalting Beauty, he grew as a source of inspiration to many English 19th-century poets, becoming the idol of such writers as Tennyson, Rossetti and the Pre-Raphaelites, as well as Oscar Wilde and the aesthetes, who saw in his cult of Beauty the exaltation of Art for Art's sake. Like most of the literature of the Romantic period, Keats's poetry mirrors the tension between actuality and ideal perfection, always trying to reach it. After providing a short summary of Keats's thought, three of his Odes will be analized, both from the point of view of their content and of their structure, thus letting the reader find the aspects already discussed and helping him to have them clarified