I liked these two poems a lot. I thought "Upon Seeing The Elgin Marbles" was extremely interesting. In context with our discussion of Byron on Tuesday, I thought that Keats dealt with the subject of human mortality in a fantastic way. The end of human life is something common to everyone; everyone must die. And even despite conquests and grandeur in this life, it all inevitably ends in death. I think it's a bit morbid and sad, but I kind of love it. The stanza recognizes the internal struggle of the heart of man, so be a glorified and do well in this life, but is each monumental occasion in this life just another step towards the end? Maybe I'm reading it in a completely macabre way, but what I think Keats is trying to say sounds a bit Pyrrhonic (obviously not to that extreme, but a little reminiscent) and a bit Platonic--nothing in this life can compare to the grandeur of the next life

Even if I'm reading this completely wrong, I did think that is was interesting how Keats changed the limitless ascension of a bird into the sky, a normally positive image, into something sad and echoing death.