Wednesday, October 10, 2012
Keats losing spirit
After reading "On Seeing The Elgin Marbles", I decided to break down and figure out what he was saying. He has a lot of metaphors and similes throughout the poem that could get confusing to the reader. I feel that he was trying to tell the audience that he was ultimately troubled by the dark thoughts running through his head. He writes that he feels he must die and , "My spirit is too weak-mortality." This could infer that he has lost hope in trying to fight the battles within his heart. He finds luxury in sadness, while dark glories swarm his brain. To me, Keats seems really confused and just wants to escape because he thinks it is a complete waste of time.
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I had the same interpretation as you. Keats almost appeared tormented by his mortality. He describes having endured hardships in life that should have caused his death but instead he thinks almost obsessively of the fact that he will one day die. It definitely seems like he has some inner-self conflicts.
ReplyDeleteOn a second reading of the Elgin Marbles, I feel Keats believes Greek society was a sort of pinnacle of culture wherein religious belief had a vibrant character. He is lamenting the lose of this, and also the tragedy of his own mortality, as he yearns so strongly to reify the divine.
ReplyDeleteI think part of this emphasis on mortality is the fact that Keats was actually seriously ill during the year 1820 before he passed away in 1821. His mortality was the focus because it was worth his time and effort. It isn't that he "will one day die" but that he is actively dying while writing this poem, at the age of 25.
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