Keats and Shelley: Making Immortality

Paper Summary:

John Keats and Percy Shelley both died relatively young, Keats at twenty-five and Shelley at thirty, and the tragedies of both of these men seems to have added a mythical aspect to their names that would not be there had they lived to old ages. The paper shows that, instead of focusing on the "what ifs" of the two poets, most critics have turned their eyes on examining the actual poetry produced by both poets in their very short lifetimes. The paper examines several works by these poets, such as "Ode to a Nightingale" by Keats and "Ode to the West Wind" by Shelley. The paper also includes quotes from the poems mentioned.

From the Paper:

"The poet eventually realizes that death, however, is not the answer to life's misery. The poet wants "easeful death," and there are requirements for this particular kind of death. For the poet, the main requirement is death while experiencing beauty: "Now more than ever seems it rich to die." Everybody will die, and instead of suffering a long, painful death, he would rather pass away during a happy moment, therefore making death a rich experience. He wrote to Fanny Brawne: "I have two luxuries to brood over in my walks, your loveliness and the hour of my death. O that I could have possession of them both in the same minute.""

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