Wednesday, March 27, 2013
Seasonal transitions
Although
both Keats’s “autumn” and Shelly’s “Ode to the West Wind” contain both seasonal
changes they have different interpretations of autumn. Keats interpretation contains
more of a dying love most likely a forbidden love that is flourishing “ close
bosom-friend of the maturing sun” but has to end due to natural circumstances-,
hence the autumn “death” and hook or scythe reference. He could also be referring
to his physical condition, the fact that he had developed tuberculosis that
very year of 1820 and would be dying very soon “summer has o’er-brimmm’d their clammy
cells” this sudden realization that once he was very healthy and lively but as
the summer ends and the fall approaches he too is falling apart and dying along
with nature. For Shelly I think the most probable reason for which he wrote Ode
to the West wind was because of his dear friend Keats’s illness “ whose unseen presences
the dead leaves are driven”.
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I think it's very likely that Ode to the West Wind was Keats' condition, but I wasn't thinking about that the first time I read it. Going back and looking at it again, I can easily see how Keats' condition could have been inspiration for the poem. I also think how it's interesting how different their approaches to autumn were...and I must say Ode to the West Wind was a much more difficult read.
ReplyDeleteThe imagery from both poems was stunning but I think that Keat's poem was better than Shelley's due to the fact that Keat's melancholy about his own illness adds a layer of weight to his words and imagery rather than Shelley's who's words and imagery only seem to manifest a since of melancholy about the change of seasons and his pain at Keat's death.
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