With Keats

Half of the morning today I spent with Keats. I have read him several times and this revision was a sort of reunion. When you read and penetrate into a beloved writer at different stages of your life, you happen to come close to him more and more.

Its quite funny to recollect, how for the first time when I read Keats’ quote , “A thing of beauty is a joy for ever.” (Endymion) I felt repulsion towards him. An instant hatred. Which anyone in my mind’s status would have felt. Perhaps I thought myself too ugly or un-beautiful. I saw this beauty in relation with physical beauty. How trifle my mind had been at that time. When after few years of that misunderstanding I read ‘Ode to Grecian Urn’ and its famous quote, “Beauty is Truth and truth beauty, All ye know, and need to know on earth.” I was perplexed. I didn’t accuse him or anything but I tried to go into deep and find what truth he had to present here. But again I couldn’t dive into the meaning easily.

Keats to me seems to be an Icon of Youth – a dreamy youth. And also of a path to Truth which worships Beauty. To an ordinary person this may sound ridiculous, for beauty and truth seems two poles apart. But if you telescope, you find them synonyms. And to avert the prejudice against Keats philosophy you need to speculate upon all his poems. For  Keats beauty does not only dwell in joyful things but it also resides in Melancholy. Scenes, things or feelings which arise melancholy may also be beautiful because there has some truth in them too, and so death also contains beauty in it. Truth and Beauty are thus inseparable.

Keats had a fine eye for beauty. And this is truly wonderful. Though the path of beauty to Truth sounds the best and without sorrows and struggles but this is not so. For Keats’ own life is an example of the perils, pains and sufferings one has to face in spite of choosing such perfect seeming path. In all Odes of Keats , the Melancholic note is prominent. His joy of beauty is not without the sorrows.

Keats aspires for the eternal beauty in the form of immortal Nightingale but he also finds beauty in the Songs of Autumn. This beauty has two facets. And both are welcomed by Keats. He is definitely not an idealist and escapist. He knows the reality of the world – the world of mortal sufferings and still he is able to find his song in it.

As I had said above, when you a love an author you gradually find a parallel of him inside you. You discover your own face which is akin to him. For a romantic, Keats could be such a beloved author. He is so natural , so ingenious and so very profound that you can take a walk with him time and again.