Paradox in John Keats Odes

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Name: Gohil Poojaba S

Roll No.: 18

Std.: M.A. Sem.2

Sub.: Paper No.5

The Romantic Literature

Assignment Topic:Paradox In John Keats Odes

Summited To:M.K.Bhavnagar University

Year:2015­­:2017

Paradox in John Keats Odes:

Defination of Paradox:

A statement or proposition that seems self contradictory or absurd but in reality expresses a possible term.

The term Paradox is comes from the Greek word Paradoxon that means contrary to expectations,existing belief or perceived opinion.

It is a statement that appears to be self contradictory or silly but may include a latent truth.it is also used to illustrate an opinion or statement contrary to accepted traditional ideas.A paradox,is often used to make a reader think over an idea in innovative way.

Examples of Paradox:

1)What a pity that youth must be wasted on the young…(George Bernard Shaw)

2)Truth is honey which is bitter.

From the above examples of Paradox,we can say that paradox creates a humorous effect on the readers because of its ridiculousness.

How in Literature Paradox works:

In literature,paradox is not just a clear or comical statement or use of words.paradox has serious implication because it makes statement that often summarise the major themes of the work they are used in.let us analyse some paradox examples from some famous literary works:

In George Orwell’s Animal Farm,one part of the cardinal rule is the statement.

“All animals are equal,

But some are more equal than others.”

This statement seems to not make any sense,however on closer examination,is gets clear that Orwell points out a political truth.the Government in the novel,claims that everyone is equal but is has never treated everyone equally.it is the concept of equality stated in this paradox that is opposite to the common belief of equality.

In the famous play if Shakespeare,’Hamlet’,the Protagonist Hamlet says,

“I must be cruel to be kind.”

This announcement dose not seem to mae sense.how can an individual treat others kindly even when he is cruel..?however Hamlet is taking about his mother and how he intends to kill Claudias to avenge his father`s death.

This act of Hamlet will be a tragedy for his mother who is married to Claudias.Hamlet does not want his mother to be the beloved of his father`s murderer any longer and so he thinks that the murder will be good for his mother.

From Shakespeare`s “The tragedy of Romeo and Juliiet”

“The earth that`s nature`s mother is her tomb,

What is her burying grave,that is rainbow in her womb.”

The contradictory ideas of the earth being the birthplace and a graveyard make these lines paradoxical.

In his short lyric “My heart leaps up when I behold.”William Wordsworth remembers the joys of his past and says:

“Child is father of the man”

This statement has seemingly incorrect proposition but when we look deep into its meaning,we can see the truth.the Poet is saying that the childhood experiences become the basis for all adult occurrences.the childhood of a person shapes his life and consequently “Fathers” or creates the grown up adult,so Child is father of the man.”

Functions of Paradox:

Why is paradox used when a message can be conveyed in a straightforward and simple manner..?

The answer lies in the nature and purpose of literature.one function of literature is to make the readers happy to reading.readers enjoy more when they extract the hidden meanings out of the writing rather than something presented to them in an uncomplicated manner.thus,the chief purpose of a paradox is to give pleasure.

In poetry,the use of paradox is not confined to mere wit and pleasure,rather it becomes an integral part of poetic diction.poets usually make use of a paradox to create a remarkable thought or image out of the words.

Some types of paradox in poetry are meant to communicate a tone of irony to its readers as well as lead their thoughts to the immediate subjects.paradox in most of the poems normally strives to create feelings of integral and interest in readers`s minds to make them think deeper and harder to enjoy the real message of the poem.

Paradox in John Keats Odes:

As Brook says,

“The language of poetry is the language of paradox”

Paradox is a characteristics of Keats poetry and thought.it can be found in the following Odes by Keats:

1)Ode On A Grecian Urn:

Written probably in May 1819

Ode On A Grecian Urn is based on a series of paradoxes and opposites.

This ode,together with Ode To A Nightingale are generally thought of as Keats best.

Let us glimps on it in search of paradox as a center element.

Stanza second begins with an idea which,if taken literary,makes no sense:

“Heard melodies are sweet,

But those unheard are sweeter”Lines:(11,12)

Here if we see so there can be no “Unheard”melodies.however,in Line 13 & 14 Keats is creating a paradox in that the pipes on the urn sound “Not to the sensual ear” but “To the spirit”.

Music “Heard” through the imagination can be even sweeter than that heard through the ear.by pipe music the subject:the youth is singing to his girl that is accompanied.through “sweet” and “soft” here we can see the establishment of nature of this music.the reminder of the stanza goes on to express the central truth about the urn:the idea that the ecstasies portrayed are frozen forever in poses which suggests the anticipation of desire but which can never be fulfilled.the stanza get end with another paradox which has the image of the lover who can never kiss when he is so close to winning to his goal even,but he should be happy nevertheless with the thought that:

(Lines:19,20)

“She can not fade,though thou hast not thy bliss,

For ever wilt thou love,and she be fair”

Third stanza continues with the picture that created in the second stanza and further developes the paradox that is at the heart of the poem which is captured perfect joy and fixed by art gives more ecstatic pleasure than joy experienced in life as a passing movement and as such is transitory.

The subject of the stanza this time is the girl who frozen in time on the urn is

“For ever panting,and for ever young”

(Line:27)

In stanza IV,the scene depicts a procession led by a priest taking the sacrificial cow to the altar.Keats poses the questiones of who these people are and to what altar they are leading the beast.the idea of this pagan crowd involved in sacrifice contrast strictly with the two lovers described earlier.Keats does not dwell on this,however,but moves on to imagine a scene not depicted on the urn:

Line:35,37

“What little town by river or sea shore,

Or mountain built with peaceful,

Citadel is emptied of these,

Folk this pious morn?”

The town normally a place full of life,is empty and dead that raises another paradox in the scene here.the idea of death is even introduces the idea of the sacrifice.

The fifth stanza serve as a summary of the poem.the poet reconsiders the whole urn reflecting that:

“Thou,silent form,dost

Tease us out of thought as dost eternity”

(Line:44,45)

A new perspective he can presents in the urn through this change of viewpoint.he now views the urn as an object,a thing without life and the pictures that it displays as “Marble Men” and the scene a “Cold Pastoral” however,this cold,lifelessness of the urn does not tell the whole story.Keats has come to see that the urn does not tell A tale,it is the tale.the urn deliveres its final message as a “Friend to men”(Line:48) and to each generation as it comes along.the final message:

“Beauty is truth,

Truth beauty,

That is all

Ye known on earth,

And all ye held to know”.

(Line:49,50)

Has provoked much scholarly debate and is both cryptic and paradoxical.beauty to Keats,though,represented an experiences rather than a concept and experiences intensely felt can be considered as truth.on the other hand,truth would have to be beautiful in that it must stimulate our deepest feelings in order to be true.

The final affirmation is more to do with how we know rather than what we know,in other words we know through intensely experienced feelings as opposed to rational thought.

2)Ode To A Nightingale:

Written:The exact date that this ode was written is in some doubt but it is dated May 1819 and references suggests that it may have been written in Mid may.

Ode To A Nightingale is the longest of Keats odes and is the most personal in an autobiograohical sense.it is worth noting that in classical times the nightingale was a bird associated with poetry and love and set apart from other birds by its beautiful song.in medieval times the bird was associated with the idea of courtly love often figured in poetry and literature generally.the poem opens with a sense of pain and numbness:

“My heart aches,

And a drowsy numbness pains/My sense”

(Line:1,2)

The comparison to ‘Hemlock’,a poisonous herb,and “Some dull opiate” (Line:3),reveal this “Ache” to be of a particular kind.this seems to bethe kind of pain that is more to do with dull powers of receptivity rather than the conventional sense of pain.this is important in understanding the meaning of the poem which is concerned with the way the poet persives things and the effect that the nightingale has on this perception.however,this is the prelude to a sense of creativity as Keats reveals the reason for this “Numbness”.the effect is paradoxical in that it is a reaction to the happiness he experiences through the nightingale`s song.the poet identifies himself with the bird and is happy but the rub is that he is

“Too happy in thine happiness”(Line:6)

And so the sense of joy also brings with it a sense of loss.he then describes how he seesvthe bird as ‘A Dryad of the trees’(Line:7),presiding over “Some melodious plot”(Line:8)

In stanza,V,it seems that the poet`s identification with the nightingale was only transient and the poet is in darkness.the many beautiful things which surround the poet are left unseen.however,although all this natural beauty may be denied his eye it is not withheld from his imagination.once again a paradox is introduced as although the poet is in darkness he presents us with an array of all the beautiful flowers,grasses and trees that surround him and that give out their colours and scents evoking a sense of the creative mood that Keats desires.Note,though,the combined idea of fragrance and death introduced by the phrase.

“Embalmed darkness”

(Line:43)

Stanza VI developes the idea of stanza V.the poet is still in darkness but he now distances himself to contemplate the effect on himself of the beauty of nature described in the previous stanza as

“Darkling I listen”

(Line;51)

To the song of the bird.

However, the idea of death suggested by the use of “Emblamed”in the previous stanza is enlarged upon as he talks of having “Been half in love with easeful death”

(Line:52)

He is only ‘Half’ in love with the idea,through which again suggests a paradox of his desire for both life and death.his apparent death wish is immediately dismissed as it only “Seems….rich to die”while listening in such ecstasy to the song of the nightingale.if he were to die,though he would no longer be able to hear the song of the nightingale even though the bird would continue to sing as a kind of requiem to the poet:

“Still wouldst thou sing,

And I have ears in vain,

To thy high requiem became a sod”

(Line:59,60)

Yet out of the sadness of the speakers`s state,paradoxically the song of the nightingale is something that gives him great joy and comfort as he reminded of his mortality.

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