THEMES

Question 1

Permanence and Mutability

Answer 1

Many of the poems reveal his attempt through the visionary imagination to identify something which is essential and permanent, but for the mature Keats this quest is always tempered by his ultimate paradoxical recognition that what is of true and lasting value can be found only in the actual world of changing process. At the centre of Keats mature vision is the paradox that an awareness of mortality increases ones sense of beauty and joy.

Question 2

Imagination

Answer 2

The imagination provides the link between the real and the ideal. It allows us to transcend and have a transcendent vision of the joys of immortal existence. The opposition between the permanence that can be reached through the imaginative vision and the transience endemic to the human control forms the basic structuring principle of some of Keats more celebrated poems. However, what the imaginative vision can attain is not, in such poems as these, always seen as positive. Imaginative vision is positioned as something magical that can transcend the human condition. However, imagination maybe an evasion of the real world and a cheat or deception.

Question 3

Romance

Answer 3

Keats was attracted to romance not only the genre but also the general qualities associated with romance. The idealised and the marvellous, all qualities which encouraged an escape from the everyday world in which we live in.

Question 4

Nature

Answer 4

Keats found imaginative inspiration in the natural world. Unlike them, however he did not find in nature a moral guide or philosophical doctrine. Keats tends to see nature as something cultivated and arranged for display.