“Greek Hellenism in Keats’ poetry”

Seema Devi Yein

“John Keats is a Greek.”

- Percy Bysshe Shelley

John Keats, one of the youngest and the most influential writers of the Romantic Age, who
owed much of his poems to the Ancient Greece, compelled Shelley to remark him as a “Greek”.
Keats followed the Ancient Greek and the mythologies created by them.

John Keats, born on October 21, 1795, in London was the eldest child of his parents Thomas and
Frances Keats. At the age of fifteen, he left Clarke School in Enfield to be apprenticed to an
apothecary-surgeon and study medicine in a London Hospital. Though he became a licensed
apothecary in 1816, he never practiced his profession, instead decided to write poetry. Keats’
love of poetry was ingrained in him by his former schoolmaster’s son Charles Cowden-Clarke
who first introduced him to the poetry of Spenser. Clarke also introduced him to the radical poet
and influential editor of the Examiner, Leigh Hunt, who encouraged and published his sonnets
“On First Looking into Chapman’s Homer” and “O Solitude.” Keats published his first volume of
poems, Poems by John Keats in 1817 following it up with Endymion in 1818 and the final volume
of poetry, i.e., Lamia, Isabella, The Eve of St. Agnes, and Other Poems in the year 1820. In the
summer of 1818, Keats nursed his brother Tom, who suffered from Tuberculosis. That year he
met and fell in love with Fanny Brawne whom he could not marry. In 1820 he himself fell ill with
tuberculosis. On February 23, 1821, at the age of Twenty-five, he died in Rome and was buried
in the Protestant cemetery.

Like any writers of the Romantic Age, Keats too loved nature and admired the beauty of nature.
He does not give any theory or ideology about nature. He believed in negative capability; the
capability of being impersonal which Shelley lacked. His poetry is characterized by a rich
sensuous quality. He advised Shelley to ‘load each rift with ore.’ The principle theme pervading
most of his poetry is the tension between the transitoriness of human life where neither youth
and beauty nor love endures, and the enduring beauty of the world of art and imagination.

Like all Romantics, Keats was a Hellenistic. He was influenced and inspired by Hellenism which
was the soul of his poetry. Classical Greek art and mythology as well as medieval architecture
and scenes from nature drawn from his various walking tours inspired some of his best known
poems. There are many Hellenistic features in his poetry such as his Greek instinct, his love for
Greek culture and literature, his love with Greek sculpture and art, his love for beauty, his Greek
temperament and the touch for fatalism and tragedy, his use of the myths and legends, his
influence of Homer in his poetry and the likes. His attitude of melancholy is also Hellenistic.

In my paper, I would like to focus on “Greek Hellenism in Keats’ poetry.” The poems that I have
taken as a reference for my paper are Endymion (written in 1817 and published the following
year), ‘On First Looking into Chapman’s Homer’ (1816), ‘Hyperion’ (1820), ‘Lamia’ (1820), ‘The
Eve of St. Agnes’ (1820), ‘Ode on a Gracian Urn’ (1820) and ‘Ode to Psyche’ (1820).

The word “Hellenism” is derived from the word ‘Hellene’ which means Greek. Therefore,
“Hellenism” means Greek quality, culture, manner, Greek idioms and Greek spirits. Keats’
“Hellenism” on his love for Greek arts, sculpture, culture and mythology has made him distinct
in the gallery of Romantics. Though, Keats was not a Greek man or a Greek poet, his passion of
Greek ideals and idols was very great which vividly expressed in his poems.

“Indeed, though Keats was much influenced by medieval themes and by what he considered to
be the atmosphere of the Middle Ages, it was ancient Greece that haunted his imagination
most. He knew it mainly through Lempriere’s Classical Dictionary, the Elgin Marbles, and
Chapman’s Homer, yet his instinctive understanding enabled him to use these inadequate
approaches more effectively than many a better educated poet had used his sounder
knowledge.” (pg. 921 of A Critical History of English Literature, Volume II, David Daiches)

Keats’ sonnet, ‘On Seeing the Elgin Marbles’ indicates his emotion and reaction to the
beautifully sculptured “wonders” of ancient Greece. It is said that one day, one of his friends
lent him a copy of Chapman’s translation of Homer. He was captivated by the new word of
wonder and pleasure, which Homer revealed to him. He felt as if he had discovered a new world
when he says:

“Then felt I like some watcher of the skies,

When a new plant swims into his ken.”
(‘On First Looking into Chapman’s Homer’ by John Keats)

But the most important factor in Keats’ Hellenism was his own Greek temperament of his mind.

“Beauty is truth, truth beauty-that is all

Ye know on earth, and all ye need to know.”
(‘Ode on a Gracian Urn’ by John Keats)

When these lines are read from John Keats’ ‘Ode on a Gracian Urn’, the reader can feel the
passion for beauty; beauty is truth. For Keats, beauty became a very subtle and embracing
concept. Like the Greeks, Keats too adored beauty. He believed in a close relationship between
truth and beauty. However, he did not attempt to escape from the harshness of human
existence to an ideal world of beauty.

Keats wrote it right when he says in Endymion, (Book 1):

“A thing of beauty is a joy forever:

Its loveliness increases; it will never
Pass into nothingness; but still will keep
A bower quiet for us, and a sleep
Full of sweet dreams, and health, and quiet breathing.”

Keats loved beauty. For him, it is a kind of joy or happiness which will increase and will not go in
vain. The beauty of “Endymion” and the act of “Selene” are found in his first composed
narrative romance ‘Endymion.’ This long poem is very famous for the opening line that strikes
every person with the enormous beauty and a solace:

“A thing of beauty is a joy forever:”

He said that beauty can be represented or expressed in many ways. The expression of beauty is
the aim of all art, and beauty for Keats and Greeks are not exclusively physical or spiritual but
represents the fullest development of all that makes for human perfection.

For instance, his passion for beauty finds a concrete expression in his ‘Ode to Psyche’:

“Yes, I will be thy priest and build a fane

In some untrodden region of my mind,
Where branched thoughts, new grown with pleasant pain
Instead of pines shall murmur in the wind:”

But in ‘Lamia’, Keats tries to promote the beauty even in the ugliest creature like serpent. Like
the description of any human being, he ideally describes Lamia-as-snake in ‘Lamia’:

“She was a gordian shape of dazzling hue,

Vermilion-spotted, golden, green, and blue;
Striped like a zebra, freckled like a pard,
Eyed like a peacock, and all crimson barr'd;
And full of silver moons, that, as she breathed,
Dissolv'd or brighter shone, or interwreathed
Their lustres with the gloomier tapestries.”

The beauty, for a poet of beauty in pure sense, does never end:

“And soon his eyes had drunk her beauty up,

Leaving no drop in the bewildering cup,
 And still the cup was full…”

In ‘Lamia’ amidst the setting of nymphs, monsters, and ancient Greek myth, Keats also carries
the Greek flavour of beauty.

When we speak about Greek mythology, we immediately get interested with the Greek myths
and legends. Keats too was fascinated with the myths and legends of the Greek mythology
which we come to know from his poetry. His use of Greek myths and legends in his poems are
worth praising. ‘Endymion’, which is a long narrative, is named after its hero Endymion, a figure
taken from Greek myth. In Greek mythology, Endymion is referred to a beautiful young man, a
shepherd, who was distinguished for his eternal sleep on Mount Latmus in Caria. He was the
son of Calyce and was king of Elis. He was especially loved by Selene (Moon). In one version of
the legend it is said that Endymion came from Elis to Mount Latmus and while he was sleeping
in a cave Selene came down to him. It was presumably during the dark phase of the lunar
month. Another legend says that he asked Zeus for immortality and enduring youth. Zeus
approved on the condition that Endymion remain eternally asleep.

In Book 1 of Endymion, it gives us the account of Endymion’s dreams and experiences. There is
also a reference about his sister Peona with whom Endymion shares about his dream. He tells
her that he saw a beautiful feminine figure in his dream with whom he fell in love with. Peona
saw that he was upset about his dream so, she explains him not to ruin his life for a mere
dream. He also gives instances of seeing his dream’s beloved in many places. However, the Book
1 ends, with Endymion telling Peona that he is resigned to a life of unrequited love.

Again, in ‘Lamia’ too, he countersigns the revival of ancient Paganism of Greeks like Hermes.
Keats speaks of the legend of Lamia who is both a snake and a woman. The legend says that a
young man from Ancient Greece unwittingly falls in love with a serpent disguised as a beautiful
woman. Lycius, the young man, and Lamia, the serpent, carry on a love affair and are engaged
to be married; their relationship is destroyed when a cunning old sage reveals Lamia's true
identity, and then immediately she returns to her serpent state and Lycius dies of grief:

“Fool! Fool!” repeated he, while his eyes still

Relented not, nor mov’d; from every ill
Of life have I preserv’d thee to this day,
And shall I see thee made a serpent’s prey?
Then Lamia breath’d death breath; the sophist’s eye,
Like a sharp spear, went through her utterly,
Keen, cruel, perceant, stinging: she, as well
As her weak hand could any meaning tell,
Motion’d him to be silent; vainly so,
He look’d and look’d again a level—No!
“A Serpent!” echoed he; no sooner said,
Than with a frightful scream she vanished:
And Lycius’ arms were empty of delight,
 As were his limbs of life, from that same night.
On the high couch he lay!—his friends came round—
Supported him—no pulse, or breath they found,
And, in its marriage robe, the heavy body wound.”

(‘Lamia’, Part 2 by John Keats)

The poem explores the unusual convention of the supernatural to life by intertwining familiar
and unfamiliar elements when describing Lamia. Sexual temptation is another convention of the
Gothic that Keats uses in "Lamia".

Like Endymion and ‘Lamia’, ‘The Eve of St. Agnes’ too speaks of a touching myth. Usually, “The
Eve of St. Agnes is the evening before St. Agnes’ feast day. She is referred as the patron saint of
virgins who died as a martyr in fourth century Rome.” The poem is based on a superstitious
belief that if a girl did certain rituals on the eve of St. Agnes, then in her dream she would see
her future husband. In order to see her dream the girl needs to go to bed without eating her
supper and totally undress. She also needs to go to bed without looking behind her and then lay
on her back with her hands under her head. By doing this her future husband would appear and
have feast with her.

Like in the myth, the poem too, speaks about a girl, named Madelin, who is in love with her
family’s foe named Porphyro. She had been told of the ritual she could perform on the eve of St.
Agnes Day to have dreams of her lover:

“She sigh’d for Agnes’ dreams, the sweetest of the year.”

On the enchanted night of “St. Agnes Eve”, Madelin, who looked like a “white lily” which
indicates a virgin girl, wishes to see her lover in her dream. On the other hand, Porphyro with a
brave heart enters the castle:

“Meantime, across the moors,

Had come young Porphyro, with heart on fire
For Madeline. Beside the portal doors,
Buttress’d from moonlight, stands he, and implores
All saints to give him sight of Madeline,
But for one moment in the tedious hours,
That he might gaze and worship all unseen;
Perchance speak, kneel, touch, kiss—in sooth such things have been.”

Porphyro asks the help of an elderly lady named Angela who initially asked him to go away from
the castle for his own safety. But, later on she helps him secretly to visit Madelin’s chamber. He
observes his beloved and then he silently goes to prepare a feast for her:

“While he from forth the closet brought a heap

 Of candied apple, quince, and plum, and gourd
With jellies soother than the creamy curd,
And lucent syrops, tinct with cinnamon;
Manna and dates, in argosy transferr'd
From Fez; and spiced dainties, every one,
From silken Samarcand to cedar'd Lebanon.”

After a while, he goes near her and suddenly Madeline awakes to the same vision she had in her
dream, so does not realize the fact that she is awake. This made her to welcome him into her
bed because she thought that she was still asleep:

“And now, my love, my seraph fair, awake!

Thou art my heaven, and I thine eremite:
Open thine eyes, for meek St Agnes' sake,
Or I shall drowse beside thee, so my soul doth ache.”

When Madeline awakes fully, Porphyro convinces her to go away with him and their escape has
been described as, “They glide, like phantoms, into the wide hall;” and finally the poem ends
with the lines:

“And they are gone - ay, ages long ago

These lovers fled away into the storm.”

The next poem, ‘Ode to Psyche’ deals with the myth of Psyche and Cupid. In Greek myth,
“Psyche was so beautiful that Venus became jealous of her and sent Cupid to make her fall in
love with some unsightly creature; however, Cupid himself became her lover. He placed her in a
palace but only visited her in the dark, and forbade her to attempt to see him. Her sisters, out of
jealousy, told her he was a monster who would devour her. One night she took a lamp and
looked at cupid while he slept, but a drop of hot oil woke him. Thereupon the God left her,
angry at her disobedience. Psyche, solitary and remorseful, sought her lover all over the earth,
and various superhuman tasks were required of her by Venus. The first was to sort out before
nightfall an enormous heap of various kinds of grain. But the ants took pity on Psyche and
arriving in hordes did the task for her. By one means or another all the tasks were completed
except the last, which was to descend to the Underworld and fetch a casket of beauty from
Persephone. Curiosity overcame Psyche and she opened the casket, which contained not beauty
but a deadly sleep, to which she succumbed. Jupiter, at Cupid's entreaty, at last consented to
their marriage, and Psyche was brought to heaven. This fairytale has often been interpreted as
an allegory of the soul's journey through life and its final union with the divine after suffering
and death.” (The Oxford Companion to Classical Literature)

In ‘Ode to Psyche’, the speaker opens the poem with an address to Psyche as:
 “O GODDESS! hear these tuneless numbers, wrung”

He urges her to hear his words, and asks her to forgive him as he was singing to her, her own
secrets. He also says that while he was wandering through the forest that very day:

“ Saw two fair creatures, couched side by side

In deepest grass, beneath the whisp'ring roof
Of leaves and trembled blossoms, where there ran
A brooklet, scarce espied:”

The speaker saw them embracing one another with both their arms and wings. Then he says
that he knew the winged boy who was “Cupid”, the God of Love, but asks who the girl was.
Later on he answers his own question as “His Psyche true!” Psyche also means soul so here
Psyche can be referred to a beautiful princess beloved of Cupid and Cupid’s soul, i.e., Psyche.

Then the speaker addresses Psyche again, describing her as:

“O latest-born and loveliest vision far

Of all Olympus' faded hierarchy!”

He says that unlike other divinities, Psyche has none of the ornamentations of worship: She has
no temples, no altars, no choir to sing for her, no lute, no pipe, no shrine, no grove, no oracle,
no heat and so on. So, the speaker attributes this lack to Psyche’s youth saying that she has
come into the world too late for “antique vows” and the “fond believing lyre.” And till his fallen
days, he would pay homage to Psyche and become her choir, her music and her oracle. He also
states that he will become Psyche’s priest and build a temple for her. He promises Psyche about
all the soft delights and says that the window of her new abode will be left open at night, so
that her winged boy can come in:

“To let the warm love in!”

Apart from his view of the presence of God in nature, we also find another Greek effect on his
poetry which is in the form of his deep interest in Greek mythology. Like his long narratives, his
short narratives also display discernible Greekness. His poem “Ode on a Gracian Urn” speaks of
an ancient urn that exhibit the marvellous beauty to the eyes of the poet Keats. However, with
beauty, Keats love is simple for the ancient Greek arts and once again, he displays it in the “Ode
on a Grecian Urn”. Keats love for the ancient Greek Urn’s beauty is conveyed as:

“Heard melodies are sweet, but those unheard

Are sweeter; therefore, ye soft pipes, play on:
Not to the sensual ear, but, more endear’d,
Pipe to the spirit ditties of no tone…”
The lines reflect the passion of Keats for the ancient Greeks, their art, their creativity, and so on.
Keats, in short, suggests in his ode that art is superior to experience and men must realize it and
not underestimate the value of ancient art. Again in ‘Hyperion’ he describes about the war
among the Greek Gods. Keats feels delighted in the world of ancient Greeks and in the ‘vales’
where he can find nymphs and trees raising their hands and dancing in joy:

“Deep in the shady sadness of a vale

Far sunken from the healthy breath of morn,
Far from the fiery noon, and eve's one star,
Sat gray-hair'd Saturn, quiet as a stone,
Still as the silence round about his lair;
Forest on forest hung about his head
Like cloud on cloud. No stir of air was there,
Not so much life as on a summer's day
Robs not one light seed from the feather'd grass,
But where the dead leaf fell, there did it rest.
A stream went voiceless by, still deadened more
By reason of his fallen divinity
Spreading a shade: the Naiad 'mid her reeds
Press'd her cold finger closer to her lips.”
(‘Hyperion’, Book 1 by John Keats)

He also finds the sea Goddess in water and in wine he finds God Bacchus:

“Or where God Bacchus drains his cups divine,

Stretch’d out, at ease, beneath a glutinous pine;”
(‘Lamia’ by Keats)

Keats is a true Greek in his poems, in his perception, in his imagination, in his Paganism, in his
writings, by birth and so on. He found truth in beauty, and beauty in the ancient ruins of the
once glorious Greeks. So, he followed the footsteps of the ancient Greek masters.

John Keats, however, read, liked, adored and owed much of his Hellenism to Chapman and his
sonnet, ‘On First Looking into the Chapman’s Homer’ is an example. Though the sources were
clumsy, yet Keats’ imagination was phenomenal and he pierced deep into the world of ancient
Greeks.

Keats’ poetry is a mixture of various allusions to the art, culture and literature of Greek. In this
regard ‘Ode on a Grecian Urn’ is a perfect instance. The pictures which are engraved on the
Grecian Urn show Keats' love for the Greek art, culture, and ideals. For instance:

“Who are these coming to the sacrifice?

To what green altar, O mysterious priest,
Lead'st thou that heifer lowing at the skies,
 And all her silken flanks with garlands drest?
What little town by river or sea-shore,
Or mountain-built with peaceful citadel,
Is emptied of its folk, this pious morn?”

(‘Ode on a Grecian Urn’ by John Keats)

Again, we, as readers have been struck by Keats' use of contrast in ‘The Eve of St. Agnes’. It is
one of the main aesthetic devices used in the poem. Like the Greeks, his use of aesthetic sense
is highly notable. Keats deliberately emphasizes the bitterly cold weather of St. Agnes' Eve so
that ultimately the pleasant warmth of happy love is emphasized. Although the owl, the hare,
and the sheep are affected by the bitter cold, yet they are well protected by nature:

"The owl, for all his feathers, was a-cold.

The hare limp’d trembling through the frozen grass,
And silent was the flock in wool fold:"

The bitter coldness in the beginning of the poem, once again ends with the death of the
Beadsman and Angela. The most striking feature of Keats' claim to the sense of sight is to be
found in his description of the stained glass window in Madeline's room in which this window
was described as:

"diamonded with panes of quaint device,

Innumerable of stains and splendid dyes."

Madeline is transformed into a "splendid angel" by the stained glass as the moonlight shines
through it. Moreover Keats glorified Madeline even more by putting a stained window which
puts her in the center of his story or verse:

“Full on this casement shone the wintry moon,

And threw warm gules on Madeline's fair breast,
As down she knelt for heaven's grace and boon;
Rose-bloom fell on her hands, together prest,
And on her silver cross soft amethyst,
And on her hair a glory, like a saint:
She seem'd a splendid angel, newly drest,
Save wings, for heaven: — Porphyro grew faint:
She knelt, so pure a thing, so free from mortal taint.”

David Ricks wrote an article on Keats titled “A Greek Poet’s Tribute to Keats” where he said that
Lord Byron was given more attention than that of Keats in Greece. But “Giannes Keats” a poem
by Angelos Sikelianos published in 1915, made Keats an honorary Greek. Furthermore, after
reading Keats’ poems and his life in relation to Greek Hellenism, it is well understood that Keats
loved and adored Greek Hellenism. In truth he found beauty and in beauty he found truth.
Keats can eminently be referred as a pure poet who has a passion for beauty and truth. His
poetry is for the sake of poetry and nothing else. His use of Greek Hellenistic ideas in his poems
is praiseworthy. Moreover, the remark that Shelley made on his part is true and correct that
“John Keats is a Greek”. Certainly, it will not be a mistake to say that “Keats is an English Greek”.

References:

 Daiches, David. A Critical History of English Literature, Volume II, (The Restoration to the
Present Day). New Delhi: Supernova Publishers, 2011. Print.
 Enright, D.J. and Ernst De Chickera. English Critical Texts. Delhi: Oxford University Press,
1995. Print.
 Howatson, M.C., ed. The Oxford Companion to Classical Literature. United States: Oxford
University Press, 2011. Print.
 Kitson, Peter J, ed. Coleridge, Keats and Shelley; Contemporary Critical Essays. Great
Britain: Macmillan Press Ltd, 1996. Print.
 Ricks, David. “A Greek Poet’s Tribute to Keats.” Keats-Shelley Journal Vol. 37. (1988): 35-
42. JSTOR. Web. 27 September. 2014.

Sources:

 http://www.poetryfoundation.org
 http://www.poets.org