Richard Vallance super winpe plus ftp

Vallance Review July 2003 John Keats, “Blue! ‘Tis the life of heaven, — ” and its Imagerysuper winpe plus ftp INTRODUCTION John Keats by William Hilton after Joseph Severn, 1822 With Summer upon us, I thought it only fitting to review a sonnet in keeping with the spirit of the season. The sonnet I have chosen is by one of the greatest poets England — or for that matter, the world — has ever known. I refer, of course, to none other than John Keats (1795-1821). Few English poets, if any, have ever surpassed Keats’ mastery of the lyric poem in all its forms, and indeed of the sonnet. Some critics, including myself, would rank his sonnets on a par with those of William Shakespeare. And this one is no exception. THE SONNET Answer To A Sonnet By J.H. Reynolds [1] "Dark eyes are dearer far Than those that mock the hyacinthine bell." 1  Blue! 'Tis the life of heaven, — the domain 2  Of Cynthia [2], — the wide palace of the sun,— 3  The tent of Hesperus [3], and all his train, — 4  The bosomer of clouds, gold, gray, and dun. 5  Blue! 'Tis the life of waters: Ocean — 6  And all its vassal streams, pools numberless, 7  May rage, and foam, and fret, but never can 8  Subside, if not to dark-blue nativeness. 9  Blue! gentle cousin of the forest-green, 10 Married to green in all the sweetest flowers -- 11 Forget-me-not, — the blue-bell, — and, that queen 12 Of secrecy, the violet: what strange powers 13 Hast thou, as a mere shadow! But how great, 14 When in an Eye thou art alive with fate! super winpe plus ftp John Keats (1795-1821) [4]super winpe plus ftp What distinguishes this sonnet from others by Keats? I fairly admit I was profoundly affected by this sonnet when I read it for the first time.  I suppose that would par for the course, in so far as I have found most of Keats’ sonnets truly moving, each in its own fair way. This poem, however, stands apart from most of his sonnets, for several reasons:super winpe plus ftp 1. It is, to my view, the most Wordsworthian (if one may use such an epithet) of all of Keats' sonnets: this is especially apparent in its imagery. 2. It is part and parcel of a small repertoire of sonnets and Odes Keats composed, which exhibit strong influences from Classical antiquity, especially Greek literature.  Keats' sonnet On First Looking into Chapman's Homer, which extols the genius of Homer and his "Ode on a Grecian Urn", are prime examples of the profound influences Greek culture, art and ideals, above all, eternal Beauty, exerted over him. 3. The sonnet does not strictly adhere to the traditional Shakespearian or Spenserian form, as is evident from the frequent breaks or caesuras which are scattered throughout, most often introduced with an em dash. Moreover, as this review will abundantly illustrate, the framework of imagery Keats so astutely intuited for it almost by default proscribes the traditional English sonnet form, whether it be Spenserian or Shakespearian or any variant of these. 4. The sonnet is one of only a few which Keats composed in reply to sonnets on similar topics penned by other poets, such as his On the Grasshopper and the Cricket, which Keats composed in competition with Leigh Hunt's, To the Grasshopper and the Cricket [5] super winpe plus ftp Blue as a Prime Mover and Symbol of Life More than anything else, the sonnet is characterized by the pervasive imagery of the colour it so vividly celebrates. In it this image, “blue”, undergoes at least 10 permutations at four discrete levels, from the macro– to the microcosmic.  I should perhaps explain what I mean by the distinctions I have drawn between these four levels of poetic imagery, all derived from that one pellucid colour, “blue”.super winpe plus ftp (a) Macrocosmic Phenomena: At the outset, Keats' sonnet quickens to the vast realm of the macrocosmic, by which I mean the Universal, cosmic, celestial, elemental and, at the symbolic level, mythological and spiritual.super winpe plus ftp (b) Macrocosms: We understand macrocosms to be the elemental and energetic manifestations of immense or expansive physical entities or bodies in the natural world, such as the sky, oceans and “forest green.” While such natural phenomena are much too vast for us as mere humans to take in with our limited vision, we can at least see them in part. We can’t “see the forest for the trees”, but we are afforded a perspective on an expanse of trees before our very eyes, if we are near or in the forest. (c) Microcosms: These, in their turn, are local, small and, in this sonnet, ephemeral natural phenomena and lifeforms such as flowers, a few of which Keats so fondly enumerates: the forget-me-not, the blue-bell and the violet (all of them blue). Keats does not merely look upon these delicate plants as lifeforms or mere beautiful objects the senses take in, but as illustrative of those finer human sentiments we call “love”.  For love is one of the touchstones of almost all of Keats' sonnets and of his most inspired poetry (especially the Odes).super winpe plus ftp Though it is his deep fondness for these tiny, fragile, all too ephemeral plants in nature, it is more than just that.  For Keats' “eye”, as it were, beholds such flowers as these with a tenderness that is much more the outward and visible manifestation of his own eager pining for elemental Beauty in all he sees in this world, than it is merely of his “appreciation” of such beauty.  No small wonder he calls the violet, “that queen/Of secrecy”!  This imagery seizes us.  We identify strongly with Keats, because his feelings for the violet are so natural, profound and intense.  It is as though he were, through the powers of his own poetic illumination, echoing Christ, when he said, “Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow; they toil not, neither do they spin…” [6] Closer examination of the poem's framework of imagery reveals that levels (b) + (c) above consist of 8 ½ verses, which form the naturalistic core of the sonnet.  This Romantic view of Nature Keats shares in abundance with his contemporaries, Wordsworth and Shelley, and in this particular sonnet, as I have already suggested, Keats' imagery most nearly approximates the quality of a romantically idealized "Natural" world as Wordsworth depicts it in his own sonnets and Odes.super winpe plus ftp (d) Microcosmic: Now, when we enter the microcosmic realm, we are yet again confronted with forces of nature and of the spiritual world which are, like their polar opposites, the macrocosmic or the Universal, for all intents and purposes, beyond the naked human eye's capacity to take in. And here again, when such microcosmic elements occur at the phenomenological level, they pass beyond our limited human understanding.  Nevertheless, microcosmic entities do exist, either physically in the natural world or phenomenologically in the spiritual, and they do influence our lives elementally.super winpe plus ftp It is indeed at this level that we encounter, as it were, "in an Eye" the shadowy, the invisible, the insubstantial, the elemental human spirit or, as it is generally called, "the soul".  And here Keats' genius encounters Leonardo da Vinci's head on, where the Italian Renaissance genius had exulted, in one of his brilliant philosophico-scientific tracts, that:super winpe plus ftp The eye is the window of the soul... Now do you not see that the eye embraces the beauty of the whole world? ... It counsels and corrects all the arts of mankind... It has measured the distances and sizes of the stars; it has discovered the elements and their location...super winpe plus ftp Oh, excellent thing, superior to all others created by God! The eye is the window of the human body through which it feels its way and enjoys the beauty of the world. [9]super winpe plus ftp Leonardo da Vinci (1452-1519) It is truly amazing, if not downright serendipitous, how faithfully Keats' sonnet in such clarion tones echoes these famous words of Leonardo da Vinci!  This is perhaps only to be expected, since after all, it is in the purview of genius to pinpoint with astonishing accuracy the elemental qualities of some of nature's most treasured secrets, amongst these, the human eyes and their mysterious power to delve not only ephemeral, but eternal beauty!super winpe plus ftp Nor was Keats alone amongst the greatest English sonneteers and poets to have recast Leonardo's sensitive perception of the sublime quality of human vision.  He shared such profound insight with the likes of William Shakespeare, Edmund Spenser and many other inspired Renaissance and Romantic poets.  It is only natural to expect the greatest English Renaissance and Romantic poets alike to share similar visions of the human spirit, as it is a commonly accepted literary maxim that both of these Eras stood at the pinnacle of English literary achievement.  They were the Golden Ages of English poetry.  Many critics, myself included, would readily assert that English poetry has never risen to such heights before or after.  In light of the sublimity of inspiration the finest Romantic Era poets shared, it is again hardly surprising that this sonnet by John Keats should rise so eloquently to the occasion!super winpe plus ftp Now, as we reach Keats' concluding verse, we cannot allow ourselves to be naively mislead into construing his reference to “fate” as a Calvinistic straightjacket of predestination. Such an interpretation violates not only Keats' intent but the very spirit of his poetry as a body. First of all, Keats does not capitalize the word, and this in itself, reveals his real intention, indeed his will.  Secondly, he ends the poem with an exclamation mark (!), right after this very word. This punctuation lays great stress on Keats' own profound emotional, indeed, volitional spiritual human response to the phenomenon he himself personally understands by fate. But, what might that be?super winpe plus ftp Surely Keats' macrocosmic and mythological references to Cynthia (Artemis) and Hesperus in the first quatrain make this abundantly clear.  He has indeed come full circle from the very first word, “Blue!” (also significantly end-stopped with an exclamation) to the very last word of the sonnet, “fate!”.  But there is more.  He launches into the macrocosmic realm in the first quatrain, “Blue!” introducing that mythological-cosmological quatrain with a concrete (albeit ethereal) word.  On the other hand, “fate!”, which brings the sonnet to an abrupt halt, is a primordially abstract word!  It does not end there, however.  The first 3 verses and the concluding 2 ½ verses, which are on the abstract plane, frame the body of the sonnet, which is comprised entirely of natural, physical and Earthly images and lifeforms, whether these be macro– or microcosms.super winpe plus ftp The Structural Integrity of the Imagery in the Sonnet: Here is a structural model of the imagery pervading the sonnet:super winpe plus ftp Macrocosmic (3 verses):      From:  "Blue! 'Tis the life of heaven, — the domain..." to "Hesperus, and all his train, —" Macrocosms (6 verses):      From:  "The bosomer of clouds,..." to "gentle cousin of the forest-green," Microcosms (2 ½ verses):      From:  "Married to green in all the sweetest flowers..." to "that queen/ Of secrecy, the violet:" Microcosmic (2 ½ verses):      From:  "… what strange powers/ Hast thou, as a mere shadow!" to "in an Eye thou art alive with fate!"super winpe plus ftp We see that Keats does not abruptly move from one imagistic level to the next, but that his transitions are smooth and beautifully balanced.  Indeed, the reference to “the sun” in verse 3 of the first quatrain, where all the other allusions are either cosmic or mythological, may be construed as either phenomenological or as a description of the physical sun in the natural world. The former interpretation is underpinned by Keats' use of the phrase, “the wide palace of the sun”, while the latter is supported by the notion that the visible vault of heaven we can actually see with our eyes is also palatial in its glorious expanse.  Either way, this verse serves as a subtle transition into the macrocosms with which the next portion of the sonnet, viz; clouds, water, Ocean, “pools numberless” and “forest-green” is so vividly arrayed.super winpe plus ftp Last, but far from least, almost all of this imagery is steeped in Greek mythology and the Homeric tradition. The very phrase “pools numberless” is strikingly Homeric in its flavour. Although Keats was not conversant with ancient Greek, he did read George Chapman’s stunning translation of the Iliad into English, published in 1603, the same year as Shakespeare's, Hamlet, and admired it greatly, as may be attested by another of his magnificent sonnets, “On Looking into Chapman’s Homer" [8]. Not surprisingly, Keats invokes the imagery of the eye in that sonnet too, even when the poet is physically, though not spiritually blind, as was Homer.  Of Homer he has this to say:super winpe plus ftp      There is a triple sight in blindness keen; Such seeing hadst thou, as it once befel      To Dian, Queen of Earth, and Heaven and Hell. super winpe plus ftp References to the eyes recur often in Keats' sonnets. And when they do, they always convey a sense of the Eternal. Examples are:      From:  SONNET: Written in the Cottage Where Burns was Born, "My eyes are wandering, and I cannot see,"      From:  SONNET: Written Upon the Top of Ben Nevis, "... that all my eye doth meet/ Is mist and crag... in the world of thought and mental might!"      From:  SONNET: To Sleep, "... close/ In the midst of this thine hymn my willing eyes,/ Or wait the "Amen",..."super winpe plus ftp This is what Keats intends when he speaks of blue, blue eyes and fate.  We have come to the crux of the matter. To Keats, the Poet, the Eye is the arbiter of divine inspiration, and the source of its vision is not of this world, the Earth, but of "Heaven and Hell". Surely one could not imagine a richer panoply of imagery than Keats has crammed into the space of this little sonnet.  Who else could possibly have achieved this tour de force than that sublime arbiter of the elemental, the naturalistic and the spiritual suffused in the Oneness of his Eye? Who else but John Keats? Such measured density of natural imagery is indeed characteristic of English verse. But in the hands of John Keats it reaches its pinnacle, and certainly in this sonnet.super winpe plus ftp CONCLUSIONS: The "Outer Limits" (no offense to the T.V. series!) of this sonnet, i.e. the macro— to microcosmic dimensions frame it.  Hence, its inner structure is unique, and indeed highly inventive.  It is as though Keats had framed an octet, here comprised of verses 4-12 (actually 8 ½ lines) by a sestet of verses 1-3 and the final 2 ½ verses (verses 12-14).  Only a close examination of this sonnet's intricate tapestry of imagery reveals this deeper structure.super winpe plus ftp One nagging question remains. Why has Keats rounded out this sonnet by concluding "...in an Eye thou art alive with fate!" rather than “in the eyes”, as we might have more likely expected?  The distinction may be subtle, but Keats has his reasons. As this review has illustrated, our physical human eyes can only clearly focus on localized macrocosms within our field of vision, such as seashores, the sky over us and fields, and microcosms, such as flowers and small objects, animate or inanimate.  We can see neither the macro -- nor the microcosmic realms.  And have you ever noticed that when you peer into another's eyes, they never look quite the same? Their expression is always ambivalent. This is especially so, if one truly delves "an Eye" of one’s belovèd.  This is the very Eye which is the proverbial “the window to the soul”, the single eye of the soul.  Here again, Keats echoes Leonardo da Vinci and before him, Christ, who said, "Your eye (singular) is the lamp of your body; when your eye is sound, your whole body is full of light;..." [10]super winpe plus ftp There is an overweening sense of mortal sadness and tragic destiny to the last word of this sonnet, "fate!"  Keats, frail and chronically ill with consumption, always knew his days were numbered.  Like Milton before him, in his sonnet, On His Being Arrived to the Age of Twenty-three, he was only too acutely aware of the all too tragic brevity of human existence.  And yet, in spite of this, Keats knew how to drink of life, Beauty and Love to the dregs.  In another of his most exquisite sonnets, Keats mourns, with a pathos that is as acute as Milton's,super winpe plus ftp When I have fears that I may cease to be... ... passim... When I behold, upon the night's starr'd face, Huge cloudy symbols of a high romance, And think that I may never live to trace Their shadows,... "Blue!", the colour both of radiant daylight and Life, and of Melancholy, deep night and Death, "Blue!", the colour Keats saw in "an Eye", not only of all things bright and beautiful he unerringly loved, but of his belovèd, whoever that might be, and indeed in his own inner "Eye", in this shadow of a colour he found his fate.super winpe plus ftp © by Richard Vallance, June 28th., 2003super winpe plus ftp REFERENCES AND NOTES: General Note: all italics throughout this review are mine. [1] I tried diligently to find the text of Reynold’s sonnet on the Internet, but it was all to no avail. There doubtless are poetry books and anthologies in which it may be found. It may be necessary to return to the primary source (i.e. the actual manuscript). [2] Cynthia: see (Cynthia), where we read, “Cynthia is an epithet of Artemis, referring to her and Apollo's place of birth on Mount Cynthus on the island of Delos. For the same reason, Apollo was called Cynthius.” [3] Hesperus: see Hesperos. HESPERUS = Eosophorus = Latin: Luciferus = English: Dawn Bringer or Light Bringer. HESPEROS-EOSPHOROS was the STAR-GOD of the Evening & Morning Star (the Planet Venus). [4] You may also read this sonnet, which was first published posthumously after Keats' death, in the Summer, 2003 issue of SONNETTO POESIA [ISSN 1705-4524], Vol. 2, no. 3, pg 5. [5] For more on the amicable relationship between the renowned Romantic critic, Leigh Hunt and John Keats, see John Keats and Leigh Hunt, by S. Joseph Byrnes, S.J. [6] Source, Matthew, Chapter 26, Verses 28-33 [7] I have only recently treated this subject in depth in my review of William Shakespeare’s Sonnet 53, which begins thus: What is your substance, whereof are you made, That millions of strange shadows on you tend? See Notes on the Sonnet: 2 (a) for my discussion of these verses in Poetry Life and Times. The Vallance Review, February, 2003 [8] I highly recommend this edition of Chapman's translation of Homer's Iliad into English: Chapman, George, trans, with an introduction by Jim Parker.  Chapman's Homer: The Iliad and the Odyssey.  Cumberland House, Hertfordshire, England: Wordsworth Editions Limited, © 2000. lxxiii, 884 pp. ISBN 1-84022-117-8.  Like many other literary critics, past and present, with at least a passing knowledge of ancient Greek, I consider Chapman’s translation of Homer’s Iliad to be the most vivid and vibrant of any English translations, bar none. [9] To read a truly insightful and fascinating critical analysis of Leonardo's inspired text, please consult Leonardo da Vinci (1452-1519).  In this essay, the author notes, "There is a mystical truth to the symbolic function of the eye as the organ of divine light  ... Leonardo ... elevates the eye, whose medium of information is light, symbolic of the spirit, above other senses and modes of knowing." (italics mine) [10] Luke 11: 34 [11] See When I Have Fears on the Sonnet Board. For the Cumulative Index to all 21 Vallance Reviews, September, 2001 to May, 2003, please visit:super winpe plus ftp The Vallance Review, Poetry Life and Times: Cumulative Index: 2001-2003 For Richard Vallance’s Poetry Carousel Home Page, please visit:super winpe plus ftp Poesie's laissez-faire Faire Foire

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