Ok, Keats is tough for many. The reward for making it through one of these three poems is to reach the depths of understanding, of universal truth, of angst, longing, loss, and connection between truth and beauty. You read "When I have fears," "Grecian Urn," and "To Autumn."
So, my question to you is: which one of the three spoke to you? What did you hear? Was it the word choice used? The phrasing? The subtle images? The underlying meaning? Also, please write about what the process of understanding this poem was like for you. How many times did you have to read the poem before you really got it? How did you gain an understanding?
So, my question to you is: which one of the three spoke to you? What did you hear? Was it the word choice used? The phrasing? The subtle images? The underlying meaning? Also, please write about what the process of understanding this poem was like for you. How many times did you have to read the poem before you really got it? How did you gain an understanding?
The first time reading these poems was very confusing and I don't feel like I took very much out of it, especially with Grecian Urn, this poem seemed like gibberish he first time I read it. With his poetry I had to go back and try and break it down to understand the deeper meaning of these poems, and I think with all his symbolism his poems can be interpreted differently depending on whose reading them. The poem To Autumn spoke to me the most of the three, not only because I love autumn but the poem seemed so vivid, I could really visual what he was saying. Another interesting thing about this poem is I didn't just have one picture in my head of what he was writing about it, it seems as though he was referring to the progression of fall and what we see.
ReplyDeleteI had to read these three poems over and over again. They were all kind of confusing and hard to understand what they were describing. But when i read the three poems the one that stuck out to me was "When I have fears,". I think that this poem stuck out to me because i could understand what the poem is about. I think that the poem is about how he knows that he is dying and he doesnt think its fair. He wants to be famous, and be successful, and he wants to fall in love. He knows that he will die before he reaches all of those goals. Thats what i think the poem is about.
ReplyDelete"When I have Fears That I May Cease to Be", spoke to me the most. The first time I read this, I wasn't quite sure what he was talking about, I had ideas but needed to delve deeper into it to understand more. The more I read, the more I realized that he was talking about his inevitable death and how he will no longer be able to do the simple things. He loathes the day that he will no longer be able to gaze up at the stars and clouds, and trace their beauty. Keats wants to experience love, not just any love though, the type of love that bonds the soul, and makes him quake in his sorrow. Lastly, he wants people to remember him, plain and simple.
ReplyDeleteOut of the three poems, the one that stuck out to me the most is "When I have Fears That I May Cease to Be," mostly because he wrote it when he knew that he was going to die. It amazes me that someone can be so passionate about something that they continue to do it even when they are battling to stay alive. When I read it, I heard a young man who fears death, like most of us do. His overcrowded brain is slowly bursting. His nights became "huge cloudy symbols of romance" even though they used to be clear because he never knew if he was going to wake up the next day. This man clearly loved what he did. The word choice played a huge part of why this poem is so understandable. I can actually put myself in Keats' place and picture me life being like his. The underlying meaning is clear for the most part, and one can truly understand the position that Keats was in. In order for me to fully understand the poem, it only took me a couple of times to read it. I gained an understanding by looking up the words I did not understand. I also wrote small notes after most of the phrases so that I could break the lines down and write my interpretations of them.
ReplyDeletethe poem that spoke to me was "..Cease to be". I heard his pain and suffering. It's a scary thought to know how you're going to die, and from learning a little bit about Keats, he must have been scared, nervous, confused and frightened to the fact that his time left here on Earth is extremely limited. When i re-read the poem i pictured him in the process of writing this poem. I pictured him frigged and fragile, looking older than he really is. His hands shaking, eyes drooping, hair thinning and lips chapped. The process of understanding this poem for myself was that when I was reading it, I to relate it to events that i have seen first hand. With having these experiences under my belt, it was easy for me gain the understanding of the poem
ReplyDeleteSince we learned a little bit about Keats background, it was easy to understand why he chose to write a poem about death in, "When I have Fears That I may Cease to be". He was very into publishing his works and becoming famous for his poems. Unfortunately, he later on figured out that he was going to die soon because of his illness. This poem demonstrates the fear that Keats feels at this time. His anxiety can be clearly shown from the poem; he is scared that he would be forgotten and be incapable of having fame for his works. He is afraid that he would die without making any accomplishments in real life because of his death that is approaching to him rapidly. This was the poem that caught my attention since it was easy to understand what and how he felt when he was ill. I felt related to his thoughts because if I knew that I was going to die soon and I haven't done or accomplished anything that I wanted to in life, I would feel anxiety, pressured to get it all done before I died. I was able to understand what he felt in this poem.
ReplyDeleteAfter reading the poems “When I have fears,” “Grecian Urn,” and “To Autumn” the one that spoke to me the most was “Grecian Urn.” What I took away from this poem was that it was about a young girl that has died before she lived life to her full potential and that if she had more time, she would have been a “bold lover” and even though she is gone, her memory will never fade and she won’t be forgotten so the people that loved her shouldn’t grieve. I really liked the way this poem was written and that when I was first reading it, I was really confused as what the author was trying to say but at the end of the poem, I understood what it was about and the hidden messages that were in it.
ReplyDelete"When I Have Fears" told me that this writer is afraid of dying before the can pen his love for a woman. This is what I got the first time reading this through. Reading it through the second time, I got the same message, and that he was reflecting upon the great times he had with her. The last line did confuse me, it through me for a loop that he would never get to tell the girl her loved he loved her, not because he was going to die, but because he did have fame, so he would never have her. That love and fame were the only important things in the world. Rereading it for a third time, I stuck to my gut and decided on the first scenario, but that maybe he had lost his love and fame, and there was nothing else worth living for. "To Autumn" reading this I thought he was using how the sun and the trees work together to create beautiful fruit, as a metaphor to explain his relationship between him and his lover. He could even be referring to how how they work together in bed. Either day re-reading I concluded that he is describing his relationship with a woman: excellent, filled with love and joy, and never-ending. So, he must be at happy stage in his relate ship. Lastly, "Grecian Urn" is about his dead bride, I got this from the title and the first line. He seems to be convincing himself that everything is alright, that she is in a better place, for he talks a lot of how 'she cannot hear' but then rebottles with 'a happy melody'. It seems to be a conflicting occurrence in the whole poem. He is sad his love is gone, and he still loves her. At the same time, the beauteous music that is playing she cannot hear, but he knows she hears her own version up in heaven.HE talks of joy and beauty so much, that he really dos confuse the reader. -Keeley
ReplyDeleteThe pain and suffering was very evident in Keats "When I Have Fears." Knowing that you are going to die is a kind of fear that is insurmountable to most, no matter how you think of it. Until you are placed under those circumstances you will never know what it feels like. This being said, I think that Keats did a great job of portraying the feels he had, and making those reading the poem get those same emotions out of it. Along with that fear of dying, his fear of never being known for his work was coinciding with his lackluster relationship. This, I think, is the poem that stuck the most to me. We all have fears, whether they are major or not they're still there. When it comes to dying, I have always found the moments before it darkly interesting. How would one feel? What do they think about? What do you do if you know you have X amount of days left? After reading this poem one time I grasped the underlying meaning, but I chose toe read it two more times in order to relate better to it. After that last time I feel like I have a greater appreciation towards the writer and his style.
ReplyDeleteFor me, the Keats poem that spoke to me was "when I have fears". I've already done the explication on it, and I feel like it would be odd to restate the entire thing on the blog, So I'll just go over what the poem meant to me and how I took it. The whole thing puts a really strong emotion and mood over you, which is, in my mind, one of THE goals of poetry reading and writing. The entire time, you feel a lust for life left neglected, almost like a dull blade. you can see the person speaking in the poem, and he really does a great job of casting a foggy, grey kind of mood that hides great passion and beauty. It feels very somber, but then, ant the end, he lets the emotion drift off into peace and float, unobstructed by any of the fear of death that plagued the earlier stanzas. really a great poem.
ReplyDeleteOut of all three of Keats poems, I would say that "When I Have Fears That I May Cease to Be" probably spoke to me the most. For starters, it was the easiest one to comprehend but also I can relate to Keats fear of not being recognized for the hard work that he does. During things such as school or sports, sometimes I worry that if I do something well, it might be overlooked or go unnoticed. The word choice that was used in this poem was quite interesting, for it did not have many similes, like many poems do. However, Keats uses a lot of descriptive words that really allowed the reader to understand the feelings and the things that were going on in his head. This poem in particular was not so difficult to understand, but the next one "Ode on a Grecian Urn" was very difficult for me, compared to say the poems we read of Wordsworth that were a little more straight forward. I had to read it about 4 times to just partially understand it. For "When I Have Fears..." I had to read it only twice. Reading it slowly really helped me to understand them
ReplyDeleteReading over the three poems, When I have fears really stuck out for me. Right away from reading it, I got the overall feeling of the poem. In the first part of the poem, he is describing himself as a writer. He fears that all of his efforts and his poetry will not be well recognized when he is gone. Keats, known for being associated with medicine, also points out his fears of dying young in the first part of this poem. In the third quatrain, Keats talks about love and his efforts to achieve love. He feels as if he will never find his ‘true love’ and this idea frightens him. Keats wishes to be remembered like the many great poems of his time and years past. The last part of the poem illustrates Keats standing on the ocean’s shore, the shore being the threshold for him. Once he crosses into the water, he realizes that fame and love do not matter. -Laura
ReplyDeleteThough some of Keat's poems were rather difficult to comprehend at first, after much pensive thought each poem's individual message became clearer. Out of the three, "When I Have Fears that I may Cease to Be," definitely spoke to me the most. What attracted me was the personal struggles he tied into his writing. When first reading this the only thing I saw was the literal meaning. However after reading this about three or four times again and recalling Keats' historical background, everything in the poem began to have deeper meaning. The overall feeling I felt from this poem was a sense of regret and disappointment. He feels as if when he dies he will not have any legacy to leave behind, as well as never finding the pure love the he desires. Though the majority of the poem has a solemn tone, the last two lines alter the feeling to one of peace. When he says, "Of the wide world I stand alone, and think
ReplyDeleteTill love and fame to nothingness do sink," it symbolizes how he has come to terms with the fact there is nothing he can do but to accept his fate.
I enjoyed reading these three Keats' poems. They all spoke to me, in one form or another, via their own uniqueness. However, the one that seemed to speak to me most directly was "When I have Fears That I May Cease to Be".I read through all of them once, and because "When I have Fears" jumped out at me, I went back and reread it three more times so that I could attempt to get a full understanding of what Keats was trying to convey. Like with people, you either have a connection or you don't. Since I felt that connection and almost immediate understanding (I think) of what he was expressing in this poem, it seemed not so difficult to understand. Many, if not all of us, have thought about the meaning of life and what, if anything, comes after death. When I can't sleep, I sometimes wonder about what comes next ,and what will happen if I "Cease to be" in my sleep, or in a car accident or plane crash. Like Keats, I fear not being able to live a full, happy, and successful life I feel that I was innately promised to me upon my delivery into this world. People speak of not wanting to die before "their time", but if people had "a time" then isn't the time they pass considered "their time" - even if they don't want it to be? Imagine never being able to tell the person you love "I love you" or never hearing them speak those words to you. "And when I feel, fair creature of an hour, That I shall never look upon thee more". So, when "I May Cease to Be", I hope that I will have had time "to glean my teaming brain" and "hold the full ripened grain".
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