Keats and his contemporaries : a study of the poetry of Keats in relation to Wordsworth, Coleridge, Scott and Byron

• Main Author: Wah, Pun Tzoh
• Published: Royal Holloway, University of London 1962
• Subjects: 821.009; English Literature
• Online Access: http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.703876

The first part of the present study begins with an attempt to investigate the impact of Wordsworth's poetry on his contemporaries, particularly on Keats at the beginning of his poetical career, seen mainly through the critical works of Hazlitt and Leigh Hunt. Then it proceeds with a survey of the extent to which Wordsworth's poetry may have affected Keats' 1817 Poems. The story of Endymion is found to move in a spiritual framework borrowed from The Excursion. The epistle To J.H. Reynolds is examined as a document indicating the subsequent course of Keats' poetry in favour of the Wordsworthian mode of writing, in spite of a temporary reaction. Then, Wordsworth's influence on Keats' odes is discovered to be both subtle and pervasive; and an interpretation of the Ode on Melancholy in relation to Wordsworth is offered. Finally an attempt is made to estimate how far the two versions of Hyperion epitomize Keats' ambition to go out of the 'Chamber of Maiden-Thought' as he follows in the footsteps of Wordsworth in exploring some dark passages of human nature and in his search for wisdom and for an answer to the question, 'What is poetry?' The second part consists of three chapters. Chapter one is an effort to take leave of the symbolist or Freudian approach to Coleridge of the twentieth century for the moment in order to put him back in his period, to see how his poetry, excelling in its dreamlike quality, may have affected Keats' works. Chapter two is mainly an attempt to demonstrate Keats' increasing awareness of the importance of local truth of colouring as seen in Endymion, Isabella, The Eve of St. Agnes and Lamia, Scott being found to be an influence in this aspect. It is also hoped that some light will be shed on Keats' treatment of nature as discussed in relation to that of Scott. In chapter three a re-appraisal of Keats' attitude to Byron is attempted and the extent of Byron's influence on Keats is demonstrated, particularly in Lamia, where Keats tries his hand at providing the public with 'a sensation of some sort' in the style of Don Juan; in The Cap and Bells, which is found to be a truly Byronic imitation; and in The Fall of Hyperion, where the influence of Childe Harold can be discerned.