Keat's Ode

Why do you think pain and beauty seem so inextricably linked in these works?

The reasons when Keats' Odes are link beauty and pain is because that is the premise of the poems. In the poems Keats' is exploring the links between pain and beauty by telling a progressive story of how he came to terms with the beauty of life which Keats' gives a female personification to in the ode on indolence and the intensity of love and passion as pain in which he rejects. In ode to psyche he finally gives himself to the feelings of love and romance by proclaiming that he is now a worshiper of Psyche the wife of the warm love. Though Goode to psyche is not a painfully story but it is a good start to the true journey of the Odes which every story needs which is a giving of ones self to the journey; a commitment if you will.

What do you make of Keats' transportation out of pain into beauty or into nature?

 The "transportation" is slow and only really happens at the end in to Autumn, when he finally comes to terms with beauty and the pain of losing beauty. But the going into nature is interesting as it seems that Keats finds the majority of his endeavors and achieving wisdom in nature with the exception of Ode on a Grecian Urn when his journey s taken to the artistic depictions on a urn. Nature in 2 of the Odes brings him closer to understanding the nature of beauty and disappointment in which Keats successfully puts into terms.

What do you make of Romantic idea that the human experience is so often characterized by pain?

the purest appreciation of beauty is when you discover beauty when rising above pain. When one rises above the thresholds of p[Bain one finds power in understanding because that understanding acts as the greatest of pain killers. so in general the human existence is engulfed with the constant struggle of rising above pain and discomfort to appreciate the beauty of life which is so easy to miss when bogged down by pain. This concept makes for an easy premise for a story especially adventurous ones.

What is Keats saying about youth and old age?

Youth is beautiful and old age final but what he urn is trying to convey is that even as generations change, new ones born and old ones die the truth it is trying to bring to man is the beauty is truth and truth beauty and that is what it wants man to understand. In your old age appreciation is the cure for woe. And nothing teaches the old like the realization that life is never ending and the love and beauty Keats was afraid to lose was going to happen even after he was gone as seen in to autumn. In youth Keats feared the intensity of life so much so he shunned it. Then as he grew older he spent his time coming to terms until he did in which he described as Autumn.

Is it possible for us to really leave pain through the imagination and appreciation of beauty?

Of course! Like I said there is no pain killer for life like appreciating beauty. without that we would be killing ourselves indiscriminately until there was nothing left. Humans doing it all the time whether it be soldiers fighting for the love of their country which they perceive is beautiful IM sure to the man who sticks by their wife on their death bed. Beauty is why we are here dealing with all the bullshit of life.

What does it mean to want something or long for something we can't attain? Is longing an inevitable condition of being human or do the Romantics offer us a means of circumventing our human state?

If we did not long we would just do nothing. the work ethic of the human species, energized by our longing for a better situation then we are in is the most basic of survival mechanisms. The simplest example is hunger and nourishment. Thus longing is more then just the human existence it is existence for the most part down to sub atomic particles longing to change states whatever state that it is in. The romantics do not circumvent the human state but come to terms with it; accept it for what it is worth, which brings them some sort of enlightenment that they are expressing poetically. Keats and Blake like to use personifications of ideas they have to play roles in adventure they go on to overcome obstacles which are representation of the human condition. This why poetry is beautiful because it speaks on subjects we can all relate to, offering if not wisdom and a means to overcome, an outlet to relate or at the very least commiserate.