Keats' "On Seeing the elgin marbles"
It is tempting to look at a poem like John Keats' "On Seeing The Elgin Marbles" and classify it with his numerous other poems that dwell on growing old and dying. "On Seeing the Elgin Marbles" certainly can be read as a poem that is primarily preoccupied with the idea of mortality. However, with this particular poem, Keats seems to consciously writing with the intent of presenting an alternate meaning to the reader. If we choose to acknowledge this possible alternate meaning, we can see the poem as transgressing the stereotyped Keats poem; instead, we can see this as a deliberately failed poem in which Keats lacks the ability to describe his excited internal state. With merely the title, Keats already sets up a scenario for the reader to clearly picture. We are to imagine that Keats has gone to see the famous Elgin Marbles that were being displayed in England shortly before Keats wrote his poem. According to Jacob Rothenberg, "the Elgin marbles arrived in England at the height of the transition from neo-classicism to romanticism. In this milieu they served as a focal point around which the most significant aesthetic and critical issues of the day were fought out" (444-445). Upon seeing these marbles that were once so beautif
zes how truly appalled he is by death. zes how truly appalled he is by death. Keats could have easily title the poem "When I Saw the Elgin Marbles,' thereby making the situation he relates be entirely situated in the past. By entitling it "On Seeing the Elgin Marbles," Keats emphasizes the immediacy of the feelings that surfaces the second he casts his eyes on the Marbles; his first thought upon seeing the Marbles is that his "spirit is too weak". He does not pick up the idea of "seeing" until line 11 of the poem, when he for the only time directly mentions the marbles as "these wonders". Perhaps from the onset, Keats is too unable to describe the marbles; if were to finish the sentence for him, we might make it read, "My spirit is too weak to describe the Elgin Marbles." That first phrase is not the only ambiguous one. Although "unwilling sleep" could easily mean death, the choice of adjectives here is interesting. It would have made more sense for Keats to say "unwilled sleep"; there would have been no question then that he meant death. By using "unwilling", he leaves it unclear what sleep is "unwilling" to do. This is an example of his deliberate inability to describe how he feels. Keats even directly acknowledges that his feelings are an "indescribable feud". Rothenberg, Jacob. Descensus ad terram: The Acquisition and Reception of the Elgin Marbles. New York: Garland, 1977) 444-45. Rothenberg, Jacob. Descensus ad terram: The Acquisition and Reception of the The poem's ending is a departure from the structured iambic pentameter form that most of the poem is written in. Instead of the sentences he has been using for the first twelve lines, Keats ends the poem with sentence fragments: "with a billowy main/ -A sun-a shadow of a magnitude." These fragments are meant to mirror the fragmented state that the Elgin Marbles are in. Once again, Keats points out the state of decay of the Marbles in order to compare the image to that of his own eventual decay upon death. The sentence construction literally wastes away at the end, much like Keats fears he will do also. What makes this poem interesting, however, is that it goes beyond worrying about death and fame to do something much more interesting: the experience of seeing such beautiful "wonders" makes Keats practically unable to express the beauty. And he does not ever fully explain it, but he almost at once abandons the premise of writing about the Marbles in order to concentrate on his internal feelings that Marbles produce in him. It is tempting to look at a poem like John Keats' "On Seeing The Elgin Marbles" and classify it with his numerous other poems that dwell on growing old and dying. "On Seeing the Elgin Marbles" certainly can be read as a poem that is primarily preoccupied with the idea of mortality. However, with this particular poem, Keats seems to consciously writing with the intent of presenting an alternate meaning to the reader. If we choose to acknowledge this possible alternate meaning, we can see the poem as transgressing the stereotyped Keats poem; instead, we can see this as a deliberately failed poem in which Keats lacks the ability to describe his excited internal state. That first phrase is not the only ambiguous one. Although "unwilling sleep" could easily mean death, the choice of adjectives here is interesting. It would have made more sense for Keats to say "unwilled sleep"; there would have been no question then that he meant death. By using "unwilling", he leaves it unclear what sleep is "unwilling" to do. This is an example of his deliberate inability to describe how he feels. Keats even directly acknowledges that his feelings are an "indescribable feud". hoose to acknowledge this possible alternate meaning, we can see the poem as transgressing the stereotyped Keats poem; instead, we can see this as a deliberately failed poem in which Keats lacks the ability to describe his excited internal state.
Some common words found in the essay are:
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Approximate Word count = 5262
Approximate Pages = 21 (250 words per page double spaced)
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