FROM EPHEMERAL TO PERMANENCE: IDENTIFYING THE EPIPHANY IN THE ODES OF JOHN KEATS

Abstract

John Keats (1795 – 1821), the English Romantic poet is one of the finest in world poetry. His Odes, apart from his other lyrical poems, stand apart for their astute content. Keats explores the dilemma between the ephemeral quality of life and his intention to find a somewhat permanent solution to this. Composed within a very short span Keats’s Odes stand strong in their effort to find an alternate reality to temporal aspect of life. As his mood in the Odes change from sorrow to hopelessness to despair, it can be said that in the last poem of this series of Odes Keats has an epiphany. His wistfulness turns into a kind of happy realistaion that brevity of life is accompanied by its own charm and fulfilment. The paper here traces the development of this idea in the six Odes by John Keats. The paper also identifies the sensuousness that is intricately connected to the themes of transience and permanence.