John Keats as a Poet of Sensuousness

John Keats was a passionate lover of Beauty, Beauty in all its forms, shapes, and varied manifestations. In fact, Beauty is a source of joy as he himself says: “A thing of Beauty is joy forever”. He again says: “With a great poet, the sense of Beauty overcomes every other consideration, or rather obliterates all considerations.” It is the love for beauty which introduces the element of sensuousness in the poet. Thus, Matthew Arnold also right when he says in this connection: “Keats is enchantingly and abundantly sensuous”. Keats‟ life and his works bears ample testimony to his sensuousness as in one of his letters, he writes: “O for a life of sensation rather than thoughts. Keats had acute sensibility.” The humming of bees, the sight of a flower, the glittering of as sun ray seemed to make his whole nature tremple, then his eyes flashed, cheeks glowed, and mouth quivered. Indeed, Keats‟ sensuousness is universal, not one or two, but all of his five senses are equally acute. The Eve of St. Agnes is full of sensuous imagery as the description of the feast spread by Porphyro by the side of the sleeping mistress is no doubt, full of sensuous details. Candid apples, plum jelly, Manna dates etc. make our senses more and more active as far as the senses of taste, smell and sight are concerned. All these sights are full of sensuousness not only by their own natural richness, but also the association of the distant countries from which they come as the poet also asserts: “Full on the casement show the wintry noon And threw warm gules on Mackline‟s fair breast.” The pictures of dead objects are made more vivid as the poet gives them life and the power to feel, see and think. Keats describes the dead and the senseless things in terms of life, movement and feelings when the poet also refers to the angles carved on the stories when he himself says: “The carved angels, ever eager eyed Star‟d where upon their heads their cornice rests”. This quality is perceptible in the phrases like of „Azure lidded sleep‟ when the poet also points out: “And thy beauty is shield, heart Shaped and vermeil eyed” The more sensuous picture is described in the action of undressing as Madeline removes the pearls from her hair as the poet also describes it as: “Unclasping the jewels one by one, and loosens her bodice and she looks like a mermaid in the sea weed.” sensuality which we feel in certain other poems also, for instance, in Endymion, and in the sonnet, Bright Star. In Ode on Grecian Urn, we have the sensuous pictures of passionate men and gods chasing maiden flute-players playing ecstatic, music, and young men advancing to kiss his beloved, and so on. Similarly, Ode to Nightingale is also rich in sensuousness where we have an abundance of rich, concrete and sensuousness imagery. The picture of a beaker full of warm wine and of the moon shining in the sky surrounded by stars appeal to our senses of smell, taste and seeing. The stanza depicting flowers, soft incense, the fruit tree, the fast fading violets, and the coming must raise full of sweet juice, all this is a delight for our senses. In Ode on Melancholy, we have a delightful sensuous picture of the mistress showing „some rich anger‟ and raving while the lover holds her hand in his tight grip. Ode to Autumn is also a powerful exploration of rich sensuous expression where the beauty of autumn has been described with all its sensuous appeals. Thus, we see Keats‟ sensuousness as universal and all pervasive. Indeed, he is the most sensuous of all English poets after Edmund Spenser. Not only he is sensuous, but also has the unique gift of communicating his sensuous pleasure through the use of such sensuous phrases as „ warmed jewel‟, „melodious plot‟, „fragrant zone,‟ „pillowy softness‟, „cliummsy cells‟, „embalmed darkness‟, etc. Keats does not present the concept of love as only sensuous, but at the same time, it projects the idealistic and spiritual elements in it. Even in Endymion, we come across a note of mystery in the form of Endymion‟s union with Cynthia who presents the poet‟s attainment of goal of ideal beauty. In this way, after going through different poems and different sensual expression in them, we can safely and rightly aver the fact that Keats is abundantly sensuous, but the question is whether his sensuousness degenerates in to sensuality, is pointed out by Matthew Arnold and some other critics. The detailed study of Keats‟ poetry explores the fact that he is not sensual, but his poetry shows him a nature poet as Finny asserts: “Keats was much more than a poet of sensuous beauty. He was a thinker, a critic, and an interpreter of life”. Poets. 1880–1918. Vol. IV. The Nineteenth Century. 2. Wordsworth to Rossetti (2016). “Critical Introduction by Matthew Arnold -John Keats (1795–1821)” Google Book Search. 7 November 2016. 3. Jackson Bate, Walter (2016). John Keats. USA: Harvard UP,1963. Print. Jackson, Noel. Science and Sensation in Romantic Poetry. Google Book Search. 4 November 2016. 4. Motion, Andrew (2016). Keats. Google Book Search. Web. 2 November 2016. 5. Strachan, John. Ed. (2016). A Routledge Literary Sourcebook on the Poems of John Keats. Google Book Search. 4 November 2016. 6. Vendler, Helen (1983). The Odes of John Keats. Cambridge, Mass. and London: Harvard UP, 1983. Print.