Michael O'Neill
- Published in print:
- 1997
- Published Online:
- October 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780198122852
- eISBN:
- 9780191671579
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198122852.003.0007
- Subject:
- Literature, 19th-century Literature and Romanticism, Poetry
This chapter explores poetry's concern with its status as poetry and with the status of poetry more generally. It argues that Keats's relevance to us resides, to a considerable degree, in the way his ...
More
This chapter explores poetry's concern with its status as poetry and with the status of poetry more generally. It argues that Keats's relevance to us resides, to a considerable degree, in the way his whole-hearted pursuit of poetic excellence is crossed (though never deflected) by a fear that poetry may itself be ‘a mere Jack a lanthern’. Above all, it is fascinated by the different forms which ‘self-consciousness’ takes in Keats's poetry, examining his oeuvre in the light of the propositions and hidden challenges, even contradictions, in the ‘poetical Character’ letter which the poet wrote to Richard Woodhouse in October 1818. Among other things, the chapter suggests that the drama of ‘Ode to a Nightingale’ has much to do with Keats's sense of the burden of imaginative experience — a burden which attracts and repels the poet — and that ‘Ode on Indolence’ is an underestimated and central poem, exploring the poet's wish not to be stirred out of an ‘indolence’ at once fruitless and potentially fertile.Less
This chapter explores poetry's concern with its status as poetry and with the status of poetry more generally. It argues that Keats's relevance to us resides, to a considerable degree, in the way his whole-hearted pursuit of poetic excellence is crossed (though never deflected) by a fear that poetry may itself be ‘a mere Jack a lanthern’. Above all, it is fascinated by the different forms which ‘self-consciousness’ takes in Keats's poetry, examining his oeuvre in the light of the propositions and hidden challenges, even contradictions, in the ‘poetical Character’ letter which the poet wrote to Richard Woodhouse in October 1818. Among other things, the chapter suggests that the drama of ‘Ode to a Nightingale’ has much to do with Keats's sense of the burden of imaginative experience — a burden which attracts and repels the poet — and that ‘Ode on Indolence’ is an underestimated and central poem, exploring the poet's wish not to be stirred out of an ‘indolence’ at once fruitless and potentially fertile.
James Sambrook
- Published in print:
- 1991
- Published Online:
- October 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780198117889
- eISBN:
- 9780191671104
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198117889.003.0010
- Subject:
- Literature, Poetry
This chapter discusses the last two works of Thomson, The Castle of Indolence and Coriolanus. A description of the last few years of Thomson's life, as well as several analyses of his works are also ...
More
This chapter discusses the last two works of Thomson, The Castle of Indolence and Coriolanus. A description of the last few years of Thomson's life, as well as several analyses of his works are also included.Less
This chapter discusses the last two works of Thomson, The Castle of Indolence and Coriolanus. A description of the last few years of Thomson's life, as well as several analyses of his works are also included.
Lawrence M. Crutcher
- Published in print:
- 2012
- Published Online:
- May 2013
- ISBN:
- 9780813136882
- eISBN:
- 9780813141411
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University Press of Kentucky
- DOI:
- 10.5810/kentucky/9780813136882.003.0008
- Subject:
- History, American History: 19th Century
A description of Louisville emerging from its frontier period. An account of the important John Keats letters to America, many of which have helped future scholars understand the meaning of his ...
More
A description of Louisville emerging from its frontier period. An account of the important John Keats letters to America, many of which have helped future scholars understand the meaning of his poetry. A description of his letters about negative capability, disinterestedness, truth and beauty, and his attitudes toward the church.Less
A description of Louisville emerging from its frontier period. An account of the important John Keats letters to America, many of which have helped future scholars understand the meaning of his poetry. A description of his letters about negative capability, disinterestedness, truth and beauty, and his attitudes toward the church.
Adam Malka
- Published in print:
- 2018
- Published Online:
- January 2019
- ISBN:
- 9781469636290
- eISBN:
- 9781469636313
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of North Carolina Press
- DOI:
- 10.5149/northcarolina/9781469636290.003.0008
- Subject:
- History, African-American History
Slavery in Maryland died during the 1860s, but for all of their promise the changes also brought heartbreak. As Chapter 7 shows, black men’s acquisition of a fuller bundle of property rights and ...
More
Slavery in Maryland died during the 1860s, but for all of their promise the changes also brought heartbreak. As Chapter 7 shows, black men’s acquisition of a fuller bundle of property rights and legal protections brought them into conflict with the very criminal justice system built to guard those rights and ensure those protections. White commentators scoffed at black men’s supposed indolence and bristled at their households’ apparent disorder; police officers arrested black Baltimoreans for an expanding list of crimes; and black people, black men in particular, were incarcerated at growing rates. During the years immediately following the Civil War, Baltimore’s policemen and prisons perpetrated a form of racial violence that was different from yet indicative of the violence inflicted by the old order’s vigilantes. Castigated as criminals, freedmen’s legal victories provoked a form of policing reserved for the truly free.Less
Slavery in Maryland died during the 1860s, but for all of their promise the changes also brought heartbreak. As Chapter 7 shows, black men’s acquisition of a fuller bundle of property rights and legal protections brought them into conflict with the very criminal justice system built to guard those rights and ensure those protections. White commentators scoffed at black men’s supposed indolence and bristled at their households’ apparent disorder; police officers arrested black Baltimoreans for an expanding list of crimes; and black people, black men in particular, were incarcerated at growing rates. During the years immediately following the Civil War, Baltimore’s policemen and prisons perpetrated a form of racial violence that was different from yet indicative of the violence inflicted by the old order’s vigilantes. Castigated as criminals, freedmen’s legal victories provoked a form of policing reserved for the truly free.
