In Keats’ poem Bards of Passion and Mirth he talks about how happiness is a thing that is of the Heavens because of how he describes Heaven from lines 10 to 20. Yet happiness is not only limited to Heaven, happiness is also on earth because the Bards, the poets have made that possible. The poets whom have past have their souls in Heaven and on earth.
“Ye have left you, soul on earth.
Have ye souls in heaven too,
Doubled-lived in regions new?”
The souls of the poets live on in the poetry that was published or found that was exposed for the world to read and to appreciate. The romantic poets like many of them believe were able to appreciate and reveal to the reader deep truths about happiness, life, God, nature, imagination, beauty and the supernatural. Poets in fact could be consider teachers which the poem also address,
“Thus ye teach us, every day,
Wisdom, though fled far away.”
Even when the poets have died, the literature that is left behind still teaches us and that is how their wisdom reaches the readers from far away.
Pain and beauty are linked with one another because they not the same, they aren’t completely opposites either. To appreciate the beauty and to really see it sometime you have to suffer. It is true that sometimes if we do not suffer and fight for something it would not have the same worth, than if we did. In Keat’s Ode on Melancholy it is about someone who is suffering and in pain, but no pain is worth suicide,
“Nor suffer thy pale forehead to be kist
By nightshade, ruby grade of Prosperine;”
this is because there are other joys of life that is much more powerful and is more meaningful. Therefore if the person chose to die he/she would miss out on the many wondrous experiences of life. Keat expresses this
“And Joy, whose hand is ever at his lips
Bidding adieu; and aching Pleasure nigh,”
Joy is right there and if the person chose to dead the suffering and not see it through, Joy will not feel guilty letting the person go. The reason why pain and beauty are link is because humanity needs to have balance. A rose is consider beautiful yet when it pricks you it hurts as well. Eating something delicious in express will also become painful and lead to health disease like high blood pressure and cholesterol. Everything good or bad has its part. In Chinese we called that Feng.
The transformation out of pain into beauty is in every one of his odes. The person in the poem seems to start in a suffering state but is able to come out of it and see the essence of beauty. The state of happiness, and beauty is revealed to the person and ultimately there is a battle which happens within the person. From the odes it seems that the person is able to come to recognize and appreciate the pain he/she has suffer and the beauty and happiness that awaits them. The reader also realizes the important link that exists between the two opposing themes.
Keats and all the romantic poets are right to say that life is full of pain. That is a universal truth and something that we cannot escape unless we chose not to exist. But who can guarantee that there will be an end to suffering after one stop existing. Also back to the idea of balance if there is good there is evil, so if there is happiness there is pain. I think that also ties into the freedom to choice. By the decisions we make we end up experiencing a certain type of feeling. However everything ends that’s the honest truth. So if there is pain to be suffered then there is happiness to be enjoyed. It is possible to let go of pain yet it is so hard not to dwell on happiness. Personally pain can easily disappear with the help of distractions, mediation, prayer and in this case for the romantics through beauty of nature. When doing these things certain things are revealed to the person such as the importance of not wasting time and energy on negative vibes.
When I used to run track in high school I would suffer everyday at practice and I always told myself to think of a happy place. Using my imagination I pretended I was laying out on the beaches of Hawaii getting some sun. So though imagination I was able to escape temporarily from the pain and suffering that I was experiencing while I was at practice.
Longing is inevitable and sets humans apart from other animals. All of the Odes also express a state of longing. In Ode to autumn there is a longing for the season to stay by the way Keats describes the season
“Season of mist and mellow fruitfulness,
Close bosom-friend of the maturing sun;”
That even though it is a sign of winter and its comings it is still beautiful and has its own melodious song. In Ode to Nightingale the speaker wants to be like the bird who experience the ability to be immortal. But it’s also probably easier to be a bird. Finally in the Ode to a Grecian Urn there is the desire for youth
“ When old age shall this generation waste,
Thou shalt remain, in midst of other woe”
However becoming old is as inevitable as death. From all these Odes and the other works of the romantics they have revealed to me that life is short and pain and suffering is inevitable so the best solution is to live life in happiness with good people and the appreciation of nature and little things.
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