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   akannan Teacher
   Middle School

   eNotes Editor

   For Keats, the driving force of existence was seen as one that strives to reach the ultimate pinnacle of "the good, the true, and the beautiful."  Keats believes that life should be one where one pursues ends that represent "the fullest, ripest experience that one is capable of."  This sensory and lush existence can be seen in the opening stanza of Keats' ode "To Autumn,"  Art is a vehicle in this pursuit of embodying sensations that help transcend reality into a realm of almost Platonic forms of beauty and truth.  For Keats as seen in works such as "Ode to a Nightingale," art allows a temporary escape from the painful condition of mortality, a release into a realm where consciousness is transformed and reality is forever altered.  The desire to live in this moment, albeit fleeting, and transitory is evident in works such as "Ode on a Grecian Urn."

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   http://www.scribd.com/doc/15965768/John-Keats-Romanticism

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   Posted by akannan on Thursday September 3, 2009 at 5:12 PM