Of nymphs on woods, and fountains, and the shade”.
Nymphs are supernatural female spirits who are associated with different parts of nature, hence the use of woods and fountains in the areas where these creatures play. It would seem that Keats wants to find inspiration from all sources, and the mention of the mystical spirits highlights how Keats believes poetry to be spiritual and precious. It is also an example of how idyllic a scene Keats tended to paint in this poem, although he takes inspiration from many different sources the negativity which should be displayed while using negative capability is quite rare, and this shows just how young Keats and his talent for poetry were. Furthermore, the riddling tone used at the beginning of ‘Sleep and poetry’ illustrates the immaturity also, as it is quite a nursery style.
The extract at the beginning of the poem (thought to be but was not actually by Chaucer, but was by a 14th century poet, but this was much mistaken at by those during Keats’s time) sets up the mood of how Keats was feeling at this time, it basically questions why one would still lie awake when this person was at such heart ease. At this time in Keats’s life he had just decided to give up medicine and take up the new profession of writing poetry, and so while at Hunt’s house, he must have been lying awake in the library; although he felt content at his choice of career path he had set for his life. As the title suggests the poem begins to explain Keats’s ideas about sleep and then finally poetry. In fact, his feelings for both are extremely similar.
“What is more gentle than a wind in summer?
What is more soothing than the pretty hummer?
That stays one moment in an open flower,
And buzzes cheerily from bower to bower?”
The answers to these rhetorical questions are all sleep. During these rhyming couplets Keats makes a comparison of sleep to nature, giving a relaxed and calming tone to this point in the verse. The semantic field of nature gives an image of a bee buzzing from one flower to the next; it is a very calming idea, which sleep and nature both can be, but as Keats understands it sleep is the most peaceful thing known to man in comparison to nature. Keats is unable to sleep in his current state, although poetry contents him he is unable to sleep and so he is constantly thinking about how pleasant it would be to drift off to sleep. Thus, Keats’s explanation of the tranquillity in terms of sleep contains connotations that this tranquillity can be observed through the action of poetry. These connotations come from the fact that it is titled ‘sleep and poetry’ and so the author must have to compare and contrast the ideas associated with both, and as both contain similar emotive responses in the examples given through Keats’s writing throughout this poem, suggests that this is what he felt about the two.
“But what is higher beyond thought than thee?
Fresher than berries of a mountain tree?
More strange, more beautiful, more smooth, more regal,
Than wings of swans, than doves, than dim-seen eagle?”
In his surroundings Keats is unable to sleep because of thoughts of poetry and therefore the two are interconnected within ‘Sleep and poetry’ and so he introduces the analysis of his chosen career in the same way that he did with sleep. In the above quotation Keats uses symbolic birds, for example eagles symbolise strength and power, and doves illustrate peace and purity, while swans are seen as graceful. This may be due to the fact that all of these descriptions of the birds can be applied to poetry, as a result a conclusion that Keats saw poetry as a lot more than just words, it was a symbol of power, peace, purity and elegance. And so, Keats may have thought of poetry as a god like message to describe the things that have been created, such as nature which Keats has repeatedly used through ‘Sleep and poetry’.
At this point in his career Keats is very passionate about what he’s going to do, and his youthful enthusiasm is portrayed when he writes ‘Oh Poesy’. ‘Poesy’ simply means poetry but it sounds more romantic in archaic language, the capital ‘P’ is used in order to address poetry, which furthers the idea that Keats saw poetry as God like as he is personifying the writing of mere words as something to which he is addressing passionately. In addition, he also shows how modest he is when he shows that he knows he’s not a glorious figure in poetry yet, “That am not yet a glorious denizen” and so he once again addresses poetry in order to ask what he should do as he wants to loose himself in poetry
“The morning sunbeams to the great Apollo
Like a fresh sacrifice; or if I can bear
The o’erwhelming sweets, twill bring to me the fair
Visions of all places”
Keats mentions the God of poetry ‘Apollo’ in his address to ‘Poesy’ as he yearns to write down he every experience and all that he is able to see. Keats wants to write about everything ‘that was for our human senses fitted’ then he will spread his wings in his experiences and writings. Quite unlike those poets who came before the romantics, Keats states that these were unholy, didn’t respect poetry, and were an ‘ill-fated, impious race’ he thought of them as more like mathematicians who stuck to rules taught by schools.
When the morning came Keats wanted to record his experiences and thoughts about his idyllic career straight away
“Within my breast; so that the morning light
Surprised me even from my sleepness night;
And up I rose refreshed, and glad, and gay,
Resolving to begin that very day
These lines; and howsoever they be done,
I leave them as a father does a son”.
Ultimately, Keats felt like the feelings a father gets when leaving his son are alike to those he felt when he left each of his own creations, his own special kind of blood link. This emphasises just how emotionally involved Keats tended to be with his poetry.
