"Discuss the main concerns that are evident in at least three of the poems you have read this year".

"Discuss the main concerns that are evident in at least three of the poems you have read this year" In his poetry, John Keats uses a variety of techniques to illustrate his main concerns. Keats portrays his concerns by using poetic devices such as personification, onomatopoeia and antequated language. This reinforces and emphasises his ideas. Keats also uses particular settings that create the atmosphere required to accurately convey his feelings. In the poem 'To Autumn" Keats displays his delight in the season. He references it with high regard, as a 'Season of mists and mellow fruitfulness' and with 'Subtle plains with rosy hue.' He also discusses how many poets write about spring but autumn is just as beautiful and radiant. 'Where are the songs of spring? Ay where are they? Think not of them, thou hast thy music too, -' Keats also makes reference to the fact that nature is disappearing, with the commencement of winter. 'And gathering swallows twitter in the skies'; the birds are getting ready to fly south for the winter. In the poem 'Ode to a Nightingale' Keats raises the concerns that beauty and love must die and the inevitability of old age and it's associated ills. 'Where Beauty cannot keep her lustrous eyes, Or new love pine at them beyond to-morrow', expresses his views about beauty fading and love being short. 'Where youth grows pale, and spectre-thin, and

  • Word count: 956
  • Level: GCSE
  • Subject: English
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Write an appreciation of "The Eve of St Agnes" as a narrative Romantic poem.

Write an appreciation of "The Eve of St Agnes" as a narrative Romantic poem. The famous poet John Keats wrote "The Eve of St Agnes" in 1819. Keats was born in 1795 in London, but contracted tuberculosis in his early years and died at the young age of twenty-six. Keats was the youngest of the Great Romantics. The Romantics were a group of poets who rebelled against the change in social, moral, political and religious aspects of life in their time. They used the beauty of nature and imagination of the time to help create their poetry. The title of Keats' poem "The Eve of St Agnes" tells the reader what the poem is about. St Agnes was a nun, who wanted to protect her virginity and refused to be married. She was beheaded on the first 21st of January. Traditionally if a young girl went to bed, clothes less, without eating and only looking forward and upward on St Agnes Eve she would see the man she was to marry in her dream. This suspicion is what Keats has based his narrative romantic poem on. His poem is the story of a young girl who believes in the Eve of St Agnes suspicion and dreams of her love. However a young Knight comes to see her while she sleeping. The girl wakes up, they fall in love, consummate, and in the morning leave. Keats has used the Romantic theme of Williams Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet in his poem. There is a feud between the young girls family and the

  • Word count: 2222
  • Level: GCSE
  • Subject: English
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Ode To Autumn", John Keatsa) This poem is an excellent portrayal of a term dismissed as being either "too cold" or "too windy" to be classed as a special term

"Ode To Autumn", John Keats a) This poem is an excellent portrayal of a term dismissed as being either "too cold" or "too windy" to be classed as a special term, as other poets would, and have, written about the ever-optimistic spring, whereas John Keats has here conveyed Autumn naturally and as beautifully as he sees it. The first stanza is a very descriptive piece, leaving the reader to wonder whether the poet is addressing the time of the year, or merely writing about it, i.e. there is no verb present to show who is doing what, just a varied collection of semantically similar adjectives, e.g. "mature" "ripe" "mellow". These all share the connotation of lateness, or ageing of an object, and these are a reflection of the title of the ode, as it is a term for the year later on in its cycle, and it is aged and is effective because of that. The second stanza directly addresses the autumn, and uses pronouns such as "thee" and "thy". These suggest a respect present between the poet and the Term, with a familiar feeling creeping in as he says "Thee sitting carelessly on a granary floor". This is an effective image, the poet seeing the term as being wheat or cereal on the floor, where it usually is at the time this poem is set. This personification is effective as it creates a homely atmosphere, bringing the autumn closer i.e. bringing it all around us and making us realise

  • Word count: 949
  • Level: GCSE
  • Subject: English
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Compare & Contrast the theme of nature as presented by the poet 'Keats' and 'Hardy'

Compare & Contrast the theme of nature as presented by the poet 'Keats' and 'Hardy'. How do the poets achieve these different approaches to the theme? The theme of nature is a popular choice among famous writers of the time like Thomas Hardy and John Keats. The theme of nature is one of the most popular themes of writers of this time as it is a way that the writer can express himself or herself through nature in a way the people can relate to. The first thing I noticed when reading the poems is that the writers use nature in different ways to show their feelings whether it be happy or sad, Beautiful or Bleak. The Darkling Thrush by Thomas Hardy is a more bleak, dark, dull poem. The title 'Darkling Thrush' suddenly illustrates to the reader that the poem is written in a dark style of writing. This is shown through Hardy's choice of Diction and his style of writing. Words like 'Haunted, Desolate Hard and Corpse' allow the reader to build an image of an isolated landscape. His strong use of alliteration creates a dull image in the reader's mind examples of this alliteration are 'Dregs made Desolate', 'bine-Stems Scored the Sky' and 'Think There Trembled Through'. Hardy also uses similes in his style of writing to grasp the reader's imagination and full attention. An example of his use of similes would be 'Like strings of broken lyres' this shows Hardy's dark

  • Word count: 641
  • Level: GCSE
  • Subject: English
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From your reading so far what seems to be Keats's chief strengths and preoccupations?

From your reading so far what seems to be Keats's chief strengths and preoccupations? At the time when John Keats was born it was said that, 'poets are born, not made.' Poets at the time were either gentlemen from the upper class, or well educated with intellectual backgrounds. Keats's background, at the time, was definitely of the lower classes; he did not have any social advantages that many of his contemporary poets took for granted. As well as this, there was nothing, in his early life that was suggestive of his poetic talent. He had to be a self-made poet. Keats grew up in a time of upheaval in every way, a time of new political thinking, of social and humanitarian reform, a revolutionary time that had earlier spawned the French Revolution which in turned had strengthened the will to change everywhere in the early nineteenth century. These times brought with them the Romantic Movement. Romanticism was a rebellion. It was a reaction against the stiff views of poetry in the previous century, where technique was prized higher than inspiration and common sense higher than passion. The popular poetry of the period was over decorated and given to telling uninspired entertaining little tales. The poetic accent wasn't Romantic, it was 'romanticized'. Keats wanted to be distinguished from the 'Romanticism crowd.' Romantic poets could not escape being affected by the tendencies

  • Word count: 1136
  • Level: GCSE
  • Subject: English
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In what ways does John Keats express the intensity of feeling in the poem 'To Autumn'?

Sana Kanji Essay: To Autumn 25/10/03 Essay title: In what ways does John Keats express the intensity of feeling in the poem 'To Autumn'? The poem ' To Autumn', is, as its title suggests an ode to the season of autumn. The writer, John Keats, presents extremely intense feelings in this poem and we gain a full idea as to what the season may perhaps, mean to him. This essay will concentrate on these intense feelings that we, the reader, discover throughout the course of the poem, and will look at the various ways in which they are expressed. The first example of the importance of autumn to the poet is in the title itself, in which the season has been made into a noun ' To Autumn'. We further know from the title, as mentioned above, that the writer has dedicated this poem to autumn, and this also reflects the intensity of feeling being put across. The first line of the poem is very relaxed and provides a pleasant start to the poem. The word 'fruitfulness' adds emphasis on the fullness of autumn, and also the alliteration on the letter 'm' encourages a casual and calm feeling in the reader. In the second line of the poem, John Keats presents us with a metaphor:- 'Close bosom-friend of the maturing sun; Conspiring with him how to load and bless' The meaning behind this metaphor is a contrast between male and female.

  • Word count: 1147
  • Level: GCSE
  • Subject: English
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Compare the Way in which the Romantic poet Keats presents paradox and contrast with close reference to at least three poems

Compare the Way in which the Romantic poet Keats presents paradox and contrast with close reference to at least three poems By Rowan Poulter Keats had a very short life. He died when he was twenty six after being diagnosed with tuberculosis, the same disease that killed his brother. His illness made him reflect on his life in morbid but sometimes positive points of view. His experience with women and of being rejected also influenced his poetry. Keats was a romantic poet; a type of poetry in which imagination, passion, thoughts and the merging of the sense is key to enhance the rigid formal structure of poetry. The words romantic does not signify that he is romantic, but that he uses imagination and passion to express his views and thoughts about life, and about the world itself within his poetry. Keats uses his life experiences to form themes within his poems, some of these include: life and death, dream and reality, separation and connection and morality and immorality. Literary author and Keats expert Douglas Bush noted that "Keats's important poems are related to, or grow directly out of...inner conflicts." For example, pain and pleasure are intertwined in "Ode to a Nightingale" and "Ode on a Grecian Urn"; love is intertwined with pain, and pleasure is intertwined with death in "La Belle Dame Sans Merci," "The Eve of St. Agnes." 1 These conflicts are in close relation

  • Word count: 2961
  • Level: GCSE
  • Subject: English
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The idea and study of passing of time and shortness of life. Compare the different thoughts and emotions expressed by various Poets on this subject.

The idea and study of passing of time and shortness of life. Compare the different thoughts and emotions expressed by various Poets on this subject. This essay is going to compare five poems that write about the shortness of life, and the idea of passing in time. It will also discuss the thoughts and emotions expressed by these poets. These poems were written in the pre-1940s. The five poems are: When I Have Fears by John Keats, Passing and Glassing by Christina Rossetti, His Poetrie His Pillar by Robert Herrick, To Daffadills by Robert Herrick, Virtue by George Herbert. In their poems, the poets all write about how life is short and that you should not waste time. In the poem When I Have Fears, it deals with John Keats not fulfilling any of his dreams and how he is afraid of dying and no one remembering him, as it says, "And think that I never live to trace." This suggests that when he dies no one is going to remember him and that he is going to be forgotten straight anyway, even though he is a famous poet and he is remembered. This poem is similar to "His Poetrie His Pillar." This is because it is talking about how no is going to remember him. In Robert Herrick's poem, His Poetrie His Pillar, he is discussing how he is afraid that he is going to be forgotten after he is dead but he hopes that his poetry is going to last and that is how people are going to

  • Word count: 853
  • Level: GCSE
  • Subject: English
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Autumn by John Clark

'Autumn' Autumn was written in the 19th Century by John Clark. It is a lyric poem with a rhyming scheme of a quatrain and a couplet and is a tribute to the month of Autumn intended to make us feel Autumn is the best month. It is in written in first person narrative which gives the poem a more personal feel as we are inside the consciousness of the poet. The title of the poem is straight to the point and tells us the poem is about Autumn. The first technique I can find is the personification of the wind in line one. It says the wind is a 'fitful gust', and the word fitful makes us imagine a healthy and strong, yet playful person, so it is comparing the wind to a healthy and strong, yet playful person. Also in this phrase there is the alliteration of the letter 'f'. F is a very drawn out sounding letter which emphasizes the fitful nature of the wind. The next point of interest I can find is the way it says the wind takes the faded leaves from the 'glossy elm-tree'. This implies that the wind is hard working, which is a contrast to the previous image we were given of it. This makes me think that the wind has both a playful and serious side, much like humans. Next it says the wind deposits the leaves 'with thousands of others down the lane'. This reminds us of the summer, but also reminds us that it doesn't last and that it leaves Autumn to do all the clearing up. This makes us

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  • Level: GCSE
  • Subject: English
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What similarities and difference have you noticed in 'La Belle Dame Sans Merci' by Keats and 'Mariana'

What similarities and difference have you noticed in 'La Belle Dame Sans Merci' by Keats and 'Mariana' The two poems 'La Belle Dame Sans Merci' and 'Mariana' have very similar genres. They are both based on a Romantic theme. They are both about unrequited love. In 'La Belle Dame Sans Merci' it is about a knight who falls in love with a woman and he thinks she loves him as well until she puts a spell on him and he realises it is all a trick and she doesn't care for him at all. It was written in 1819. In 'Mariana' it's about a woman (Mariana) and how she was engaged to Angelo who jilted her when the ship carrying her dowry was lost at sea. Now, still pining for Angelo, she lives in lonely seclusion in a country house, the poem talks about her miserable life without her lover. La Belle Dame Sans Merci is a ballad which means the language is simple, bare and direct. The poem starts off with a kind of 'narrator' for the first few paragraphs. He basically sets the scene. The narrator describes the atmosphere as eerie, desolate and bleak. There was no noise at all, it was very quiet-"and no birds sing." The second paragraph is when the narrator first speaks to the knight. The season is supposedly autumn/winter time. He asks the knight what's wrong with him. The knight is describes to be "haggard" and look like he's been 'dragged through a hedge backwards.' His face is pale and he

  • Word count: 793
  • Level: GCSE
  • Subject: English
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