John Keats Odes Analysis

The theme of death and mortality in John Keats’ Odes

The daunting theme of death intertwined with human mortality is one of the most frequently used themes in all of literature and especially in Keats’ poetry it seems almost omnipresent. Perhaps it is because death is a human inevitability, which many of us try to unsuccessfully outrun for all our lives, but perhaps the theme is not as morose as it might seem; perhaps Keats sees death in a much better light than most of us - as a possible and final means of escaping agonizing reality but also as something which gives us the potential to realize hidden beauty. In any case, Keats’ treatment of these themes, especially in the “Ode to a Nightingale” and “Ode on a Grecian Urn”, is to say the least very intriguing and therefore deserves a much closer look and scrutiny. In the Ode to a Nightingale nature plays an important role, to be more specific, a bird’s song is the source of the speaker’s

Human life is defined by death, we are all mortals and without death life wouldn’t hold any meaning. Especially “Ode to a Nightingale” shows Keats’ internal struggle to accept his own mortality, he grabs any chance to flee reality and his immortality but eventually he realizes he only has two choices – he can either return to reality and truly accept death as it is an inevitable natural phenomena, or he can accept his defeat and choose peaceful death as a way out. Either way death holds a great meaning and provides the realization of beauty and as “Ode on a Grecian urn” suggest, beauty is “all ye need to know” (50). Even though Keats writes about dark topics the tone isn’t really morbid as the final realization brings a sense of peace through acceptance of human mortality and appreciation of beauty. All in all, the theme of death resonates very powerfully and so does Keats’