To G. A. W.

While I was reading about the life of John Keats, there was one period of his life that caught my attention. It was not because of the relevance or quality of the poems that he wrote in that period but because of the irony that surrounded his professional life.   Between 1813 and 1818 was the period of his life in which he wrote the majority of his poems, however none of them turned out to be successful, at least, at the same level of his letters. Though, He advocate his life to write and create new poems during those years, his immaturity towards life and his immaturity towards what he thought the public wanted from him as a poet stopped him from getting recognition while he was alive.

According to Richard Marggraf Turley (2012), “Keats revelled in the deliberate use of immaturity, but at a physical level he was to experience his boyish imagination as profoundly disorientating, especially when it came to sorting out ‘a right feeling towards women’ (Turley, 2012)”. Which in the end means that his poems were immature and juvenile, but he was immature and young. He was in a period that every man and woman goes through, in which the perception of new things, like the opposite sex, new adventures, etc., is so vivid and desirable. And this was a characteristics of John keats’ poems in his early life, even a great like yeats notices this:”

 “Yeats suggests a key word, particularly in regard to the early Keats: sweet. The senses, primarily oral, secondarily tactile, gorging on the luxuries of the world, dominate the imagery. The “slippery blisses”, “moist kisses”, and “creamy breasts” have not escaped notice.” (Wilbur, 1959, pp. 12)

I decided to chose the poem To G. A. W. because it is one of Keat’s works that, in my opinion, illustrated better that juvenile and immature period in Keats’ works, especially towards females, that I referred to before. Though this poem has some indiscutible traits that all keats’ poems present, the essence and naturality is distinctly different from the masterpieces that make him famous.  

To G. A. W.

Nymph of the downward smile and sidelong glance! In what diviner moments of the day Art thou most lovely? when gone far astray Into the labyrinths of sweet utterance? Or when serenely wandering in a trance Of sober thought? Or when starting away, With careless robe to meet the morning ray, Thou sparest the flowers in thy mazy dance? Haply 'tis when thy ruby lips part sweetly, And so remain, because thou listenest: But thou to please wert nurtured so completely That I can never tell what mood is best, I shall as soon pronounce which Grace more neatly Trips it before Apollo than the rest.

In this poem, Keats is writing to a woman who he is infatuated with, a woman that he feels that is perfect and beautiful at every hour of the day, and he is actually indecisive as to when she is at her most beautiful, because in his eyes everything about her is perfect. Even though, this poems represents what Keats works were all about, it actually does not represent him as a writer and his real feelings towards true love. If we take a look at one of Keats’ letters to Fanny, the words he used to illustrate the sensations he is feeling towards that woman are completely different from the ones used in this poem, the degree of the feeling is different and the maturity of the message is different.

Not every great writer knows himself and his style right away. We can evidence that with Keats; however, every good writer overcomes those obstacles and becomes successful in the long run. In the case of Keats, his letters make him the name he is right now for English literature. Nevertheless, I do not think we should overlook his poems because it helps to reconstruct the puzzle of whom John Keats was.  

References

Turley, R. (2012). Keats's boyish imagination (p. 8). London: Routledge.

Wilbur, R., & Moss, H. (1959). Keats: Selected poetry (p. 12). New York: Dell.