On Seeing The Elgin Marbles Analysis

On seeing the elgin marbles by john keats about this poet john keats was born in london on 31 october 1795 the eldest of thomas and frances jennings keats s four children.

On seeing the elgin marbles analysis. Keats would have never seen them in their intended placement situated on the temples of the acropolis complex. Explain how the poem conveys the idea that art can both move with its beauty and disturb by its tendency to remind us of our own mortality. Posted on september 20 2011 by impracticalcriticism. When looking at the poem on seeing the elgin marbles it is evident that keats uses different imagery to portray the beauty that may not seem beautiful at first glance.

John keats known for writing about his fear of lack of time to achieve love and accomplish enough in his profession to be remembered i have left no immortal work behind me nothing to make my friends proud of my memory but i have lov d the principle of beauty in all things and. Now the sculptures are in fragments and in london no longer a living part of religion but exhibits in a museum. This sonnet attempts to convey the poet s complex attitude towards death couched in a reflection on the british museum s greek statues. What is keats saying about the worth of human artistry.

John keats on seeing the elgin marbles. Investigating themes in on seeing the elgin marbles. Although he died at the age of twenty five keats had perhaps the most remarkable career of any english poet. When he caught tuberculosis in july of 1820 many of the sonnets he wrote contained his recognition of mortality.

In his sonnet on seeing the elgin marbles john keats uses greek art as inspiration for a reflection on the inevitability of death and how in the end even his best memories may not feel good enough. In on seeing the elgin marbles keats proposes that reveling in true majesty cannot delay the inevitability of death. It is possible to gaze upon beautiful objects or landscapes but the perpetuity they embody is unattainable. The elgin marbles are a set of statues and friezes removed from the parthenon in athens by a british lord elgin and taken back to england at the beginning of the 19th century.

A combination of obscure and abstract images give the poem a lightness which belies its proposed interest. 1292 words 6 pages. The marbles have immense beauty and grandeur but they used to be part of the frieze on the parthenon in athens. Imagery such as a sick eagle and also a billowy main are used in this poem to describe what the poet is attempting to reveal in this poem.

Upon seeing the elgin marbles keats is overcome by a sense of his own mortality. Humans are destined to change grow old and eventually die and no amount of contemplation is going to change that.