Emily Butler's Canonball

Emily Butler

April 5, 2011

 The Inclusion of “On Sitting Down to Read King Lear Once Again” by John Keats

No class on British Romantic literature would be complete without the inclusion of John Keats’ literary work. Though in our class we discussed a wide range of Keats pieces, there is one poem that I came across in my own reading that I found to incorporate all the stirring and discussion-worthy facets of Keats as a writer. This piece is “On Sitting Down to Read King Lear Once Again,” which not only incorporates conflicting elements of Romantic irony and imagination, a main focus of our discussion of the Big Six, but also calls into question Keats’ own focus on his imminent mortality and desired immortality as well as an exploration of Time as a larger concept. This poem, calling upon past, present, and future, begs not only a modern audience, but modern discussion, which only we can facilitate by adding it to the BRL canon.

In all our readings of the Big Six, I found Keats to be the most complex in his use of Romantic irony and imagination. This may be a result of Keats’ own resistance to the somewhat chummy circle of other Romantic writers who tend to lean more heavily towards either irony or imagination. “On Sitting Down” addresses the themes of Romantic works upfront in its initial lines, “O golden-tongued Romance, with serene lute! Fair plumed syren, queen of far-away!” (1-2). This introduction arouses a sense of imagination, especially with the use of the mythical image of a “syren.” However, the following lines distort this initial call to the imagination, reading “Shut up thine olden pages, and be mute,” (4). Keats’ command to end the “Romance” of the story quickly dissolves the mirage of the story and its use of imagination. Much like the issues explored in the other works our class read, Keats is often torn between the imagination literature invokes in its readers and the irony imminent in mortality. The remainder of the poem is equally pulled by these dueling forces which I believe line 5 calls a “fierce dispute/ Betwixt damnation and impassion’d clay/ Must I burn through,” (5-7). The interplay of the mortality represented by damnation and of the power of creation represented by impassion’d clay are things Keats, as the voice of the poem, must “burn through.” This use of fire imagery continues until the end of the poem where Keats faces the fierce dispute of his mortality (“When I am consumed in the fire” (13)) and his desire for immortality (“Give me new phoenix wings to fly at my desire” (14)) in his works of literature. Though unresolved Romantic poems may often be stamped as ironic, I believe that Keats’ “On Sitting Down” immortally juxtaposes irony and imagination for though Keats is unresolved in his uncertainty of his literary work, he can only succeed in being remembered by the power of the imagination of his readers. The dueling forces of Romantic imagination and irony make this poem compelling component to this ongoing discussion of the two in BRL.

Though the discussion of Romantic irony and imagination takes us entirely through Keats’ short poem, it is not lacking in depth for further discussion. An aspect I have always appreciated in our BRL class, was discussion of present impact of these past pieces. Since this class is entirely devoted to a modern look at historical pieces, I feel that Keats’ work which calls often upon the timelessness of nature in contrast with his fascination with historical influence of art brings us closer to a discussion of the true nature of Time. We have seen in previous works, such as “On First Looking into Chapman’s Homer,” “On Seeing the Elgin Marbles,” and “Ode on a Grecian Urn” that Keats has a profound respect for classic works which differs from the focus of Nature as a timeless and dominant source of inspiration for many of the other British writers of the Romantic Era. Though the focus of the poem is clearly on Shakespeare’s famous play, King Lear, it is far from a simple critique or lauding of the work. Rather, Keats delves into an exploration of the merit of art. He bids “Adieu!” to the “Romance” introduced in line 1, in privilege of Shakespeare. He calls Shakespeare the “Chief Poet!,” a title of veneration, and continues adding “ye cloud of Albion,” using a traditional name for England (9). This shows a deep respect for the classics of art and history, yet we as readers cannot ignore the fact that Keats is writing in the present tense, and not simply to praise Shakespeare, but also to explore his own literary merit. The following line calls Shakespeare and Albion, “Begetters of our deep eternal theme!” which expresses a connectedness with the use of a collective pronoun and a timelessness signified by the word “eternal” (l0). “On Sitting Down” is the creation of art, just as King Lear is. Keats puts himself into the role of not only creator of art, but a consumer of art as well. We, as the consumers, must question our own role within the scheme of Art as a larger concept. Are we, by reading Keats’ work, giving him “phoenix wings?” (14). Is there a rebirth of the poet in the present reading of the poem? This poem provides endless questions to the reader not as a nameless consumer of literature, but as an individual with an opinion and the power to assess Keats long-plagued aspiration of immortality.

Keats’ poem “On Sitting Down to Read King Lear Once Again” is a valid contender to enter the canon of our British Romantic Literature class not simply because it is written by one of the Big Six. Rather, it delves deeper into Keats as a writer of this time: his motivations, his aspirations, his questions, his accomplishments. The poem is no open-and-shut case of either Romantic irony or Romantic imagination. I would argue that it is a wonderful juxtaposition of these two important concepts that our class explores in our reading of the Big Six that lends itself very well to a debate between these two forces in Romantic literature. I also believe that this poem has the potential to give our class great insight into Keats himself as a writer of British Romantic literature. It involves his constant battle with his imminent mortality as well as his obsession with immortality as a master write. In addition, it explores the realm of classic works of art and brings a different light of focus onto the Romantic Movement that we aim to explore in this class. Truly, “On Sitting Down to Read King Lear Once Again” provokes a wide range of discussion pertinent to the goals of our BRL class, and I think its addition would provide future classes with a profound and probing discussion of not only Keats, not only British Romantic Literature, but also the merit of art in our lives today. (1,149)