Sunday, 1 January 2012

Where's the Poet?

Where's the Poet? show him! show him,
Muses nine! that I may know him!
'Tis the man who with a man
Is an equal.be he King,
Or poorest of the beggar-clan,
Or any other wondrous thing
A man may be 'twixt ape and Plato;
'Tis the man who with a bird,
Wren or Eagle, find his way to
All its instinsts; he hath heard
The Lion's roaring, and can tell
What his horny throat expresseth,
And to him the Tiger's yell
Comes articulate and presseth
On his ear like mother tongue.

It is a fragment of John Keats poems- The Poet. So What did he think of the Poet?
This is the man who with a man Is an equal; who with a bird finds his way to All its instincts.
But what does that mean: Is an equal?
A letter he wrote to Richard Woodhouse on October 27 1818 can give us his idea of the Poet-the Chameleon Poet.

" --1st. As to the poetical Character itself. I mean that sort of which, if I am anything, I am a member; that sort distinguished from the Wordsworthian, or egotistical Sublime; which is a thing per.se, and stands alone, it is not itself-it has no self- It is everything and nothing--It has no character--it enjoy light and shade; it lives in gusto, be it foul or fair, high or low, rich or poor, mean or elevated--It has as much delight in conceiving an Iago as an Imogen. What shocks the virtuous philosopher delights the chameleon poet. Its relish of the dark side of things, any more than from its taste for the bright one, because they both end in speculation. A poet is the most unpoetical of anything in existence, because he has no identity--he is in for and filling some other body.  The Sun,--the Moon,--the Sea, and men and women, who are creatures of impulse, are poetical, and have about them an unchangeable attribute; the poet has none, no identity--he is certainly the most unpoetical of all God's creatures.--If then he has no self,...."
What makes John Keats great as The Poet and as The Man is, his no identity, no self, that he can identify with everyone and everything to the core of their essence,their impulse, their instincts. That makes him different from the other poets, that are blind and bind by their ego. That makes his letters and his poetry are always and forever touching your heart and soothing your soul. And he is the noblest among the noble men and the truest among the honest person. What makes him so much loved  is his love : I have lov'd the principle of beauty in all things.
So from his poetry and letters., we see and feel and touch and hear and taste all beauty in all things; we are all affected by his affection for the Nature. the Beauty. the human being and the Truth

In his friend's word: " From John Keats, I know what is to love. I love John Keats."

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