Illness, Mortality, and Psychological Anxiety in the Poetry of John Keats

Abstract

This research paper is an investigation into the themes of illness, death and psychological anxiety in the poetry of John Keats. Tuberculosis, personal tragedy and the pervasive sense of loss in the Keats circle had profound effects on his poetic imagination and emotional sensibilities. This study will examine the poetic images of fear of death, melancholy, emotional instability and human fragility in Keats's choice of poems. The research uses literature analysis in close reading which is qualitative. The emotional and philosophical aspects of Keats's poetry are explored through the lens of psychological literary criticism and existential perspectives. The poems chosen for this are: Ode to a Nightingale, When I Have Fears That I May Cease to Be, Ode on Melancholy, To Autumn and Ode on a Grecian Urn. The results of the research indicate that Keats is able to make personal experience of sickness and mental anguish universal art. He's always between beauty and decay, imagination and reality, between death and artistic immortality, and his poetry is all of this. The study concludes that Keats's perception of death was a major influence on his poetic vision and the emotional depth and philosophical richness of his poetry.