The author's doctoral thesis, Imperial University, Tokyo, Japan. cf. p. (6).

The author's doctoral thesis, Imperial University, Tokyo, Japan. cf. p. (6).

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Wisconsin--Madison, 1968. / Typescript. Vita. eContent provider-neutral record in process. Description based on print version record. Includes bibliographical references.

Critics have declined to acknowledge the influence of Platonism on Keats' poetry except in its most rudimentary form. Close analysis of a contemporary translation of Plato's Timaeus, however, reveals many connections between Keats' thought and the mythology of the dialogue. This thesis contends that Thomas Taylor's translation of and commentaries on the Timaeus underlie much of the mythological structure of Keats' Hyperion and the system of salvation which Keats later develops in his vale of soul-making letter. It is true that the poet before 1818 decries the importance of "philosophy," but when the problem of evil comes to haunt him, he is forced to confess his need to understand the world within a philosophical framework. The mythology of the Timaeus provides him with such a framework. It cannot be proven absolutely perhaps that Keats was dependent upon the Timaeus in his own myth-making, but there appears to be a number of very direct influences of the dialogue on his letters and on Hyperion -- these are outlined in Chapters Two and Three. What is of most importance in the study of Keats' mythology is the way in which the poet eventually reshapes and moves beyond Platonism to answer the problem of evil and to establish a mythology of his own, a mythology which finds embodiment in the vale of soul-making and in the odes of 181°. Chapter One traces the growth of Keats from a poet who prefers to delight in sensations to one who seeks philosophic truth. It establishes his religious and philosophic beliefs before and after the problem of evil (recorded in March 1818) is brought home to him, and indicates how he modifies on ^'builds upon those beliefs. In the Mansion of Many Apartments and the March of Intellect letter, Keats introduces the allegories which later become the basis of the mythology of Hyperion. Chapter Two explores the process of Keats' myth-making in Hyperion and reveals to what extent the poet depends upon the Timaeus to answer the problem of evil. Keats is determined to show how the Principle of Beauty is inherent in the world, and he adopts the Platonic world-view to explain that mortality and mutability are really calculated towards a greater good, are not to be considered evils. The philosophic argument, sustained in the structure of the poem, falls apart on the emotional level, however: Keats' tragic vision as exemplified in the Titans is not compensated by the philosophic argument. The failure of Hyperion to build a mythology induces the poet to reassess the problem of evil, to rework its parameters, and the effort leads finally to the resolution of the problem and to Keats' own mythology. The final chapter establishes how, from the Pythagorean concept of soul found in the Timaeus, Keats develops his theology of soul-making. His- system of spirit-creation moves far beyond Platonism and becomes the basis of the poet's own, independent mythology. But although Platonism is abandoned, its contribution to the thought of Keats should not be underestimated: in measuring his own ideas against it, Keats is able finally to define his own philosophy, to answer the problem of evil. The odes of 1819 are a series of myths which develop and sustain Keats' vision. In each one Keats illustrates the weaknesses of traditional Greek theology, offering in its stead one more appropriate to modern England, one which explains the role of evil in man's personal salvation. If we are to know Keats' mythology, it is to the odes that we must turn. / Arts, Faculty of / English, Department of / Graduate

The present dissertation proposes a fresh approach to Keats's remarkable growth and development as a poet by assessing his works in relation to four different but interrelated contexts: the tradition of poetry as a "speaking picture," Lacanian interpretations of that tradition, the related nature of classical Chinese poetry, and parallels between Keatsian themes and Taoist principles. Chapter one seeks to assess Keats's poetry by articulating the relationship between "ut pictura poesis" on the one hand, and psychoanalysis and Taoist philosophy on the other. Chapter two deals with the invisible ground of the sympathetic imagination. Chapter three discusses Keats's philosophy of "negative capability" with reference to the Taoist philosophy of the "Middle Path." Chapter four compares Keats's Lamia to the Chinese legend The White Snake. Chapter five concludes the work by showing how the poet matures into "poethood" through an anamorphotic process of developing from the imaginary to the symbolic. The focus of this dissertation is on the pictorial and sculptural qualities of Keats's poetry in comparison with many poems in the Chinese and western traditions. Efforts have also been made to combine psychoanalytical theory and Taoist philosophy and poetics to shed light on the discussion. Even though the dissertation seeks to assess Keats's poetry through an analogy with the plastic arts and to extend this assessment through conceptual categories provided by psychoanalysis (with reference to the poet's maturing into "poethood") and Taoist philosophy (with reference to the poet's philosophy of "negative capability"), it does not assert that Keats is a psychoanalyst nor does it claim that he is a Taoist. Keats is mainly a poet dealing with human emotion, love, beauty, truth, and imagination — a poet with "no self," a poet who can be regarded as "the perfect man" (Tao Te Chinq, 18) in the truest sense of a Taoist. / Arts, Faculty of / English, Department of / Graduate

John Keats is a mythopoeic poet who created his own mythical substructure, often adapting traditional figures from mythology to give a special meaning to the entire canon of his major work. The early poems are hesitant, imitative, and groping, but the mature poems receive a large part of heir symbolic meaning from the substructure of Keats's myth of the poet on which they rest. In the works of John Keats, then, the reader finds a touchstone of experiences common to all humanity, shaped into Keats's central myth of the poet. He left the testament of a poet who could "see as a god sees, and take the depth/ Of things" recorded in his major poems and in some of the most sensitive letters ever written by a poet.

No description available.

Based on the author's thesis (doctoral--Oxford). / Includes bibliographical references (p. 184-221) and index.

Informe de Seminario para optar al grado de Licenciado en Lengua y Literatura Inglesa

This analysis of Keats's poem proffers evidence and arguments to support the contention that The Eve of St. Agnes presents allegorically the poet's speculations regarding the relationship between eros and agape, speculations which include a sharp criticism of Christianity and a model for a new, more "humanistic" system of salvation. The union of Madeline and Porphyro symbolizes the reconciliation of the two opposing types of love in an apocalyptic marriage styled on the Biblical union of Christ and the Church. The irony inherent in the poem arises from Keats's use of Christian myths, symbols, and sacraments to accomplish this purpose.