KEATS & HYPERION-
John Keats was born on 31 October 1795 into a lower middle-class family. His father managed a livery stables in Moorfields, London.
There was little difference between butchers and many surgeons at the time. Keats's own superior was a more like a butcher who left Keats to take care of his bleeding and tattered patients. Keats became familiar with suffering, disease, and death which can be wrote of sympathetically and knowledgeably in his poems.
Keats began taking mercury for a sore throat, the start of consumption (tuberculosis) in October 1817. Then his youngest brother, Tom, got consumption and Keats nursed him until Toill died on 1 December 1817. After Tom's death, Keats realised that he, too, was probably in the last stages of consumption for which there was no cure at that time. In February 1820, Keats vomited blood, a sign that tuberculosis had destroyed his lungs. In August, he wrote that "A winter in England would , no doubt, kill me, as I have resolved to go to Italy" (Gittings 387). The next day he wrote to Shslley, who had invited him to Pisa, saying that "There is no doubt that an english [sic] winter will put an end to me, and do so in a lingering and hateful manner, therefore I must voyage or journey lo Italy" (Gittings 387-88). He "'went to Italy.
some of his views relevant to Hyperion.
1) Keats did not think that poetry should be no rely pleasant, The poet should understand and participate in others' sorrow. In one of his earliest poems, he said that the subject of poetry should be "the agonies, tho strife / Of human hearts" (Sleep and Poetry 125-126). By 1819, he had begun to equate sorrow and wisdom. You will learn about the relevance: of this to Hyperion
2) The style of his poetry should be peculiar to Ilim and not influenced by his literary heroes, especially Milton. Easily adopting another's identity was a problem for Keats. He had to struggle to find his own style.
3) Keats wanted to be a great poet, remembered among the "mighty dead."
4) For this, he would have to write a long poem which, he said, was "a test of Invention" (Gittings 27). All great poets had written long poems, it was a step to fame, and lovers of poetry would like a poem with "images so numerous that many are . . .found new in a second reading"
1) Why did Keats begin on an epic poem?
2) Why did he stop work on it?
3) Why did Keats use Greek myth?
A Critical Summary of Hyperion Books I and II. Following the opening of Paradise Lost. The war between the 'Titans and Olympians is over. The defeated, bewildered Titan chief, Saturn, is sitting alone. Thea, consort of the sun god, Hyperion, leads Saturn to the other Titans. They discuss reasons for their defeat and what they should do next. Most of the Titans hope to recover "the old allegiance once more," to recover happiness by returning to power (Hyperion 1.162). Oceanus and Clyrnene are the exceptions. Three important points are made in the conference. Oceanus, god of the sea, says that change is natural and that is why they have been replaced by the more beautiful Olympians.
Book III: We are taken to the sacred island of Delos, the bid1 place and home of Apollo and his twin sister, Artemis, Apollo has never been outside Delos and is therefore ignorant, But he has an intuitive perception of what he does not know. He knows that he is ignorant about natural laws and the suffering of the world and questions Mnemosyne, mother of the muses and goddess of memory, about them.
Book I presents Saturn fallen and about to be replaced and Hyperion threatened within his empire. The succeeding events reveals the aftermath of the situation and the Titan’s acceptance of defeat after Oceanus’ speech.
Block-7 The Second Generation Romantic Poets: Shelley & Keats
- Triumph Of Life https://poemanalysis.com/
percy-bysshe-shelley/the- triumph-of-life/ - in end about emotions section wise summary - https://www.supersummary.com/ the-triumph-of-life/summary/
The Triumph of Life is Percy Bysshe Shelley's unfinished, pessimistic dream-vision poem where Life, personified as a powerful, corrupting force, rides in a triumphal chariot, dragging humanity captive, including historical figures like Dante and Rousseau, who represent corrupted ideals, illustrating how earthly existence ultimately overwhelms spiritual truth and individuality, despite humanity's quest for enlightenment. The narrator, experiencing this vision after encountering a mysterious woman who dispenses forgetfulness, witnesses a procession of figures (like Caesar and Napoleon) losing their essence as Life's overwhelming power sweeps them along, leaving few 'sacred few' to resist.
Key Elements & Summary:
- Dream-Vision Structure: The poem begins with the poet falling into a trance and experiencing a vivid, allegorical dream, similar to Dante's Divine Comedy, notes this analysis.
- The Chariot of Life: A colossal, shadowy chariot, driven by a four-faced figure (representing Time/Change), carries the veiled, indistinct figure of Life, who scatters a drug of forgetfulness, making captives lose their true selves.
- Captives & Figures: Major historical and literary figures (Dante, Rousseau, Caesar, Napoleon) are depicted as prisoners, their worldly achievements rendered meaningless as they are subsumed by Life's procession, highlighting the futility of fame and power, say eNotes.
- Rousseau's Tale: The narrator encounters a tormented Rousseau, who recounts his own vision of Life's chariot, detailing how his philosophical awakening and love for nature were ultimately swept into the overwhelming tide of existence, explains CORE.
- Pessimistic Theme: Life, not love or reason, becomes the ultimate conqueror, obscuring spirit and truth, leading to a tragic vision where individuality dissolves, ending in darkness and decay, write Wikipedia and this analysis.
- Unfinished Work: Shelley died before completing the poem, leaving its profound exploration of existence, truth, and corruption unresolved, notes this Medium article.
Hyperion - http://armytage.net/updata/
John Keats's Hyperion is an unfinished epic poem about the fall of the elder Titans (like Hyperion, god of the sun) to the younger Olympian gods, symbolizing the shift from older, elemental power to a more human, knowledgeable, and beautiful rule (Apollo). It's a lament for lost power, exploring themes of change, loss, decay, and the painful, necessary transition to a higher form of beauty and understanding, framed in myth but reflecting Keats's own struggles with mortality and ideal beauty.
Plot Summary (Fragmentary)
· Book I: Opens with the fallen Titans (like Saturn) in despair, sensing their dethronement. Hyperion, the sun god, is the last hope, but he's also set to fall.
· Book II: A council of Titans gathers; some (like Oceanus) argue for acceptance, while others resist.
· Book III (Incomplete): Focuses on the new god, Apollo, gaining his powers through a transformative encounter with Mnemosyne (Memory), signifying the emergence of poetry and higher consciousness.
Key Themes & Ideas
· Evolution & Progress: The Titans' fall represents a natural, inevitable progression where higher, more beautiful forms (Olympian gods) replace older, lesser ones.
· Loss & Grief: Deeply explores the sorrow of fallen power and the melancholy of change, a reflection of Keats's personal battles with illness (tuberculosis) and mortality.
· Beauty & Knowledge: The poem suggests true beauty and understanding (embodied by Apollo) are born from pain, suffering, and experience, a complex idea Keats revisits in The Fall of Hyperion.
· Unfinished Nature: Keats abandoned it, feeling it had "too many Miltonic inversions," but the themes of loss and the quest for truth resonate powerfully.
https://www.online-literature.
INTRODUCTION TO HYPERION.
This poem deals with the overthrow of the primaeval order of Gods by Jupiter, son of Saturn the old king. There are many versions of the fable in Greek mythology, and there are many sources from which it may have come to Keats. At school he is said to have known the classical dictionary by heart, but his inspiration is more likely to have been due to his later reading of the Elizabethan poets, and their translations of classic story. One thing is certain, that he did not confine himself to any one authority, nor did he consider it necessary to be circumscribed by authorities at all. He used, rather than followed, the Greek fable, dealing freely with it and giving it his own interpretation.
The situation when the poem opens is as follows:--Saturn, king of the gods, has been driven from Olympus down into a deep dell, by his son Jupiter, who has seized and used his father's weapon, the thunderbolt. A similar fate has overtaken nearly all his brethren, who are called by Keats Titans and Giants indiscriminately, though in Greek mythology the two races are quite distinct. These Titans are the children of Tellus and Coelus, the earth and sky, thus representing, as it were, the first birth of form and personality from formless nature. Before the separation of earth and sky, Chaos, a confusion of the elements of all things, had reigned supreme. One only of the Titans, Hyperion the sun-god, still keeps his kingdom, and he is about to be superseded by young Apollo, the god of light and song.
In the second book we hear Oceanus and Clymene his daughter tell how both were defeated not by battle or violence, but by the irresistible beauty of their dispossessors; and from this Oceanus deduces 'the eternal law, that first in beauty should be first in might'. He recalls the fact that Saturn himself was not the first ruler, but received his kingdom from his parents, the earth and sky, and he prophesies that progress will continue in the overthrow of Jove by a yet brighter and better order. Enceladus is, however, furious at what he considers a cowardly acceptance of their fate, and urges his brethren to resist.
In Book I we saw Hyperion, though still a god, distressed by portents, and now in Book III we see the rise to divinity of his successor, the young Apollo. The poem breaks off short at the moment of Apollo's metamorphosis, and how Keats intended to complete it we can never know.
It is certain that he originally meant to write an epic in ten books, and the publisher's remark[245:1] at the beginning of the 1820 volume would lead us to think that he was in the same mind when he wrote the poem. This statement, however, must be altogether discounted, as Keats, in his copy of the poems, crossed it right out and wrote above, 'I had no part in this; I was ill at the time.'
Moreover, the last sentence (from 'but' to 'proceeding') he bracketed, writing below, 'This is a lie.'
This, together with other evidence external and internal, has led Dr. de S�lincourt to the conclusion that Keats had modified his plan and, when he was writing the poem, intended to conclude it in four books. Of the probable contents of the one-and-half unwritten books Mr. de S�lincourt writes: 'I conceive that Apollo, now conscious of his divinity, would have gone to Olympus, heard from the lips of Jove of his newly-acquired supremacy, and been called upon by the rebel three to secure the kingdom that awaited him. He would have gone forth to meet Hyperion, who, struck by the power of supreme beauty, would have found resistance impossible. Critics have inclined to take for granted the supposition that an actual battle was contemplated by Keats, but I do not believe that such was, at least, his final intention. In the first place, he had the example of Milton, whom he was studying very closely, to warn him of its dangers; in the second, if Hyperion had been meant to fight he would hardly be represented as already, before the battle, shorn of much of his strength; thus making the victory of Apollo depend upon his enemy's unnatural weakness and not upon his own strength. One may add that a combat would have been completely alien to the whole idea of the poem as Keats conceived it, and as, in fact, it is universally interpreted from the speech of Oceanus in the second book. The resistance of Enceladus and the Giants, themselves rebels against an order already established, would have been dealt with summarily, and the poem would have closed with a description of the new age which had been inaugurated by the triumph of the Olympians, and, in particular, of Apollo the god of light and song.'
The central idea, then, of the poem is that the new age triumphs over the old by virtue of its acknowledged superiority--that intellectual supremacy makes physical force feel its power and yield. Dignity and moral conquest lies, for the conquered, in the capacity to recognize the truth and look upon the inevitable undismayed.
Keats broke the poem off because it was too 'Miltonic', and it is easy to see what he meant. Not only does the treatment of the subject recall that of Paradise Lost, the council of the fallen gods bearing special resemblance to that of the fallen angels in Book II of Milton's epic, but in its style and syntax the influence of Milton is everywhere apparent. It is to be seen in the restraint and concentration of the language, which is in marked contrast to the wordiness of Keats's early work, as well as in the constant use of classical constructions,[247:1] Miltonic inversions[247:2] and repetitions,[247:3] and in occasional reminiscences of actual lines and phrases in Paradise Lost.[247:4]
In Hyperion we see, too, the influence of the study of Greek sculpture upon Keats's mind and art. This study had taught him that the highest beauty is not incompatible with definiteness of form and clearness of detail. To his romantic appreciation of mystery was now added an equal sense of the importance of simplicity, form, and proportion, these being, from its nature, inevitable characteristics of the art of sculpture. So we see that again and again the figures described in Hyperion are like great statues--clear-cut, massive, and motionless. Such are the pictures of Saturn and Thea in Book I, and of each of the group of Titans at the opening of Book II.
Striking too is Keats's very Greek identification of the gods with the powers of Nature which they represent. It is this attitude of mind which has led some people--Shelley and Landor among them--to declare Keats, in spite of his ignorance of the language, the most truly Greek of all English poets. Very beautiful instances of this are the sunset and sunrise in Book I, when the departure of the sun-god and his return to earth are so described that the pictures we see are of an evening and morning sky, an angry sunset, and a grey and misty dawn.
But neither Miltonic nor Greek is Keats's marvellous treatment of nature as he feels, and makes us feel, the magic of its mystery in such a picture as that of the
http://neoenglishsystem.blogspot.com/2010/11/hyperion-fragment-summary-book-by-book.html
https://egyankosh.ac.in/handle/123456789/21571
https://egyankosh.ac.in/bitstream/123456789/22200/1/Unit-33.pdf
https://egyankosh.ac.in/bitstream/123456789/22202/1/Unit-34.pdf