Assignment paper - 5. Romantic Literature

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Assignment Paper-5
Name – Dipti A. Gohil
Roll number- 6
Enrollment no –
Email address- diptigohil55@gmail.com
Year – 2018-2020
Paper- 5. Romantic Literature
Summitted to- Department of English, Maharaja KrishnaKumarSingh Bhavnagar University
Word - 1616
Topic-  Myths are used by many writers in their work and  Use of myth by John Keats in his odes.
     Introduction-

     What is myth ?
A myth is a story that may or may not be true. Myths are generally very old. Myth means a false belief. Most of all culture have myths and myth convert history in to the nature.
      Nowadays many of writers using myth and deconstruct  or retelling myth. As like retelling Ramayana and Mahabharat as like Writer use their retional myth. For example Indian writer T.P.Kailasam's play 'The purpose', these play like deconstruct Mahabharat myth. Then Amish Thripathi book like 'Sita',these is also like retelling myth,he try to show Sita’s  different look as like tribal woman. When we read 16th century British writer work like Paradise Lost these epic through retelling Eve and Adam story another work Samson Agonists by John Milton ,it is also based on biblical myth. As result one can say that myth is one tool of writing.
       John Keats is romantic poet. His lifetime very short 25 years but his poetry like immortal. Keats like other romantics, tries to find an escape in the past. The ancient Greek and the glory of the middle age attract Keats's imagination immensely. He is inspired by the past and rarely writes about the present. Features of his poetry-
• Visibility of pain
• Reflection of his life
• Nature
• Myth
• Escape from reality
Here I discuss about myth.
Is there significant use of myth by John Keats in his Odes ?
Yes, John Keats done significant use of myth in his odes, these statements I prove through his ode : 1) Ode on Grecian Urn
                                2) Ode on Nightingale
                                3) Ode on Psyche
                                4) Ode on Autumn
1) Ode on Grecian urn :-
       This poem related to Greek culture. When John Keats has visited the British Museum, where he sees an antique piece of Grecian Urn; it is necessary to clarify that an urn is the name of a vase, which is mostly used to put ashes of the dead. The poet sees figures on the urn and feels its quietness. Though it is silent yet it tells a story. Beauty lies in the eyes of beholder; therefore, story of the sculpture is dependent on the minds of visitor and watcher.
• Myth of Tempe and Arcady :-
 The first stanza's one line
“In Tempe or the dales of Arcady ?”
In this line Keats use two word first is Tempe and second is Arcady. This is not only word but its behind myths of Tempe and Arcady. Tempe and Arcady both are place name. Both are place's of the great beauty in classical mythology. Tempe is vale which in ancient times was celebrated by Greek poets as a favourite haunt of Apollo and the muses on the right bank of pineios river that crosses this vale sat a temple to Apollo this linking with the priestess performing a sacrifice mentioned in the ode.
Arcady is Arcadia , a picturesque region in the Peloponnesus, a peninsula making up the southern part of Greece. Both place behind mythical story so here Keats use both word in his ode. At last stanza one line -
‘Truth is Beauty and beauty truth '
Keats is a worshipper of beauty like the Greeks. As like use myth in his ode.
2) Ode to a Nightingale :-
As Keats imagines it, this bird lives in to forest, it is own reality within enchanting forest. In the poetic terms, the nightingale has important connections to mythology. The importance of the nightingale stems from its appearance in Greek myth. Since this is a poem inspired by a Greek from, it is fitting that are several other allusions to the mythology and culture of ancient Greece in the poem.  The nightingale is symbol of beauty , immorality and freedom from the world's troubles.
Myth of Philomel :-
Nightingale birds known for singing. In Greek -nightingale also alludes to the Philomel whose tonge was cut out to prevent her from telling about her rape and who was later turned into a Nightingale by the gods to help her escape from death at the hands of her rapist.
                Poet express his own feelings and pains. Keats feeling like disoriented from listening to song of the nightingale. He feels bittersweet happiness at the thought of the nightingale's carefree life. Keats use nightingale voice which cannot hear anyone and he say nightingale voice is immoral, these concept through poet present myth also. For example these line
' That thou, light – winged Dryad of the trees'
• Myth of Dryad:-
             Dryad in Greek mythology it means is a female spirit who lives in tree and takes the form of a beautiful young woman Dryden were originally the spirit of Oak trees ,but the name was later applied to all trees nymph. So Keats nightingale compared to a wood nymph. It is also like mythical story. Then these poem other line –
' Full of the true, the blushful Hippocrene'
These through Keats use Hippocrene myth.
• Myth of Hippocrene :-
According to the Greek myth it means Hippocrene was the name of a spring that the winged horse Pegasus created by stamping it’s hoof into the ground.

    Then line 32 he again use Greek myth.
'Not charioted by Bacchus and his pards'
This line behind myth of Bacchus.
• Myth of Bacchus:-
         Bacchus is the Greek god of wine and also drunkenness. The speaker also claims that his escape into the nightingale's world will not be due to drunkenness. He was the last God to join the twelve Olympians.

3) Ode to Psyche:-

The basis for the story of “Ode to Psyche” is a famous myth. Psyche was the youngest and most beautiful daughter of a king. She was so beautiful that Aphrodite, the goddess of love and beauty, was jealous of her; she dispatched her son, Eros, the god of love  to punish Psyche for being so beautiful. But Eros was so startled by Psyche’s beauty that he pricked himself with his own arrow and fell in love with her. Eros summoned Psyche to his palace, but he remained invisible to her, coming to her only and night and ordering her never to try to see his face. One night, Psyche lit a lamp in order to catch a glimpse of her lover; but Eros was so angry with her for breaking his trust that he left her. Psyche was forced to perform a number of difficult tasks to placate Venus and win back Eros as her husband. The word “psyche” is Greek for “soul,” and it is not difficult to imagine why Keats would have found the story attractive—the story of the woman so beautiful that Love fell in love with her.            These ode name also like mythical. In the Greek mythology Psyche was a beautiful maiden of whom the goddess Venus was extremely jealous. Venus sent her son to humalitiate the girl. But Cupid fall in love with Psyche and took her away to a secret valley where he visited her each night. In one version of the myth she was overcome by curiosity and another she was frightened by a rumor that her lover was a snake, in any event to discover who and what he was , she looked at him one night after he had fallen asleep. one version of the myth she was overcome by curiosity and in another she was frightened by a rumor that her lover was a snake; in any event, to discover who and what he was, she looked at him one night after he had fallen asleep. When oil dripping from her lamp awoke him, he fled. Psyche searched for himThis poem first line –‘ O Goddess! hear these tubeless number wrung'
• Myth of Psyche:-
         The poet open the poem with an address to the Goddess Psyche urging her to hear his words and asking that she forgive him for singing to her own secrets. The speaker says he know the winged by but asks who the girl was.   In Greek myth, Psyche was a princess whom Cupid, the son of Venus, fell in love with. Fearing his mother's jealousy of her beauty, he visited her only at night, in total darkness. In one version of the myth she was overcome by curiosity and in another she was frightened by a rumor that her lover was a snake; in any event, to discover who and what he was, she looked at him one night after he had fallen asleep. When oil dripping from her lamp awoke him, he fled. Psyche searched for him,These poem one line –
‘Fluttering among the faint Olympians'
In this line he again use myth of  Olympians.
• Myth of Olympians :-
The Olympians are a group of twelve Greek gods. Psyche describing her as the youngest and most beautiful of all the Olympians gods and goddesses. She has no temple no altars, no choir tossing for her.

Conclusion :-
      As I described above Keats use myth in his ode and it is not just ode but he tried to present Greek mythology also. He didn’t use myth any line but he used myth at appropriate line. At the end we can see that he was not just used myth but he also gave his fantasy and imagination, so we can put Keats ode in genre of myth fiction.

Reference-
IMPACT: International Journal of research in Humanities, Arts and literature, vol- 1, Issue 6, Nov 2013