The Poetic Attitude of John Keats Towards Nature

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The secret of Keats' approach to nature is sensuality. His entire self was enthralled by what he saw and heard as he gazed with childlike wonder at the creations of nature. All of his senses rushed out in pleasure and delight to the soil that lay before him, tilled and spread forth with wonders and beauty. The rising sun, the shifting cloud, the developing blossom, and the swimming fish were all full of wonder and mystery to him.

With age, Keats' perspective on the natural world changed. In the early poems, it was a mood of purely sensual satisfaction, an unreflective enjoyment of nature's beauty. According to Stopford Brooke, "He had a manner of flitting butterfly-style from one item to another, touching for a fleeting time the fleeting charm of each thing. He would let thoughts to fly in and out of his brain, content with them and his game of life but not wishing to invite anyone to remain and keep him company. His attitude was one of thoughtless satisfaction and thoughtless pleasure. The author hops from one thing to another in the poem "I stood tip-toe upon a little hill," sucking delight from each:

..the sweet buds which with a modest pridePull droopingly, in slanting curve asideTheir scantily-leaved and finely tapering stems.Here are sweet peas, on tip-toe for a flightWith wings of gentle flush o’er delicate white,And taper finger catching at all thingsTo bind them all with tiny rings;Where swarms of minnow show the little headsStaying their wavy bodies against the stream.

This describes what a summer day is like. The poet creates a lovely image while enjoying every aspect of nature. He finds great joy in nature, but there is no spiritual unity between his soul and the soul of the natural world. The poet is mesmerised by the natural wonders that have delighted and satisfied his senses, and he sings about them with unrestrained, unthinking ecstasy.

Keats's love of nature for her own sake: its aesthetic attractiveness

Keats admired nature for herself, not for any concept that the human mind may infer from her based on its own desires and workings. He lacked a theory to support or a lesson to impart. His poetry exudes an enchantment that stems from his genuine appreciation of the beauty he sees in life and nature. Although he was born and raised in London and Middlesex, Shelley was "gifted as if by some mysterious birthright, with an insight into all the beauties, and sympathy with all the life of the woods and fields." In contrast, Wordsworth "had grown up neither under the spell of lake and mountain nor in the glow of millennial dreams like Shelley." 

While Wordsworth and Shelley intellectualise and spiritualize nature, respectively, Keats portrays nature via the senses. The natural world's colour, fragrance, and song move him to great depths. He is sensitive to and in love with all the moods of the Earth, and he "loved her with a love far more concrete and personal than Wordsworth or even Shelley that no other consideration impinges upon his work." Shelley perceived in nature a tangible representation of the enigmatic cosmos, whereas Wordsworth interpreted nature through the efforts of his own laborious soul. Keats tries to thoroughly understand and enjoy nature with the only intention of giving her the fullest expression. He does not mix natural issues with those of theology, humanism, or metaphysics.

When sadness and suffering invade the poet's life, this mood of uncontrollable delight shifts. He had witnessed his brother's death and the disappointment of his love. The poet has a solemn and creative attitude, and his tone towards nature is tinged with grief that tries to be lost in ecstasy. The poet's soul and the soul of nature are now deeply spiritually united. Nature now deeply penetrates his spirit rather than just pleasing his senses. Keats forgets his sadness in the delight of nature. The Ode to a Nightingale is inspired by this spirit. The poet has experienced the weight of grief in his own life, and sorrow permeates every aspect of existence. 

But there is also the nightingale, which is a representation of delight in and of itself. The nightingale's singing ignites the poet's imagination, causing him to forget his sadness and join the nightingale in spirit. His spirit is joined with nature at this very time when the moon, stars, and flowers of nature penetrate inside him. Keats and the nightingale are one; the bird sings with his soul, and he sings.

Keats's immersion in Nature's Beauty and Life

There is sorrow in the Ode on a Nightingale. But Keats, a never-ending admirer of beauty, would not let his grief prevent him from pursuing beauty. "The setting sun will always set me to rights," Keats says in one of his letters, "or if a sparrow were before my window I take part in its existence and pick about the gravel."

      He thoroughly immerses himself in nature's existence and does not ascribe his own emotions to her. He is totally engrossed with the fleeting happiness and motion of everything in nature. He enters the essence of the autumnal season:

Who hath not seen thee oft amid thy store?Sometimes whoever seeks abroad may findThee sitting careless on a granary floorThy hair soft-lifted by the winnowing wind;The poet is fully present in the time frame and with the themes of his writing. He doesn't think about the past or future at all; he only exists in the now. He enquires, in the Ode to Autumn,Where are the songs of spring?Ay, where are they?   He answers, “Why talk of spring? We are in autumn.”Think not of them,Though has thy music too.

One of the main characteristics of his brilliance is his ability to enjoy the moment, to immerse himself in its beauty, to make it his heavenly property, and to forget the suffering of life in the midst of its beauty.

Personification of natural objects in Keats' poetry

Keats frequently depicts the elements of nature as living things with free will, much like the ancient Greeks. Leigh Hunt said of him that "he never beheld the oak tree without seeing the Dryad." Cynthia is the moon, and Appollo is the sun.

Keats' observations of nature are known for their vividness and minuteness. Every tiny element is seen by Keats' eye, which portrays everything with a refined touch. He has a talent for focusing our attention on the most crucial details. As a result, his depictions of nature have a lovely picture character.

Keats's enchanted encounters with objects of nature

However, there are inspired times when he has a momentary glimpse of a more profound reality thanks to the current beauty of nature and all its seductive allure. Then, in his mind, he transitions from the temporal world to the eternal one. His Ode to a Nightingale has indications of these supernatural encounters. Time and place appear to dissolve as soon as Keats hears the nightingale's singing. He has imaginatively escaped death and soared to the nightingale's immortality on the wings of imagination. "While he degenerates into a sod, the nightingale will continue to sing. Then, according to Middleton Murry, "he perceives the song and the bird as one with a great sweep of the imagination. The bird develops into pure singing and takes on the beauty for all time.

Thou was not born for death, immortal bird, No hungry generations treat the down.”

The sound of the bird is the voice of eternity; it was heard by monarchs and clowns in ancient times, as well as Ruth who was in tears. The one who frequently witnesses Charmed magic casements opening on the froth of treacherous seas in desolate faery countries.

The ode is a beautiful illustration of Keats' creative exploration. Nature transports him to the eternal beauty embodied in the nightingale's singing, away from "the weariness, the fever, and the fret" of the modern world. The poet's inspired imagination allows him to get a momentary glimpse of timeless beauty in this, the greatest example of Keats' nature poetry.

Keats's view of nature in comparison to Wordsworth and Shelley

Except for Keats, all romantic poets find a deep meaning—ethical, moral, intellectual, or spiritual—in nature. Nature serves as a mother, a nurse, and a guiding force for Wordsworth. It is seen by him as a living spirit. He perceives the divine presence there. Shelley discovers intellectual beauty in nature as well. The contrast between Shelley's intellectualization of nature and Wordsworth's spiritualization of it is that Keats is content to express nature through the senses; colour, touch, scent, and pulsing music are the things that deeply move him. He adores every mood of the Earth, and no season fails to uplift or inspire him.

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