The classical affinity of Spenser and Keats: A study of time and value
Cognard, Anne Maria MacLeod
Cognard, Anne Maria MacLeod
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Date
1973
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Abstract
The purpose of this study was to examine in detail the classical spirit as it was exhibited in portions of Edmund Spenser's Faerie Queene and in three of John Keats' poems. Specifically, the classical concepts of time and time-process and the relationship between time and the creation of value were noted and were used to show the essentially Greek views of Spenser and Keats. The method involved in the study was, organizationally, an obvious one. First, each main interest in this study formed the nucleus of a chapter, so that the arrangement of the dissertation follows a chronological pattern: Chapter I: The Classical Concepts of Time and Value: Homer, Hesiod, Aeschylus, and Aristotle. Chapter II: Spenser. Chapter III: Keats. Within each of these major divisions, several important. subdivisions can be seen. Horner, Hesiod, Greek Drama and Aeschylus, Aristotle, and Ovid were examined to establish the general classical background. Spenser, then, was seen in relation to these writers and was shown, in the Garden of Adonis, the Mutability Cantos, and Mount Acidale, essentially to perceive life in terms similar to his classical predecessors. Keats, a kindred soul with Spenser, was also found to display a classical outlook in his "Ode on a Grecian Urn," "Hyperion. A Fragment," and "The Fall of Hyperion. A Dream." The study was proved worthwhile not only by its findings but also by its implied interrelationships. It was discovered that both Spenser and Keats accepted the reality of mortality and process. Neither shunned the real, and both attempted an objective view of temporality. In addition, both poets accepted not only cyclic change, with its inherent transcendence of apparent chaos and chance, but also the more positive position that the cosmos itself is a unified whole working through process toward greater perfection. In. other words, Spenser and Keats assert the life process itself, by means of a firm comprehension and acceptance of reality. To both, time itself is a means of creating value. Finally, both employ mythology as the primal utterance of mankind and as the means by which their personal poetic visions are given universal validity and meaning.
Contents
Subject
Subject(s)
Spenser, Edmund, 1552?-1599
Keats, John, 1795-1821
Time in literature
Keats, John, 1795-1821
Time in literature
Research Projects
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Genre
Dissertation
Description
Format
ii, 244 leaves, bound
Department
English