Keats was mostly in the calm bosom of nature, far from the hustle and bustle of the city, it reveals he beauty of nature to him so that he is named as devotee of nature to beauty. His writings reflect some splendor of the natural world as he saw or dreamed it to be. Unlike William Wordsmith, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, Lord Byron and Percy Abysses Shelley, Keats remained absolutely untouched by revolutionary theories for the regeneration Of mankind. He endeavored to escape from reality in order to take refuge in the realm of imagination.
This escape and remaining in imagination helped him to write uniquely. One Of the very beautiful techniques used by him is his word-painting. Word-painting alternates between description and reflection in poetry, whereas in prose it alternates between description and narration. Keats is one of the greatest word-painters in English poetry. Each picture that he gives is remarkable tort its vividness and minuteness tot details. His images are concrete and are impressed upon our minds.
In the Ode to Autumn, for instance, autumn has been pictured in the concrete figures tooth reaper, the winnower, the gleaner etc. The readers are aware that poetry and painting are two separate branches of art but in the case of Keats they are united. Even though Horace, the leading Roman lyric poet, was the first person who believed that “Poetry is like painting: one piece takes your fancy it you stand close to it, another if you keep at some distance” Keats makes it unique by using term of keepsakes and word-painting in his poetry.
He mixes two arts and makes an everlasting art. By mixing two arts he tries to discuss the relationships between the soul, eternity, nature, and art. His poetic representation off painting or sculpture in words Which describes both motion found in a stationary artwork ND underlying motives of characters, makes his word-painting unique and different from the traditional use Of word-painting. For example in Ode on a Grecian urn Keats replaces actions with a series of questions and focuses only on external attributes Of the characters. Sing the new and unique word-painting makes his works beautiful and everlasting. The beauty and vividness of his poetry as a painted picture gives an everlasting joy to his readers and confirms his famous line “A thing of beauty is joy forever”. Keats uses so many visual and colorful images in his poetry. He draws the pictures by arranging words. Ode on a Grecian urn as one of his six odes clearly represents using of word-painting in his poetry.
Ode is written on an urn which has the painting of two lovers in flight and pursuit, a pastoral piper under spring foliage, and quiet procession Of priest, town people, resemble parts of various vases, sculptures, and paintings. All these images exist in Keats’ imagination and he by the help Of this great imagination creates lots of images just by using words. He paints the words professionally even if the reader closes his eyes; yet the poetry is visible for him. Keats also has the gift of giving life to inanimate objects while picturing them.
In The Eve of SST. Agnes he represents the statues of kings and queens as feeling cold, and refers to the carved angels as eager-eyed and as staring. The statues and carving have been given life. Drawing pictures, impressing images upon readers mind, using so many colors, giving life to inanimate object like a painter, makes Keats one of the greatest romantic poets in English. Using artistic points makes him a unique poet who mixed painting and poetry and created a new term in poetry as word-painting.
