Negative Capability: Embracing Uncertainty and Celebrating the Mysterious.
In a letter to his brothers, George and Thomas, found in Letters of John Keats to His Family and Friends and dated December 21, 1817, Keats uses the phrase that has come to be the single most emblematic phrase of his entire surviving correspondence, even though he only makes mention of it once: âNegative Capabilityâ â the willingness to embrace uncertainty, live with mystery, and make peace with ambiguity. Triggered by Keatsâs disagreement with English poet and philosopher Coleridge, whose quest for definitive answers over beauty laid the foundations for modern-day reductionism, the concept is a beautiful articulation of a familiar sentiment â that life is about living the questions, that the unknown is what drives science, that the most beautiful experience we can have is the mysterious.
Negative Capability made easy through the appeal of images!
What is this man doing with Keatsâs concept? How do you relate to “negative capability”? In other words, do you deem it a useful concept to bear in mind in your life? Why (not)?
Negative capability explained in words!
âThe wise man questions the wisdom of others because he questions his own, the foolish man, because it is different from his own.â âLeo Stein, American art collector and critic
In an 1817 letter to a friend, the poet John Keats describes one of the qualities that makes writers like Shakespeare so great: negative capability. Keats defines this trait as ââŠwhen a man is capable of being in uncertainties, mysteries, doubts, without any irritable reaching after fact and reason.â In other words, this is the ability to sublimate oneâs own individual assumptions about the world and write about uncertain (or potentially polarizing) topics in such a way that the authorâs own views remain unknown. It is also the recognition that there are often grey areas in life which cannot be resolved through rational means. This requires an extraordinary degree of objectivity, and itâs much harder than it seems. To enter into the mind of other people (or things) and speak from their point of view is an essential goal for writers.Often some of the most engaging literary works are those where there is no clear side taken on contentious issues (such as the free will versus predestination dichotomy in Shakespeareâs Hamlet or Sophoclesâ Oedipus Rex). But the question is, how can writers break free from their own personal perceptions and approach subjects from a more objective point of view?
1. Read writers who are good at negative capability: Keats, Shakespeare, and Sophocles. But there are plenty of other notable authors, such as Emily Dickenson, William Wordsworth, Anne Rice, Walt Whitman, and John Updike.
2. Learn to view situations from other peopleâs perspectives. Imagine not what you would do if you were facing their circumstances, but rather think about what they would do and why.
3. Step into the unknown. Force yourself to write about subjects or situations you are uncomfortable with (or know little about).
4. Write in a new genre. Tell a familiar tale in a different format. Different literary conventions require different sensibilities, and this can lead to breakthroughs in our perceptions of subjects.
One of the joys of reading is having the opportunity to experience situations from someone elseâs perspective. To do this convincingly, writers must learn to put aside their own ideas about the world and imagine alternative possibilities. This is terra incognita for many people, but by embracing this approach, you may discover new avenues of creative potential, and this is exactly what KEATS teachers US! He would have been a great creative writing instructor, wouldn’t he?
La Belle Dame Sans Merci
Different painters were inspired by this poem. Look at their works of art. In the light of the analysis of the poem and your reading of it, which painting do you like best? Why? Try to substantiate your choice with references to the poem itself.
John William Waterhouse
Frank Dicksee
Frank Cadogan Cowper
Arthur Hughes
Ode on a Grecian Urn
Look at the following videos to learn more about this great, yet difficult, ode.
The BBC webpage has an interesting section dedicated to The Romantics, worth browsing it: you can see the original manuscript too, if you are interested.
I highly suggest you listen to/watch the following lectures on the ode, so that you expose yoruself to different ways of analysing a poem, to different expressions to explain the same concepts. It is good listening comprehension and a good way to expand your vocabulary and hone your listening skill. Which lecture do you like best? Why? As a student, which teacher/lecturer of these would appeal to you the most? Substantiate your choice. We will discuss this point in class together.
Do you agree that art takes its truth from life and then returns it to life as beauty as is suggested in the poem? The poet seems to suggest that only the dead are immortal how are they immortalized?
This is a detailed analysis that I prepared some time ago for other students of mine. I decided to post it here because some of you may find it useful.
BBC Omnibus, 1995 – To commemorate the bicentenary of sublime English poet John Keats, Andrew Motion (now Poet Laureate) recreates the final, futile voyage from England to Italy
If you go to Rome, do not miss the Keats-Shelley house. It is a great place to visit, especially for people like you, who had the chance to study English literature.
John Keats is one of the best poet of english history. For him a poet had to have the “negative capability” to do his poems. “Negative capability” is the cability to enjoy the unknown without the need to analyze everything into certain. How we saw in the “Get altitude-negative capability” this was only used in the past also in the present. This cability however is not learn by everybody, as Keats said just poets have this. In our socirty it has almost disappeared, because we all want to know the reason of the things. The only person that have this ability by now are the kids. For example when a kid sees a cartoon where the characters fly, he don’t think to the reason, but he wants solely do the same thing; if an adult sees it he thinks that it is ridicolous because they know that it’s impossible for a man to fly. Therefore I think that if we understant the “negative capability” we’ll appreciate most the trivial things of life: when it rain we can feel it in our skin in a different way, most free and most bautiful.
I liked the example of a child watching cartoons. At times it is not always easy to grasp the depth of yor thoughts because there are some problems with language. You did not express your ideas as to the man in the video.
The negative capability is the ability of the poet who accept diversity to understand the truth. It is the ability to go beyond himself. However, humans don’t have it because we reject what doesn’t fit in our minds. We deny a part of the truth and remain anchored in our certainties, while the poet has the capacity to accommodate the doubts, perplexities. When relies on negative capability, the poet can achieve the beauty and truth, only through the imagination and recollection in tranquillity. Only through the senses man can eliminate the habit, marvel at the things he’s around and get to know. He tells us that in his letter to his brother George and Thomas.
Today it is used both to manipulate people and therefore is also considered from the point of view negative compared to the past. But according to me is very important as it allows us to have a broader view than our own , and you even get to the truth. In fact, if we find ourselves in front of a homeless man the first thing that would come to mind certainly : <> . But if we think about it may have chosen to make that life because they no longer have the strength and will to live. Feel a sense of abandonment or are just forced because they have more money to keep even a house or because of a separation are not able to support two homes. I think it is important before you judge , even though we are in a world full of prejudices , enter the lives of others and to understand and accept what is different from us. For example, the racism , the end even if the skin color distinguishes us we are all equal , so we should put ourselves in the shoes of the poet , and we go beyond ourselves and accept diversity , questioning our certainties.
You grasped the concept and you exemplified it successfully. What about the use of Keats’s concept in the field of business?
Keats believed that great men, especially poets, who considered superior to the rest of humanity, had the ability to accept that some things can not be explained and resolved. They were thus able to hold a negative attitude about something. Keats was a romantic and believed that truth resided in science or reason, but in the art. In art, the purpose is not, as in science, solve problems, but rather to explore them. From there, accepting that it can not be a solution to problems is important for artists.
You got the point, but there is no reference to your personal opinion of this concept, to the way this concept is used in the field of business (see video).
Keats believed we had to let go of our typical human attributes that cause us to become rational and decisive when in a state of conflict. Instead he thought we should simply sit in between our two conflicting sides and let their individual ideas flow into us, ultimately resulting in a brilliant kind of creativity and imagination that doesnât need to settle into one way of thinking or perceiving but can blissfully hover in the in between world of not knowing.
It is for sure a very useful concept, religion has had the role of fostering negative capability during my lifetime. Especially during my childhood, I often found myself wondering about things that from a rational point of view did not make sense but had an answer through religion, which was exactly what I was looking for. But religion is built on a set of principles, the so called dogma, that cannot be contradicted and are seen as the truth and this is where it stops being coherent with Keats’s theory.
If religion wasn’t so inflexible a lot of things could have been avoided, millions of lives spared.
Racism, homophobia religious intolerance are all caused by the fear of the unknown, which is exactly what Keats wants us to embrace. If society had followed his views, today there wouldn’t be such things as discriminations, which are purely given by the perception someone has of certain groups they don’t belong in and see them as something wrong because unfortunately it is a human survival trait to be hostile to said unknown.
In my life I have always tried, as Keats says, to “make peace with ambiguity”; I don’t question anyone’s lifestyle, even if I don’t embrace it, I just leave them be. But, as a student, I find his theory challenging in other fields. For example what I aim for with my studies is certainty, when I study I always try to understand why certain things happen or why a maths problem has to be solved with a specific formula. I have trouble being in uncertainties as I’ve been taught I should not have them, but it does seem like a pleasant approach to life, of continual growth and learning.
I really appreciate the detailed and profound account you give of your personal experience related to the concept of “negative capability”. Remember, though, that “being in uncertainties” does not mean not looking for an answer. It means accepting things without being scared, without losing your balance, being empowered and this empowerment, confidence and sympathy will in the end lead you to a better answer, to a more profound knowledge, to the TRUTH.
The use that this man does of Keats’s concept is interesting, he use negative capability like a form of brain controller. This kind of use doesn’t came only from this person but also from many others. This view of Keats’s negative capability is a commercial view, this kind of interpretation is something used only for convince people to buy something, and the man in the video is explaining to his audience how to do it. Negative capability is something that is inside man, and is something that he use during his life, but nowadays it is become a kind of science. I think that it is usefull in our lives, but I think at the same time that take advantage from this science is not right because everything has got his limits and the negative capability has a limit too.
The limit is not in the concept of “negative capability”, but in the use that man makes of it.
You do not seem to share with me and the others your personal response to Keats’s concept.
Negative Capability
After listening to the man in the video, I can say that I perfectly agree with his point of view.
I also believe that if we want to grow our self-esteem and our capability to understand better the problems that we have to face, we need to understand better how others feel and how they solve their problems.
If we do not open our minds we will never be able to reach our goals, we will end up living alone in an illusion. The world around us is apart of our life and we must understand that everyone needs each other
You do not seem to refer to the fact that the man in the video refers to “negative capability” as a currency, which may raise some doubts as to the ethical use of Keats’s concept.
The concept of “negative capability” changes from person to person. It depends on emotional and psychological factors. “Some people feel the rain,other just get wet”,infact every human being is able to feel the nature,we are all part of nature,how we can not feel it? How we can’t share the pain of the humanity? In my opinion thanks to the nature,music and poetry every human being is able to dig in his soul and discover inner emotions, feelings,never felt before. Personally,in my life,everyday I practise the negative capability. I’m a religious practitioner and I feel as the poet that deny his self,certanties and personality in order to identify him self in the dimension in wich he’s searching the inspiration,and the place where the truth resides. In my religion I find peace,emotions that I could not explain. As I found pace,I found also doubts and question marks, which I don’t know how to answer,without having any practical demostration of the abstract dimension which I believe. And here resides all the beuty,and the truth. I just believe in mistery. Believer as the poet. It’s not easy not being able to find answers to the doubts that can’t be resolved, and it’s here where faith is sorely test.
We all live in the hands of fate,I feel as I’m a part of my religion, I live everyday trying to respect and practise it. I feel as the poet, that consider him self part of the nature.
Nice personal comment. I agree with you when you state that art, poetry, religion can better our souls and help us reach that kind of sympathy and empathy all human beings have in themselves. However, I do not agree when you say that all of us do have and show sympathy. Having the potential does not mean showing or proving it. Lots of people, for example, do not show any respect to nature. Then you find “solace” and “peace” in religion, in faith, but there are many people who are endowed with the great skill of “negative capability” who are either atheist or agnostic.
Negative capability is the capacity to be able to understand and to accept the point of view of others. It’s a quality very rare and difficult to achieve. Moreover modern mentality is costitued exactly by this thought, that is to have an open mind and to be able to accept the different. I think that nowadays negative capability can be very useful for breaking down social differences and creating a more united world, that it doesn’t have no longer afraid of diversity. But this often does not happen , just think of the racism, a negative phenomenon that has always existed and it consists in prejudice to another person or an entire population. In some cases we must also maintein own opinion and not necessarily we must accept that of the other , because from two conflicting ideas, they can create a new one. In the future, in the professional, I’ll try to make the best use of negative capability. I would like to become a teacher and in this job it’s very important to admit different opinions, even when they go against own moral.
You are right when you state that to be a good teacher you need to show empathy and sympathy along many other qualities, however that does not mean you deny your morals. You accept other people’s different views, but that does not mean you do not have any of your own, quite the opposite.
At times it is not easy to follow your train of thoughts because there are some problems with collocations and syntax. Do remind me to point out some mistakes in class so that you can better your performance.
I am happy to see you always respond promptly to what I ask you to do. I appreciate the way you are working. Thank you! đ
Negative Capability is one of the techniques of the writer John Keats to create art and poetry, described by the poet as ââŠwhen a man is capable of being in uncertainties, mysteries, doubts, without any irritable reaching after fact and reason.â In fact with negative, he means his soul and personality denial in order to identify himself with another object, where he thinks itâs placed the truth. This skill has to be part of every good man over of good poet : they should manage to create an empathy with others to understand them and to have an efficient knowing of unknown. Sympathy has to be one of the most important human feature that everyone should be able to use.
Also in the modern life this capability to interact with othersâ thoughts, rejecting our beliefs for understood an external point of view, it would be really important especially when people treat ethical or social questions. Probably it could be a right way to solve religious problems, for example when there is a discussion between Islamic and Christian traditions and faith. A Phenomenon as racism would disappear. Besides I think that we could spare lots of slain in harsh battles, if we could have the best comprehension of otherâs needs and the reason of these.
On the psychological sphere I retain that negative capability should be the first and the most important quality of a psychologist or of everyone who have a direct contact with peopleâs soul, not for materialistic or economic interests ,but in order to have the most effective relationship with them. In the most case we could have also a saving of human resources, time and money ,in addition to the best results in their jobs.
However the right way is out of reach for the majority, but the effort to realize this objective is useful not just for our interlocutors but also to know better the still unknowing parts of our consciousness.
Great considerations. The only part you did not touch on is the one linked to the man in the video. How does he use Keats’s concept? Do you approve of that?
To appreciate the world in all its asects, we should look at it in his entirety. We should leave apart our impressions, our feelings, our vision of thing conditioned by our moods. We should embrace diversity without fearing the unknown, without predjudices towards what doesn’t belong to our usual way of being or thinking, of living or approciating.
Negative capability is the key we all have, to adopt this life system and so to unlock the comprehension of other people and things. In this way we couldn learn a better way of living because of the harmony we could create. However, few of us is able to embrace negative capability. Often this great quality is used for economical aims, and in it doing, it is turned by a positive means to a mere market’s tool: nowaday society is mainly oriented towards that approach (as we see in the video), often omitting real values.
Introducting a school’s subject that could lead us to think adopting Negative capability, would be intresting and useful and it would allowd to present and to future generation, not to be subjugated to all the materialistic messages we’re continuously subjected to.
Personal and insightful considerations Jessica. I am proud of you. Do remind me in class to discuss some language points, so that I can help you better your writing and at the exam you will certain excell!
The man in the video is trying to make the spiritual concept, that Keats expresses with the negative capability, into something material. He wants to teach audience how to make profit through cheating people. He is trying to explain that, by entering the mind of the buyer, you are able to control him. I think that he got the point, even if I think it’s a despicable thing. What Keats discovered is the most powerful weapon that man has, the power to persuade the minds. In our day this happens all the time, for example in advertising, fashion, and public events. But the Negative capability is even used to make good things; for example music, listening to the it makes us forget ourselves, or in the movie, where we become the protagonist, and we live for that hour his life, and the same thing happens in books. I believe that the negative capability that the man shows is a weapon, and as all the weapons should not exist, because it limits the freedom of the people. Conversely using this capability for good intentions would be the best, but humanity is not capable of being good, becouse everyone wants to have more and more, everyone wants to own more and more. For these reasons, I believe that the negative capability should not be used in live, but only in art, because we are not ready for such a responsibility.
Thus, following your train of thoughts, this is the reason why just poets have and and can use it. đ
Quite frankly I want to hone this capability in me and I would really love to use it to better enter in contact with nature, with the people I love, with the things I observe, with the books I read and most of all with myself.
Negative capability is a general term that can have many interpretations. Actually, as an example, I could cite Eben Pagan. He says that it is the ability to cancel our emotional decisions , to empty from what we think in order to understand the person who we are talking to. This is used in marketing to increase sales , and in fact this is the ability to achieve success going over the rules. In my opinion, the negative capability is the skill to cancel out ourselves to discover ” new lands ” , in other words, is the ability to live emotions even though I do not know exactly what’s going on , I accept to remain in uncertainty in order to open my mind to new things , new points of view without caring of past things . Mankind is always looking for an answer, but sometimes there isn’t or is better not to know it , we can’t give an answer to everything; so relying on the mystery without caring all these concerns can be reached ‘ openness, which leads us to a personal success. I think this applies when a person decides to start a therapy of psychoanalysis, that’s because you don’t have to constantly ask yourself if what you’re doing is right , if it is useful , if you can trust , you have to let yourself go and accept to remain in doubt without searching answers, because only in that way your gonna achieve success.
Really to the point! You did a good job. Congratulations.
According to me, the “theory” of the Negative Capability of Keats states that the poet, and especially the Romantic poet above all, does not seek the scientific or philosophical truth, does not solve the problems, but explores them. Indeed, for the artist that some problems do not admit solutions is better. It is an attitude which consists of a recollection, that leaves be things as they are, without intervening. It is an ethical approach, which implies the abandonment of things, a position of the mind that meditates the deeper meaning of truth and is open to the mystery of being, remaining open to all the ideas and ideologies without the fear of the cages dictated by the large institutions that create only false prejudices. This is precisely why I think the negative capability should be used even among us, like young people, since we claim to know everything when maybe it is not so, especially when we make judgments without fully knowing the persons or the situations.
Lovely explanation. I really liked it. You did not refer to the use of this concept by the man in the video. đ
Negative capability is,in my opinion,the ability to understand the world the desire to try to reconcille conflicting aspect and ,also, the ability to don’t accept solution of every question. So throughânegative capabilityâ we can further to be free against social and institutional constraints, and broken up the bonds that close down us in a certain social station. We have to be able to accept what is different and unknown ,in order to coexist with the incapability to explain everythigs sorrounding us. For exemple not always explain enviroment disaster happen. Nowadays, furthermore even though our societies are so developed,children ,of third word,still die because of desease which in our country are âcommonâ and there they are still incurable or sometimes I wonder why misfortune often strikes âgood peopleâwho don’t deserve it,while âbad peopleâsave themself from it.We must not be afraid of abandoning the known for the unknown and we have to try to communicate with the different in order to understand it better
I cannot grasp in what way you link “negative capability” with natural disasters. Then you seem to have overseen another part of the task, that of highlighting the way the man in the video uses Keats’s concept.
Negative capability is the ability to change our point of view about something that is different and incomprehensible to us. According to Keats, the artists have the ability to experience wonder and awe without trying to find a reason for everything. Nowadays this ability can be used in various ways. With others it is useful to get into the mindset of them so as not to have prejudiced against them. In fact, it may be useful also for not expressing opinions about things we don’t understand because of our ideals, it can help us get out of our “mental cage.” But negative capability can also be used in the opposite manner by making pthers think and putting them in doubt in our favor so as to persuade them to do or think something to our advantage. It can be used to manipulate or understand, it’s up to us to decide what use to make of it.
Great explanation, what about the way you relate to it? This part is missing.
This man is using the negative capability like a technique to persuade people. He wants to capture human emotion and their values. Negative capability is the ability to accept that not everything can be resolved. Keats said that only poets and a few other people have this ability and they could maintain a negative attitude about something. Nowadays negative capability is very rare because we want to resolve everything and to know a lot of thing, but sometimes it would be better not to know everything and instead have a sense of discovery for the immediate joy. In conclusion in our life there are a lot of thing that cannot be resolved because these are too big for mankind and man does not have to intervene.
Mind you not to misunderstand the concept: abandoning yourself and embracing doubts, mysteries, liberating yourself of “the mind-forged menacles” and conditioning of our personality, does not mean not facing problems. It means entering in deep contact with the object of our investigation, it means unlocking our senses and our emotions completely, it means becoming the other, it means SYMPATHY (a key word in Keats). What about the way you relate to the concept of “negative capability”?
According to Keat the negative capability is a skill that has only the poet. Unlike the other men, the poet is not haunted by existential questions to answer in a certain way and focused, rather, if there is no answer or solution to a question is a good thing, otherwise this would limit and trivialize the truth, but just want to explore it through the senses longer available in a way as to be able to grasp the essence and being able to translate with the art. With this technique it is possible to deny and go out of ourselves, empathize with another person and experience the same feelings and emotions he is trying. This man, like Keat, is able to use the negative capability, but unlike the poet, he uses it for his own purposes: manages to understand what others feel and is able to manipulate their sentiments to persuade them to do certain things , thus achieving a great power.
I think it is wrong to manipulate people’s feelings because it is one of our weakest points and you can, intentionally or not, create massive damage in a person.
However, learning to recognize the negative capability you can defend yourself from these persuaders and manipulators.
Well done, but you did not say in what way you can relate to Keats’s concept. Did it make you reflect upon certain aspects of your life or not?
“La Belle Dame Sans Merci”, Frank Dicksee.
I prefer the picture of Frank Dicksee because it seems a photo that shoot a fleeting and sudden moment.
The ladyâs dress, red as her hair, is poor in details different as knight one. She is all red as if Dicksee wanted to portray the womanâs demonic nature who enchants the men; her hair and sides are adorns with flowers as if to conceal the ladyâs bad nature with innocence of the flowers.
The look of the knight is full of love, surprise and listening intently to the beautiful womanâs words the bewitched soon would kill him.
I like the picture because it, even though shooting a love scene, shows the bad fate the would soon hit the rider. This can be understood through the ladyâs mischievous eyes which, despite showing love, she canât really hide his evil nature. I like this because it shows that in every love there may be something negative; but not only in love, but also in friendship and in all things in life because evil can reside in every positive and lovely things.
I do not understand how you can see the evil eyes of the Lady.
What about the Knight’s hand holding the horse’s harness? Isn’t that meaningful too? đ
I liked the picture of Frank Cadogan Cowper better. In this painting the Madame is beautiful and she looks so powerful and menacing in front of the knight. He has already fallen to the ground because of her cheat. She is very nice with blond hair and an awesome red dress, that recalls the poppies, symbol of weakness, the same of the knight who has been deceived by her beauty. Now he is absorbed in an eternal sleep and he will appear for those, like him, will be cheated by “la Belle Dame sans merci”.
More than cheating, she is a champion in having men in her thrall, in ensnaring them!
I personally like most of the painting by Frank Dicksee because it is a beautiful girl who kidnaps the man at her feet with her fascination. In addition, in many ways reflects the opera “La Belle Dame sans Merci” by John Keat because it paints a woman on horse where man has eyes only for her because she is bent towards him while he sang a song fairy. For me, this picture is the one that most represents that love is a trap, because her beauty is able to deceive him and take him in his cave. For me it is the most beautiful picture also because the scene is more romantic than the other three, with beautiful clothes, flowers, horse, a beautiful landscape and also used light colors and soft.
Love is a trap when it is based on physical beauty only. As a matter of fact the knight is entrapped by the young woman’s beauty and voice.
The picture I prefer is the third: in my opinion it express perfectly the fascinating idea of “femme fatale”. She’s beautiful and careless about the consequences of her behaviour, infact while the wrong-love poisoned knight lies on the grass, she brushes her hair looking almost satisfied about her result. This particularly cruel indifference strucked me a lot, (and it made me choose this picture) because it reveals the real end of the story, instead of showing us only the beautiful but false sensitive looks between the lovers, and so I appreciate the image’s truthfulness. An other nice aspect is the contrast between the woman’s beauty, the warm colurs, the wonderfoul landscape and the peaceful sensation that derives from they, and the liyng knight: at first I didn’t even see he was there. Anyway, also this particular contributes to give us the idea of the lady’s superficiality. I like the collision between the beauty and the cruelty of the woman because it gives me a certain idea of female strenght (but my admiration to this feature is limitated to literature).
The focus of attention is the woman, this is the reason why at first glance you oversaw the knights. She is triumphant, indifferent to his plight and death. She has had her will! Another man in her snare. She is getting ready for her next prey. The question that I pose myself is: why do so many men fall into her trap? Is it just because she is so beautiful? Is it because of her magical voice?
The painting I perfer is the one done by John WIlliam Waterhouse. Between the knight and the young lady passion transpires. The knight is leaning over her. He loves her you can see this in his eyes. But the way he is bent I can imagine that he is in pain. The colours of the painting are dark. It seems autumn the season which leads to the end of the year where all is calm and cold, symbolizing the ending of life. The two characters look at each other intensely. They want to kiss but something seems to frighten them and maybe will change their future. The lady is beautiful, she has long brown hair and is wearing a wonderful red dress. Everything about her is “almost”perfect . I have written the word “almost” because if you take a closer look at her you will notice that her eyes aren’t flaming with passion but they seem far away. She deceives the knight by pulling him towards her. The knight will fall and die in pain.
My favourite paiting too, though I love the others too. The colours are dark because it is autumn (as you pointed out), this because the poem makes it clear that it is this period of the year. You have not mentioned the long hair. The painter chooses this feature, because her long hair keeps the knight tied to her. It is representative of her snare.
La Belle Dame sans merci
Iâve chosen the Dickseeâs picture for its incredible expressivity and because the painter has succeeded in expressing the obsessive love feeling of the knight.
In fact it is really obvious how la belle sans merci keeps him in her thrall, singing to the knight her fairy song. She takes advantage of having been put on hid pacing steed, and of having been treated as a queen. She has the power from the top of the horse while the knight is submitted at the foot of it.
He has totally fallen in love so he canât realize that she is as a drug for him, and that she will bring him to ruin. In the picture she is drawn as a princess and she wears beautiful flower garlands as crown and as a fragrant belt, made by his lover how john Keats has written in the ballad. Her hairs and her typical medieval dress are red, the color of the passion but also of the tempter devil. Here the woman has seen through her double appearance of angelic and demoniac creature. So the painter has grouped in only one painting the development of the woman transformation across the two states. I admire also the incredible care for details, especially about knightâs armor, and about the setting: a luxuriant landscape rich of the typical roses of English country. The latter contribute to convey a fairy atmosphere to the scene, also thanks to the bright oil colors, referring to the romantic use of associate the nature to the feelings.
Nice description. Be careful, though, with hair/hairs. Hair is “capelli”, whereas hairs is “peli” đ
Perhaps you wanted to emphasise Keats’s sexual innuendoes?! We saw that the poem is plenty with them. đ
I appreciate Frank Cadogan Cowper’s paint. It contains the scene of the death of the knight, but also the opinion of the artist about the âbelle dameâ. Cowper makes it seem a dream, into an idyllic landscape, if i I did not know it was make for the poem, then I would have said that it is a love scene, not a death one. In the poem we only have the point of view of the knight. There is the knight laid âon the cold hill sideâ (l.36), we can observe this becouse the sun is behind the hill, a metaphor of death. Then there is a lily beside his brow, another metaphor of death. The the two figure are framed by a meadow of poppies, that are the symbol of Morpheus, the Greek god of dreams. That is one of the big doubt we have when we are reading, because we do not know if what the knight is saying is real or a dream. Also evente the drawings on the dress of the woman are poppies, by this (I think) the artist wants to emphasize that the knigh’s woman is fictitious like a dream, and that the feelings that he thinks she feels for him are not real. The lady in the paind has the features of the one on the poem, âher haire was longâ (l.15) , but in the poem she is not in the scene of the death of the knignt. She is looking at the lily next her feet, and she is smiling to it. She seems satisfied with her action. It is like she has been able to get what he wanted, that is the death of the knight. She is the example of the femme fatale. I chose this painting, in the first place for the colors that have caught my attention; in the second place because, looking closely, I realized that is the one wihich most explains the meaning of the picture.
Thanks, I did not know of the symbolic meaning of poppies!