In the history of English poetry, Byron, Shelley and Keats are often discussed together, a bit like the iron triangle of romanticism. Unlike the first two poets who were born in a noble family and received a good higher education, Keats was born in a poor family in 1795. His father used to be the foreman of a stable, and later married his employer's daughter, inherited the industry, and made a living by raising and renting horses. At the age of eight, my father fell off his horse and died. When I was fourteen, my mother died of tuberculosis. He and his four brothers and sisters have also been shrouded in the shadow of tuberculosis and death. I finally died in Rome in February of 182 1 and was buried in the local Protestant cemetery. The tombstone is engraved with the poet's own epitaph: here lies a man whose name is written on the water. This sentence can be called a portrayal of the poet's life, including sadness about life, disappointment with reality, unwillingness to fail, and nostalgia for beauty. Keats lived only 26 years, but he had a great influence on later generations. Among them, Thomas Hood, a romantic poet, Tennyson, an important Victorian poet in England, Dante Gabriel Rossetti, a pre-Raphael poet and painter, Wilde, the most controversial aesthete, and Ye Zhi, a Nobel Prize in Literature winner in 1923.
Keats' masterpiece consists of six ode poems and two long poems, namely, Ode to Laziness, Ode to Psyche, Ode to a Nightingale, Ode to an Ancient Greek Urn, Ode to Melancholy, Ode to Autumn, Endymion and Hyperion. Among them, Ode to the Nightingale, Ode to the Ancient Greek Urn and Ode to Autumn are the most famous, and they have become "frequent visitors" in various English poetry anthologies. It was in Ode to an Ancient Greek Urn that he declared that "beauty is truth and truth is beauty". He wrote:
1.
You entrust yourself to a "silent" perfect virgin,
Influenced by "silence" and "long history",
Oh, pastoral historian, you can tell this story.
A flower-like story is more magnificent than a poem;
In your body, isn't it lingering?
Ancient legend, with green leaves as the edge;
Talking about people, or gods, Dempi or Akadi?
Oh, what kind of person, or God! Before the dance music
What a passionate pursuit! How can girls run!
What bagpipes and drums! How fascinating!
2.
The music you hear is good, but if you can't hear it,
But more beautiful; So, blow, gentle bagpipes;
Not for the ears, but sweeter,
It plays silent music for the soul;
The beautiful boy under the tree can't stop.
Your song, trees can't shed leaves;
Reckless lover, you will never, never kiss,
Although close enough-but don't be sad;
She won't be old, although you can't get what you want,
You will always love, and she will always be beautiful!
3.
Oh, happy tree! Your branches and leaves
Will not peel off, and will never leave spring;
Happy pipers never stop,
His songs are always so fresh;
Oh, happier, happier love!
Always warm, waiting for the lover's feast,
Heartbeat is always warm and always young;
Happiness is all these extraordinary forms:
It won't make the mind feel satisfied and sad,
No fiery mind, thirsty lips.
4.
who the hell are all these people？ Do they all have to make sacrifices?
This sacrificial calf, singing to the sky,
Where are you taking it, mysterious priest?
The wreath filled its smooth waist.
From a small town near the river and the sea,
Or some quiet village in Baozhai,
These people came, on this week morning?
Oh, town, your streets are always quiet;
There will never be a soul back.
Tell people why you are so lonely.
5.
Oh, Greek shape! Aesthetic observation!
Men and women with stone carvings on them,
There are trees and trampled grass;
Silent body, you are like "eternity"
Let people surpass their thoughts: oh, the cold countryside!
When the old generation withered,
Only you are as old as ever; In other places.
In grief, you will comfort future generations and say:
"Beauty is truth and truth is beauty", including
Everything you know and need to know.
(Cha Liangyong? Translation)
He believes that "for a great poet, aesthetic feeling overrides all other considerations, or aesthetic feeling eliminates all other considerations." Perhaps it is this artistic view that makes his works fully open all the senses and embrace nature, life, past and future with sensitivity to beauty. The "ancient urn" preserved in ancient Greece is a symbol, and personnel have disappeared, but art is eternal, and beauty is the highest truth of life. Please enjoy reading Fruit and Cricket:
(Tu An? Translation)
The theme of this poem is also beauty and nature. Poetry can give people warmth, and it can also make everything in the world transcend the shackles of seasons and move towards eternity. The opening background of the poem is summer, which is a season when everything is blooming and full of vitality. Guo Guo sang loudly and praised the world's "richness" and "luxury", thus rendering the world's vitality. The second half of the poem enters winter, which is a cold and desolate season and often gives people lonely and sad experiences. However, the sudden sound of crickets from the fireside makes people feel the warmth of life again, and return to the world where poetry and beauty coexist, echoing the theme of "the song of the earth is immortal" in the poem.
After Keats died, Shelley wrote a long poem called adonis to mourn him. Shelley compared him to adonis, a beautiful young man in ancient Greece, and commented in his poems that he was originally a part of "beauty" and was once particularly cute by him. You may hear the name adonis, which makes you feel familiar and kind. This is the pseudonym used by the Syrian poet Ali Ahmed Said Asbar, and his choice of this name is undoubtedly related to the poet's reverence for ancient Greek teenagers. His works have strong philosophical thoughts, but these philosophies are not abstract, but expressed by the author in poetic language. They were translated by a famous translator in China, Mr. Xue Qingguo, and introduced to China. They were widely recognized by readers in China and enjoyed a high reputation. This is a digression, but it also shows that Keats has an extraordinary position in the history of poetry art.