Ode to Keats

[Tinker]

 Ode to Poet John Keats  (1795 - 1821)
                    " Beauty is truth, truth beauty,' -- that is all
                       Ye know on earth, and all ye need to know"*
Too soon a young and gifted poet died
           but left behind his love for symmetry.
His sonnet, ode and classic epic cried
           with vivid color, tone,  in harmony.
Appealing to our senses, sight and sound
           an ancient Grecian Urn he paints in Ode,
                    a Cricket's song in English Sonnet frame.
A Nightingale in measured verse is crowned
           and through his Melancholy he bestowed
                    to us a truth in beauty to proclaim.
                                           ~~~Judi Van Gorder 

*from Ode on a Grecian Urn by John Keats

[tonyv]

Very nicely done. I agree Keats is a pleasure to read, and he was prolific for such a short life. This ode is lovely tribute.

Tony

[Tinker]

Thanks Tony.   Trying to get back in the groove.  I got derailed in the last couple of weeks of radiation but now I'm done and I want to keep writing a poem or two a week.  My biggest problem is I keep running out of things to write about.  This poem was sparked by the prompt at Writing.com to write a Keatsian Sonnet.   An ode is written in praise of someone, something, an event or someplace.  Since I was following the frame created by Keats, who better to praise?   And he did write some of my favorite poems.  I loved going back and rereading them.

~~Judi

[badger11]

My first hook was Coleridge, and that led me to my second - Keats! To think he studied, for a while, to work in the medical profession - suffered so much illness himself - and yet still believed in the truth of 'beauty'. Indeed a poet worthy of praise. Nicely done too!

best

badge

[Tinker]

Thanks Badger.  I know, I think he studied to be a doctor but worked as a pharmacy for a short time. Dying at 25, he was a very young man with a lot of depth.

I wasn't really into poetry as a kid.  I don't remember really reading or studying poetry until college when I took an Oral Interpretation class.  (I was into performing not reading. I planned to be a drama major but before declaring a major I dropped out so I could earn some money to pay for college.   I worked for a year and then met my husband and was married within 6 months. I never went back to school)  Anyway in my Oral Interpretation class we had to orally present poetry and essays and my first assignment was Ode on a Grecian Urn by Keats.  My first real introduction to poetry, I had to study, memorize and recite the poem to the class.  I loved it and got an A for the assignment.  Then of course my drop out to work, marry and live life outside of poetry but decades later I can still recite parts of it.  

~~Tink