In the year 1817, a romantic poet by the name of John Keats first used the phrase "negative capability." (Bate 87). The phrase was created to describe how well-known authors like Shakespeare could express their ideas in their writings. Most of this type of work was produced in an effort to chase an ideal of beauty in the realm of art, even though doing so ultimately left the creators feeling uncertain and confused intellectually. As a result, philosophers and poets have long used this word to describe their capacity to think and perceive beyond any presumption of a fixed capacity in man. Negative capability is a term that has a different meaning by various individuals and philosophers based on the different letters that Keats wrote. There are different thesis based on John Keats negative capability and how he viewed art. According to John Keats, art must not be understood through words for it to be beautiful. His poems and letters uphold negative capability provided did not talk much about negative capability. Most of his works cannot be understood through their written aspects hence the reason why he asks his readers to view his work from a perspective that does not require philosophical evidence and understanding. The essay below stipulates the poems and letters that he wrote and how negative capability has been used to bring out the beauty aspects of his work
Negative capability
What the meaning of 'negative capability' is as brought out by Keats? It would be clear to say that the word negative is not being used in a pejorative sense rather convey an idea. Such idea establishes that an individual's potential is defined by what the person may not have in his possession (Bate 103). In the case of the letters that Keats wrote, such would be the need to be clever in accordance with messages contained in letters. He coined this term in a bid to bring out how individuals need to be wise or intelligent for that matter. For that reason, they are supposed to be intelligent enough to determine everything and acknowledge that they may be confusing. Vital to literary achievements, Keats argues that the beauty of all is the absolute passivity, and willingness in leaving what is mysterious or in doubt is just as it is (Ou 109).
Keats hardly expected his work in poetry would be celebrated during his lifetime mainly due to the condemnation by his critics. His work was condemned by the commentators of his days who were conservative. Within a few decades of his life, he became one of the most celebrated and revered English. Ou (110) says that he had only been a poet for more than half a decade before his demise and by then he had only published around three volumes of poetry. In all his work, he took up the challenge of making use of a variety of poetic forms. That is, he trod on the Spenserian, Sonnet to the Miltonic epic in which he infused all of them together. Keats did this using his impeccable lyricism, verbal adeptness and extraordinary sensitivity.
Keats reputation grew steadily as his support grew from graduates to secret societies who appreciated his work. Today, he has been placed in the top ranks of the major Romantic poets in Britain alongside great names such as William Blake, Lord Byron, Taylor Coleridge and Percy Bysshe Shelley (Nagar 213). Keats work is described as kind and finely tuned through his sensitivity to survive in a world that is filled with harsh criticism. Keats' letters were first published in installments from the year 1848 to 1887 (Nagar 218). Unfortunately, he faced a lot of criticisms. Nevertheless, this did not come with negative insights as it was. Critics thought that they were a distraction from his work of poetry. However, statements that often brought up by some of Keats' critics are most of what he put down in his poems is correct and that is what made his work mature and pure literally. For that reason, Keats used letter writing as a form of synthesizing his philosophy and thoughts mostly in the numerous letters he wrote to his sister in law Georgina and his brother George (Nagar 223).
Accordingly Keats' illustrious of theoretical concepts were negative capability from the chameleon poets and the mansion of many apartments. The letters that he wrote began to influence Keats's poetry, and a good example is that of Benjamin Bailey in which he wrote that he was certain of nothing else than how holy the heart's affection was (Burwick 96). As a result, he added onto that the beauty of imagination when it seizes it works as the truth of the mind. After that, he was able to compose his famous poem, "To autumn" merely because he made a note of the beauty of the season in a letter that he wrote to John Reynolds Hamilton (Nagar 129).
Keats wrote numerous poems and letters that summarized in briefly in an attempt to explore some of his best work during his time and today. "The Eve of St. Agnes" is a poem that was written in Spenserian stanza consisting of 43 lines (Burwick 169). The above poem describes a virgin by the name Madeline who fell in love with a young suitor, Porphyro who was, unfortunately, an enemy of her family. The Maidens had a peculiar believe that there was a possibility of them being joined in dreams with their prospective spouses. On the eve of the wedding, Porphryo sneaks into Madeline's room and sings for her and woke her up. Eventually, they ran away together on the same night (Nagar 70).
One other poem that he did was "Ode on a Grecian Urn" which is a meditation on timeless ideal and imperfection that is perfect and lived in reality. In this piece of writing, he addresses the urn directly and verbalizes his wonder what the illustrations in the form of real scenes are described on the urn (Nagar 87).
"On the Sonnet" Keats is dissatisfied with exciting poetic norms, and he interprets poetry as a way by which language may be constrained. In this, he reveals his desire of having better poetic forms that would appropriately suit the beauty of language. He was out to find better avenues that he would use to bring out the beauty of language and imagination in its most authentic nature (Nagar 93).
Keats wrote several letters one of them to J. H. Reynolds in the year 1818 the 3rd of May. In this letter, Keats describes his theory of the human experience of the world and knowledge (Burwick 175). In the letter, he states that the intellect is a "Mansion of many apartments." The first chamber consists of the infant thought. In this sect, one does not seem to make any analysis in depth (Burwick 176). In the second room, one goes through suffering that he or she is exposed to in this world. After the door opens which leads to other hallways, one is inundated with darkness and does not seem to understand where they are. The individual does not comprehend direction or which hallway they should follow (Nagar 73).
In the letter drafted to Richard Woodhouse, Keats goes on to describe the true nature of a poet. In view of that, he identifies a chameleon to being a poetic artist who may blend into any known environment. A chameleon is known to be a master of disguise and one who can change in accordance with the environment that it is inhibiting (Burwick, 152). The poetic reference to a chameleon is in the chameleon's nature of any natural world in itself. Poets are a blank slate that is ready and willing to have something new written in them. Pure speculation is what is entitled to a complete and qualified poet.
In the Letter to Tom Keats and George wrote in the year 1817, December 21st. Keats describes the term "Negative capability' as the capability of an artist to view the beauty of poetry without having to try and situate any form of logic (Burwick178). An artist should be able to find the beauty of a particular scene without the need of having any logical connection or philosophical capacity to back the reason as to why the scene is beautiful. If an artist is looking for knowledge rather than the beauty of what he or she is working on, that is more of a distraction from his work.
As seen in the previous letters as shown above, never did Keats repeat the phrase "Negative capability" in his letters. He wrote a letter to Benjamin Bailey in the year1817 on October the 8th. Benjamin Bailey was a student at Oxford University at the time when both were friends. Keats's letter was a congratulatory letter to Bailey after his marriage to Hamilton Gleig (Burwick 164). Their friendship had initially ended after Bailey married a girl who was least expected to be his type. For him to marry the latter, he broke the heart of a girl that he had passionately courted for a long time known as name Reynolds Marianne. In his letter, Keats seemed to be an achingly polite on Bailey's announcing of the wedding (Burwick 164).
Throughout Keats' poetry and letter writing, he has always been on the proposal that beauty should come first before knowledge in an artistic environment. Beauty is valuable, and it does not require any form of declaration for it to show how valid it is. In other words, beauty must not have reference to what it is then beyond itself. Negative capability is the ability to grasp onto a stunning truth in spite of the fact that it does not fit into the intelligent system as he praises the works of Shakespeare. In his work, Coleridge has been criticized for letting go "by a thin verisimilitude… from not being capable of remaining content with half the knowledge' (Burwick, 203) where he should realize that 'beauty supersedes every other contemplation or instead destroys all reflections.
Keats's poems are filled with contradictions in meaning and emotion best illustrated through a drowsy numbness pain and ('together, sane and mad') respectively. Therefore, he admits to being an artistic insight (Ode to a Nightingale) which is a real contradiction that allows Keats to generate a sensual and self-indulgent feeling of numbness that allows the one is reading his work to feel the half- spooning sensation that Keats as the author is trying to capture (Nagar 87).
Keats is a writer who would rather have the reader experience the emotion in the language and pass through the half-truth of his emotions in silence. Keats would rather have someone dwelling on sensations than thoughtful words of common sense and philosophy. The precise use of words may cause contradiction which can still be used together in the creation of emotions. Negative Capability asks individuals to give allowance to Keats' poems so that they can keep picking out only inconsistencies and meaning from work (Nagar 101). It is to Keats's advantage that he was well conversant with the political intentions of the attacks and thrived even better with his work with much confidence in his talent. Hunt reviews Keats's first volume of poetry. Their friendship inevitably linked Keats to Hunt's politics an association which angered the poet. He did not want to be manipulated to the advantage of his friend politics-wise.
Conclusion
The above essay stipulates the essence of negative capability from John Keats' eyes. Negative capability he defined as the need to see beauty more than the sense of artistic writing. Provided that he has not written about negative capability in most of his poems and writings, he has portrayed the urge of seeing the beauty of what he writes. As stipulated in his letter to Benjamin Bailey, he does not see to show the expected emotions. Keats writes a letter that explains how happy he is for his brother in his marriage. It is evident that from his previous proceedings of how he was not for that wedding but instead he writes the last letter to his brother.
According to John Keats, poetry should not have to make sense for it to be beautiful. Negative capability is the beauty of all the works that he has presented to the world. Despite the fact that he began his work at slow pace and full of negative criticism, he has been hailed to be one of the most Romantic poem writers in the history of poetry. Although critics did not well receive all his poems during his life, his fame grew after his death, so that by the end of his life he had become one of the most popular of all English poets. He had a significant influence on a wide range of poets who emerged later on as well as writers. Jorge Luis Borges said that his first meeting with Keats was the most critical literary experience of his life. Till date, his poems and letters are some of the most loved and most studied in English literature.
Works Cited
Bate, Walter J, and Serra M. Del. Negative Capability: The Intuitive Approach in Keats. New York: Contra Mundum Press, 2012. Print.
Burwick, Frederick. Romanticism: Keywords. , 2015. Print.
Nagar, Anupam, and Amar N. Prasad. Recritiquing John Keats. New Delhi: Sarup & Sons, 2005. Print.
Ou, Li. Keats and Negative Capability. London: Bloomsbury Publishing, 2011. Internet resource.
