In Keats’ ‘On the Sea’ we see the transcendence of the sea into a majestical, sacred force. It is not a human ruled asset for our exploitation, leisure or travel; it is God-like power that shows our minute nature against its sublime nature. From this sublime nature, it becomes a God-given source of rest and restoration. The human suffering of the senses is expressed in the lines: ‘who have your eyeballs vexed and tired… who ears are dinned with uproar rude… or fed too much with cloying melody’, but it is through the sea that we gain back our senses. By personifying the organs, an emotional resonance is then created in the audience to feel the presence of their suffering. However, Keats exclaims, ‘Oh ye!’ emphasising his advisory nature and eagerness to his revelation: ‘feast them upon the wideness of the sea’. The metaphorical description of the sea being something to feast on highlights it’s nourishing essence to the body, a vast wide banquet for one to feed on as a source for rest, peace and resolution from the blocked senses.
Furthermore, the polarity of the nature of sea is described: ‘Often tis in such a gentle temper found… when at last the winds of Heaven were unbound’. The oxymoron of gentle and temper emphasises it’s dual nature while the association of the Heavens emphasises both the god-power of the sea, but also the Romantic connection that nature was god – all powerful, awe inspiring and truly untameable.
Though the imagination, nature is revealed to be restorative and nourishing, not a mundane part of the environment that we use for our wellbeing, that can be restricted or understood by technology and logic. The creation of the everyday into the exotic has therefore given birth to a pantheistic appreciation of the environment through the imaginative exaltation of nature, as Wordsworth believed, Nature is a nurturer and restorer, a force whose restorative qualities could sooth the battered spirit and provide refuge.
Furthermore, the polarity of the nature of sea is described: ‘Often tis in such a gentle temper found… when at last the winds of Heaven were unbound’. The oxymoron of gentle and temper emphasises it’s dual nature while the association of the Heavens emphasises both the god-power of the sea, but also the Romantic connection that nature was god – all powerful, awe inspiring and truly untameable.
Though the imagination, nature is revealed to be restorative and nourishing, not a mundane part of the environment that we use for our wellbeing, that can be restricted or understood by technology and logic. The creation of the everyday into the exotic has therefore given birth to a pantheistic appreciation of the environment through the imaginative exaltation of nature, as Wordsworth believed, Nature is a nurturer and restorer, a force whose restorative qualities could sooth the battered spirit and provide refuge.
Good analysis. Helpful
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