John Keats's 1819 Odes - Critical Reception

Critical Reception

Keats's use of the odal hymn in his six odes, along with his use of the odal hymn with a responsal voice in "Ode to a Grecian Urn" and "Ode to a Nightingale", created, according to Walter Jackson Bate, "a new tone for the English lyric." Bate, when speaking about the 1819 odes, wrote: "The productivity of the three and a half weeks that begins on April 21 is difficult to parallel in the career of any modern writer. Yet to Keats it was not even a new beginning. It was rather a matter of becoming more alive in preparation for the next beginning." In addition to this, Bate argued that "It is because "To Autumn" is so uniquely a distillation, and at many different levels, that each generation has found it one of the most nearly perfect poems in English. We need not be afraid of continuing to use the adjective The 'Ode to a Nightingale,' for example, is a less 'perfect' though a greater poem." Charles Patterson argued the relationship of "Ode on a Grecian Urn" as the greatest 1819 ode of Keats, "The meaningfulness and range of the poem, along with its controlled execution and powerfully suggestive imagery, entitle it to a high place among Keats's great odes. It lacks the even finish and extreme perfection of "To Autumn" but is much superior in these qualities to the "Ode to a Nightingale" despite the magic passages in the latter and the similarities of over-all structure. In fact, the "Ode on a Grecian Urn" may deserve to rank first in the group if viewed in something approaching its true complexity and human wisdom." Later, Ayumi Mizukoshi argued that early audiences did not support "Ode to Psyche" because it "turned out to be too reflexive and internalised to be enjoyed as a mythological picture. For the same reason, the "Ode on a Grecian Urn" drew neither attention nor admiration. Herbert Grierson believed "Nightingale" to be superior to the other odes because it and "To Autumn" were more logical and contained stronger arguments. Although the poet is gazing round the surface of the urn in each stanza, the poem cannot readily be consumed as a series of 'idylls'."