Assignment
Submitted to:
Ma’am Sana Qazi
Submitted By:
Humayon Bashir
Roll number:
22
Subject:
Romantic and Victorian Poetry
Topic:
Ode To Nightingale with repect to Negative Capability
Semester:
5th
The Islamia University Of Bahawalpur
Negative Capability:
It is a phrase first used by Romantic poet John Keats in 1817.Itwas used to explain
the capacity to pursue a vision of artistic beauty even when it leads them into intellectual
confusion and uncertainty, as opposed to a preference for philosophical certainty over artistic
beauty.
The term has been used by poets and philosophers to describe
to perceive and recognize truths beyond the reach of consecutive reasoning.
Negative Capability In “Ode To Nightingale” :
the ability
The quality of evidence in “Ode to a Nightingale” goes into a quantity of evidence in
“Ode on a Grecian Urn”. Throughout the poem we come across words like “quietness”,
“silence” , “Unheard ”or“ Cold which denote stillness that does not speak, thus leaves us
in “uncertainties, Mysteries, doubts”. Furthermore, the poem is replete with
interrogative words such as “who” or “what” that can be found eight times throughout.
What Keats would like to sayis that even though he is surrounded by doubts and
mysteries on a daily basis, which exhibits fewof them in the poem in form of questions,
he is capable of remaining content even when he has them not answered.
Living without his deceased parents from his early age, taking care of his younger
brothers, one of whom dies too, and being aware of his untimely death-to-come, he had
to findreasons and ways to abide the conditions of his miserable life. One of these ways
is exactlyliving on the principles of negative capability. Though primary connection of
this notion is with poetry, yet it has much to do it with his private life. Nevertheless
Keats, after death, had the lastlaugh. He has lasted, his critics have not. "I would sooner
fail than not be among the greatest"said Keats. Is he among them? Yes, he most
certainly is.