MA in keats' poetry

[ronasmile]

HI , EVERYBODY

I AM PLANING TO DO MY MA IN ENGLISH POETRY UNDER THE FOLLOWING TOPIC

( THE APPLICATION OF POETIC ELEMENTS SYMBOL , METAPHOR , THEME ON
ENGLISH POEM WITH REFERENCE TO JOHN KEATS )

DO YOU THINK THE TOPIC IS QUITE FOCUSED , I AM TRYING TO BE SPECIFIC BEFORE MEETING MY SUPERVISOR . IF NOT WHAT DO YOU , GUYS , SUGGEST ???

LOTS OF LOVE
SMILE

[woolf_fire37]

Ah, all caps! Eyes... burn...

Sorry, the all caps thing drives me a little nuts... please excuse my brief moment of off-topicness, I shall now answer your question.

So, you want to do your MA on symbols, metaphors, and themes in English poetry with reference to John Keats? That seems a bit broad. Would you be looking at all of Keats' poetry with possible references to other Romantic poets or would it be all Keats?

I think you could get away with just doing themes in English poetry. By looking at the theme, you could incorporate every literary device used to develop that theme, especially with reference to Keats. You could do just metaphors or symbols, but both of those really narrow what you could talk about. I like the idea of exploring common themes in Romantic poetry with reference to the works of John Keats and other prolific poets of the time period.

That's my suggestion, anyway. Good luck!

[Papillon]

Ronasmile,

From where I sit, it's unclear whether you are intending to focus on the poetic devices Keats uses to develop his poetry or whether you're discussing poetic elements in general with vague references to Keats.

If you are planning on the former, you might want to restructure your thesis statement a bit.

If it's the latter, you might not want to limit yourself only to Keats. Wolf fire is right--you might prefer to focus more broadly on the Romantic/Victorian poets and their development of the poetic devices you mentioned.

Just the thoughts of an American English teacher!

[Becky]

Maybe you should just try and find one symbol you really like, and then trace that through several poets in relation to Keats - keeping K as the focal point of comparison. Or you could do the same with only Keats poetry.

This approach does actually work! I've just been exploring it myself with the Venus Pudica this morning, actually... and an awful job I made of it, too.

[Saturn]

The Venus pudica in relationship to Keats, or just generally?

[Becky]

Well, I was looking at how the Venus as a pagan, classical sculpture was sensuous, whilst Christian imitations during the Middle Ages and early Rennaisance were pointedly chaste. By the 'high' Ren, though, they'd gone back to sensuality. This shows a change in their values over time - they'd become less influenced by religion, and returned to the values of ancient Greece.

I should add at this point, I'm not a genius, it was all Warburg's idea!

I haven't looked at it with a view to Keats yet, but that's a fabby idea, especially cos he was so interested in classicism and Ren-type stuff.