A Romantic Marvel: Carpe Diem in Keats?

A failure in love-relationship with Fanny Brawne, Keats may have died with a broken heart; but some of his lines addressed to his lady-love still remain among the golden treasury of all time great English Romantic Verses. Following is one fine example of an expertise of the Master of the Art—better described as “The Last Romantic”…

“This living hand, now warm and capable

Of earnest grasping, would, if it were cold

And in the icy silence of the tomb,

So haunt thy days and chill thy dreaming nights

That thou would[st] wish thine own heart dry of blood

So in my veins red life might stream again,

And thou be conscience-calm’d—see here it is—

I hold it towards you.”

~ John Keats

(Lines Supposed To Have Been Addressed To Fanny Brawne)

It’s among the lesser known creations of the Poetic Genius, but how beautifully Keats has transformed the passion of his dying heart into words, and in such a short span has developed the unfailing impulse for his lady.

These lines were found written in the margin of a page of the manuscript of his “The Cap and Bells” and imagined to have been addressed to Fanny. May be, he had composed these during his stay in Italy far away from Fanny while waiting patiently for his untimely death. The desperate beatings of his heart could easily be felt vibrating through the lines.

He is still alive and his warm living hand is yet capable of earnestly grasping Fanny’s soft hands—but very soon, the hand, as well as the poet himself should submerge “in the icy silence of the tomb”—from where there is no way back. But it is not that dead-cold yet! And these hands are still stretched expectedly toward Fanny and Fanny only. Which is untold but clearly implied in these lines that Fanny is to come sure and enfold his hands as well, just before it gets too late.

Though it may be very unusual and unexpected for Keats to advocate another well known literary theory that was practiced long before him called The Carpe Diem Theme; we can at least try to put his present lines in the light of that popular Carpe Diem literary theory.

But before doing so let us first have a bird’s eye view of what Carpe Diem theme actually is.

Carpe Diem as M. H. Abrams explains, means “seize the day”..... “it is a Latin phrase which has become the name for a very common literary motif, especially in the lyric poetry. The speaker in a carpe diem poem emphasizes that life is short and time is fleeting in order to urge his auditor—who is often represented as a virgin reluctant to change her condition—to make the most of present pleasures…”

To clarify the Latin expression Carpe Diem a little farther it could be said that its literary meaning “seize the day” is particularly used in connection with ‘love-making’ to imply ‘enjoy love while you can and while you are young’.

The Carpe Diem attitude is based on the idea to make the best enjoyment in a transitory world. This is a popular theme in Roman Poetry and heard prominently in the English Poetry of the seventeenth century too. A number of literary geniuses are found to be working with this the-then- popular concept….Edmund Spenser, Robert Herrick, Edmund Waller, Andrew Marvell are only a few major ones to mention. Not only that, even in much later Victorian Era we found some variations on the carpe diem motif in The Rubảiyảt of Omar Khayyảm by Edward FitzGerald.

Now let us consider the Lines Keats has addressed (supposedly) to his lady-love.

He is on his death bed, and time is actually fleeting very fast. He, with all his sensuousness desperately awaits his lady to come by his side and hold his decaying hands with some passionate grasping. He is sure to die, and has no doubts that his death should equally be painful for his girl too. So painful that she might wish her own “heart dry of blood” so that in his “veins red life might stream again”. The memory of Keats’ grave-rested silent body could even “haunt thy [your] days and chill thy dreaming nights”….but all these would be found futile....he should have gone to the “icy silence of the tomb” by then.

The reality is that he is still alive and still eagerly holding his hand towards Fanny….his hand, still living, still warm and still capable of some earnest grasping….is still waiting for Fanny’s.

Therefore, which is untold and which we can explore our imagination to complete the unfinished request, may sound like that of once famous carpe diem concept—“seize the day”! And may be: come let us have some togetherness while there is still some time!

If we could be bold enough to evoke our imaginative power to that extent, Keats’ unuttered plead might resemble the appeal of Andrew Marvell’s….

“…at my back I always hear

Time’s winged chariot hurrying near

And yonder all before us lie

Deserts of vast eternity…..

….Now therefore, while the youthful hue

Sits on thy skin like morning dew,

And while thy willing soul transpires

At every pore with instant fires,

Now let us sport us while we may….

…Let us roll all our strength, and all

Our sweetness up into one ball:

And tear our pleasures with rough strife,

Through the iron gates of life.

Thus, though we cannot make our sun

Stand still, yet we will make him run.”

(To His Coy Mistress)

As Keats was a believer of Romantic Revival rather than a Metaphysical Poet like Marvell, his plead for a final nearness with his girl before death must have to be more restrained and suggestive; but still, if considered very closely with some unleashed imaginative perspective, it could be found that some how both of them are equal in their passionate urge of having a chance to get their ladies by their sides before they breathe their last.

And may be that is the spell of Carpe Diem on a Romantic.

Bibliography:

1. A Glossary of Literary Terms ~By M. H. Abrams
2. A Bouquet of English Sonnets and Lyrics ~By Kalyan Nath Dutta
3. The Works of John Keats ~By Oxford Poetic Library
4. History of English Literature ~By Edward Albert
5. The Winged Word ~Ed. By David Green
6. A Background To The Study of Eng. Literature ~By B. Prasad
7. Some Aspects of The Study of Literature ~By Kalyan Nath Dutta
8. The Golden Treasury ~By F. T. Palgrave
9. A History of English Literature ~By Arthur Compton Rickett