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Analysis of Keats
Hyperion
The entire essence of John Keats epic poem
Hyperion
is that of doom
. The epics
narrative details the Titanomachy: the war which resulted in the
usurpation of the ultimatelydoomed Titans, the primordial Greek deities,
by the Olympians, the conventional Greek deities.
The epics author
too was doomed, for Keats succumbed to Tuberculosis and died at the
youngage of twenty six. But the poem itself was doomed; Keats felt as
though the poem retracted to
Miltonic Inversions
similarities to John Milton
s
Paradise Lost
and left the epicunfinished: cut off mid-line in book III. Keats' depiction of
the Titanomachy and thereplacement of the obsolete by the new exposes
the fundamental Romantic ideal of lauding progress, that mankind must
evolve while still evoking classical ideals, that this proactiveacceptance to
change and understanding of impermanence is the means to learning the
truth, andthat this truth is eternally pure and beautiful.Keats structures his
poem in a manner that harkens back to Classical poetic standardswhile
also embodying his contemporary Romantic style. The speaker changes
from Saturn inBook I to Hyperion and Enceladus in Book II to Apollo in Book
III, to shift the focus around thedifferent actors of the Titanomachy.
Interestingly enough, Keats never explicitly discusses the battles of the
Titanomachy. The entire narrative is ex post facto, after the main conflict
of theTitanomachy at the moment before Apollo becomes a God. Thus, the
tone throughout the epic isforlorn and distressed to reflect the sorrow of
the vanquished Titans until Book III where the tone becomes more
optimistic with the apotheosis of Apollo and the ascension of the
Olympians. The
poems
meter employs dactylic pentameter, with each line containing ten syllables
with the first