Welcome to Poem of the Day – Imitation of Spenser by John Keats.
John Keats, one of the foremost Romantic poets, was greatly influenced by the classical traditions and earlier literary figures, and his poem Imitation of Spenser provides a fascinating window into how he engaged with and emulated the poetic style of Edmund Spenser. This essay will explore the significance of Keats’s Imitation of Spenser, delving into the technical elements of the poem, its thematic concerns, and the ways in which Keats’s use of Spenserian influences reflects both his admiration for the past and his unique poetic identity. By analyzing Keats’s approach to Spenser’s style, this essay will illustrate how the poem becomes a conversation between two poets separated by time but united through their poetic expression.
Imitation of Spenser Poem
Now Morning from her orient chamber came,
And her first footsteps touch’d a verdant hill;
Crowning its lawny crest with amber flame,
Silv’ring the untainted gushes of its rill;
Which, pure from mossy beds, did down distill,
And after parting beds of simple flowers,
By many streams a little lake did fill,
Which round its marge reflected woven bowers,
And, in its middle space, a sky that never lowers.
There the king-fisher saw his plumage bright
Vieing with fish of brilliant dye below;
Whose silken fins, and golden scales’ light
Cast upward, through the waves, a ruby glow:
There saw the swan his neck of arched snow,
And oar’d himself along with majesty;
Sparkled his jetty eyes; his feet did show
Beneath the waves like Afric’s ebony,
And on his back a fay reclined voluptuously.
Ah! could I tell the wonders of an isle
That in that fairest lake had placed been,
I could e’en Dido of her grief beguile;
Or rob from aged Lear his bitter teen:
For sure so fair a place was never seen,
Of all that ever charm’d romantic eye:
It seem’d an emerald in the silver sheen
Of the bright waters; or as when on high,
Through clouds of fleecy white, laughs the cœrulean sky.
And all around it dipp’d luxuriously
Slopings of verdure through the glossy tide,
Which, as it were in gentle amity,
Rippled delighted up the flowery side;
As if to glean the ruddy tears, it tried,
Which fell profusely from the rose-tree stem!
Haply it was the workings of its pride,
In strife to throw upon the shore a gem
Outviewing all the buds in Flora’s diadem.
Imitation of Spenser Poem Explanation
Edmund Spenser, best known for The Faerie Queene, is one of the most important figures in English Renaissance poetry. Spenser’s use of archaic language, vivid imagery, and complex metrical patterns deeply influenced later generations of poets. Keats, writing in the early 19th century, was drawn to the lush, sensuous qualities of Spenser’s verse, as well as the classical idealism that pervades Spenser’s work. In Imitation of Spenser, Keats pays homage to Spenser’s style while also subtly incorporating his own sensibilities, thereby creating a bridge between the two poetic traditions.
Keats admired Spenser for his ability to blend beauty with moral instruction, as seen in The Faerie Queene, which combines allegory with rich, romantic descriptions. Spenser’s use of the Spenserian stanza—a nine-line stanza with the rhyme scheme ababbcbcc—was a particular feature that Keats adopted in Imitation of Spenser. This choice reflects Keats’s desire to capture both the formal and emotional qualities of Spenser’s poetry.
Form and Structure: The Spenserian Stanza
One of the most striking aspects of Imitation of Spenser is Keats’s deliberate adoption of the Spenserian stanza, which reflects both a formal respect for Spenser’s craftsmanship and an attempt to recapture the rhythm and grandeur of earlier poetry. The Spenserian stanza consists of nine lines, with the first eight written in iambic pentameter and the final line in iambic hexameter, known as the “Alexandrine.” This complex structure serves as a vehicle for the grand, sweeping descriptions Keats often employed.
In the poem, the rhythm of the Spenserian stanza mirrors the idealized, almost otherworldly quality of the landscapes and characters Keats conjures. The stanza form itself, though challenging, allows Keats to express a sense of grandeur while still maintaining a rhythmic fluidity. The use of such a formal structure also emphasizes the timelessness of the themes Keats explores, which often center on beauty, nature, and the ephemeral nature of human experience.
Language and Imagery: Sensuous and Rich
Keats’s language in Imitation of Spenser is lush and sensuous, filled with the same kind of vivid, detailed imagery that characterizes Spenser’s work. The natural world, especially flowers, landscapes, and the elements, becomes a central motif in the poem. In his imitation of Spenser’s style, Keats combines these natural images with a sense of melancholic beauty, exploring the tension between the permanence of nature and the transience of human existence.
For example, Keats’s description of nature in Imitation of Spenser evokes the same vibrant imagery that Spenser uses in his descriptions of the Garden of Adonis. Keats’s use of color, texture, and sensory detail creates a rich tapestry that invites the reader to experience the world in the same way the poet does. This sensuous use of language reflects Keats’s interest in the power of poetry to convey emotional and sensory experiences, an influence he absorbed from Spenser’s emphasis on vivid, concrete imagery.
However, while Keats draws on Spenser’s sensibility, he also brings his own voice to bear on the poem. There is a subtle melancholic tone in Keats’s imagery, a recognition of the impermanence of beauty, a theme that resonates deeply within the context of the Romantic movement, which Keats was a part of. Whereas Spenser’s works often celebrate beauty and virtue as enduring values, Keats is more attuned to the fragility and fleeting nature of life and beauty, a concept that would become a hallmark of his later work.
Themes: Beauty, Transience, and the Ideal
One of the most notable aspects of Imitation of Spenser is its exploration of themes of beauty, transience, and the ideal. Keats adopts the idealism of Spenser’s work but tempers it with a Romantic awareness of the impermanence of beauty and life. Spenser’s work often idealizes characters, virtues, and landscapes, portraying them as almost eternal. In contrast, Keats is keenly aware of the fleeting nature of these qualities. This awareness of mortality is especially evident in his focus on the transient beauty of nature and the inevitability of death.
Keats’s use of Spenser’s form and style is thus not merely an exercise in imitation, but also a means of engaging with Spenser’s themes from a new, more Romantic perspective. By doing so, Keats can explore the tension between the eternal ideal and the ephemeral world of human experience. In this way, Keats offers a nuanced reinterpretation of Spenserian themes, blending the classical idealism of Spenser’s poetry with his own darker reflections on mortality.
Conclusion
Imitation of Spenser is more than just a tribute to a poetic predecessor; it is a complex and layered work that allows Keats to explore his relationship with Spenser’s poetry and, by extension, with the poetic tradition itself. By adopting Spenser’s form and language, Keats connects himself to a centuries-old tradition of English poetry, yet by infusing it with his own concerns about beauty and death, he also reinvents that tradition for a new age.
In sum, Keats’s Imitation of Spenser is both a formal exercise in the legacy of Spenser and an expression of Keats’s own unique poetic vision. It serves as a bridge between two poetic eras and underscores the ways in which poets can both honor and transform the traditions that precede them. Through this poem, Keats demonstrates how poetic imitation can be a powerful tool not only for learning but also for personal artistic expression, and how it can reveal the ways in which poets respond to, challenge, and build upon one another’s work across time.
