John Keats and Peter Doherty are seen as great poets of their time, and outstanding British romantics. While one's time is in fact the "rise of romanticism" (Bate 1967:73) during the late eighteenth and early nineteenth century, where poetry and criticism are established and acknowledged career pursuits (cf. 82, 224), the other's is today, the post-modern globalised age of entertainment, where art solely concerned with poetry has become scarce. Doherty therefore expresses himself through music, one of today's most popular arts, aiming for "success as a popstar [and] performance poet" (Doherty 2009:9). Keats dies at 25 believing himself to be a failure (cf. Bright Star 1:49:24) after a life of confronting harsh criticism, "incredible project[s]" (Bate 1967:193) and the burden of "what the great art of the past has achieved" (Bate 1967:viii) and it is only after his death that he becomes acknowledged as one of the major romantic poets – whereas Doherty is already during his lifetime being considered a genius, praised for his "elegant lyricism" (Doherty 2009:126) and has become "a part of celebrity culture [ – as well as] part of a hospital waiting list" (222), leading "a rather 'unsavoury' yet romantic existence" (132).
Despite the two men's many differences, they both share various elements that deeply mark their lives and works, such as death and escape to and from it, the commitment to poetry & strive for perfection, a love story that never seems to work out, criticism gnawing at them from the outside, a love for ekphrasis, revery, rootlessness – but most of all the dream of a separate world, which they create through their poetry and use to deal with the reality they live in.
Bearing in mind Bate's words "that poetry and indeed all the arts have seemed to become increasingly specialized or restricted throughout the last two hundred and fifty years [and that we] face even more directly the problem that was widely discussed [...] throughout [Keats'] lifetime: where are [...] the 'greater genres' [...] or at least reasonable equivalents?" (Bate 1967:viii), this paper will compare the two poets and their works in two different ages of predecessor pressure, making use of the extraordinary amount of "available knowledge" (viii) we today have access to about the great romantic and the tabloid rockstar, and aim to answer the question: How do they cope with themselves, with the world of their time and their own?
Table of Contents
Introduction
Literary Analysis
Two Romantics of their Time
i. The Vision of Greatness & Commitment to Poetry
ii. Coping with Childhood
iii. Death: Escape to and from It
iv. The Element of the Sea
v. Love to la Belle Dame sans Merci
Coping with the World of their Time & their Own
i. Harsh Criticism
ii. Sailing the Albion on the Way to Arcady
Conclusion
Research Objectives and Themes
This paper examines the lives and works of British poet John Keats and contemporary musician Peter Doherty, focusing on how both figures utilize their art as a form of coping mechanism against personal trauma, public scrutiny, and the harsh realities of their respective eras.
- Comparative analysis of Romantic and post-modern artistic expressions.
- The role of poetic vision and commitment in overcoming personal suffering.
- The function of escapism through death, nature, and recurring imagery like the sea.
- The impact of public image, tabloid culture, and external criticism on creative output.
Excerpt from the Book
i. The Vision of Greatness & Commitment to Poetry
"Poetry was to his mind the zenith of all his Aspirations [...] He had no idea of Fame, or Greatness, but as it was connected with the pursuits of Poetry, or the Attainment of Poetical excellence. The greatest men in the world were the Poets, and to rank among them was the chief object of his ambition." (Bate 1967:49)
What immediately jumps at the eye when taking a closer look at Keats' and Doherty's view of poetry is their vigorous devotion to it at already a very early stage – Doherty manifests on the first pages of his diaries "this youthful urge to be worshipped, this need to fill a ladder on English pop's evolutionary chart [...] [with the] belief that 'The Libertines' [...] are perfection & beauty personified" (Doherty 2009:8), and with "a vision of a healthy, creative life as whatever service to humanity calls [him]" (9) he sings "If you've lost your faith in love & music, the end won't be long" (9).
Summary of Chapters
Introduction: This chapter introduces John Keats and Peter Doherty as two iconic figures of their respective times and establishes the premise of comparing their artistic responses to hardship.
Literary Analysis: This section examines the stylistic developments in the works of Keats and Doherty, focusing on their use of rhyme, meter, and figurative imagery.
Two Romantics of their Time: This chapter explores how both figures shared a commitment to poetry, childhood struggles, the theme of death, maritime imagery, and complicated love lives as a means to cope with their reality.
Coping with the World of their Time & their Own: This section investigates how both artists processed external criticism and the pressures of public life through their creative works and the construction of personal mythologies.
Conclusion: This final chapter synthesizes the findings, confirming that both Keats and Doherty successfully utilized their art as a profound coping mechanism, despite their distinct historical contexts.
Keywords
John Keats, Peter Doherty, Romanticism, Poetry, Coping Mechanisms, Artistic Expression, Albion, Death, Tabloid Culture, Literary Criticism, Escapism, Negative Capability, Myth-making, Music, Biography.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the primary focus of this academic paper?
The paper provides a comparative study of John Keats and Peter Doherty, exploring how they use their respective artistic mediums to navigate personal suffering and the challenges of their specific time periods.
What are the central themes discussed in this work?
Central themes include the role of poetry as a divine refuge, the impact of childhood trauma, the romanticization of death, the use of nature imagery, and the pressures of public fame.
What is the core research objective?
The primary research objective is to answer the question of how both poets cope with themselves and the world they inhabit through the lens of their creative output.
Which methodology does the author employ?
The author utilizes a comparative literary and cultural analysis, drawing on primary source texts, poetic works, song lyrics, and biographical data to identify structural and thematic parallels.
What does the main body of the text cover?
The main body focuses on stylistic analysis, thematic exploration of shared experiences (like loss and desire for greatness), and an analysis of how both figures respond to the criticism they faced.
How would one describe the work using key terms?
The work is best characterized by terms such as Romanticism, artistic coping, biography, cultural criticism, and comparative literature.
How do Keats and Doherty differ in their relationship to public fame?
While Keats struggled with the perception of his work during his lifetime, Doherty exists within a modern tabloid context where his self-destructive lifestyle often overlaps with his public artistic persona.
What role does the 'Albion' concept play in Doherty's work?
The 'Albion' serves as a nostalgic, home-seeking passion for Doherty, acting as a refuge and a central theme in his music to escape the realities of drug abuse and tabloid scrutiny.
- Quote paper
- Marc Backhaus (Author), 2012, John Keats & Peter Doherty, Munich, GRIN Verlag, https://www.hausarbeiten.de/document/204804
