John Keats was one of the famous poets of the English Romantic movement. Keats wrote with an elaborate choice of words and used sensual imagery to express his thoughts to the reader. One of his poems that particularly interested me the most was “This Living Hand” due to the language and use of imagery by Keats. William Yeats was a modernist poet who experimented with free verse as well as traditional verse forms in which he mastered. A particular poem of Yeats that drew my attention most vigorously was “Adam’s Curse,” particularly because of its reference to the bible along with the use of imagery Yeats was able to convey.
In “This Living Hand” as well as in “Adam’s Curse” the speaker is a reliable source who supports his ideas and beliefs of romanticism and modernism with each line of poetry. In both poems the audience is not directed at a particular person. Although, in “Adam’s Curse,” Yeats uses a biblical reference but the reference is so broad that the reader does not have to be one of a religious background to understand the reference. On the other hand, Keats’ relationship with the reader to endings is a major theme in “This Living Hand.” Usually an end is viewed as a finale or a death even but as Keats expresses, a poetic work is a beginning for a reader and the final death for the poet. Keats contemplates on the integral part of literature, the relationship between the writer and reader to a piece of literature and to each other. In Keats’ understanding it is almost as if he believes, for a writer, the finishing of a piece of literature is similar to death, death of the piece and the writer writing that particular piece. In reference to the reader, it’s as if Keats believes the end of a piece of literature is the beginning, the beginning of their interpretation and thought. Keats tries to express the relationship between the reader and writer as the basis of literatures appeal to the grasping for expression and understanding.
In “Adam’s Curse,” lies a great deal of hard work and structure which Yeats says must be true of poetry. One of the most interesting aspects of this poem is its mirroring of the artistic principles laid out by the speaker in the first stanza.
The speaker of “This Living Hand,” uses more of a casual diction than that of “Adam’s Curse” who uses more of a mixed diction with some elevated as well as casual parts to the poem. The use of word choice for both poems reveals many indirect meanings of the literature. In “Adam’s Curse” when Yeats states, “beautiful mild woman” in the first stanza, he is implying that to be born a woman is to know that one must work at being beautiful but not to the extent of exaggeration as one would expect. Even the very title of the poem illustrates indirect meaning of Adam’s Curse in the biblical sense. As Yeats describes an evening spent with his beloved and her friend, he frames a philosophical argument that because of the curse of labor that God placed upon Adam when he expelled him from the Garden of Eden, every worthwhile human achievement requires hard work. Especially those aimed at achieving beauty, whether in poetry, physical appearance, or love. It is as if the simple speech-like rhythms of iambic pentameter fulfill the poet’s dictate that a poetic line should seem like a moments thought. The bittersweet emotional tone appears entirely natural because it is a natural result of the recollection.
In “This Living Hand,” Keats addresses more of a tone of melancholy. He is writing of an ending to him and a beginning to the reader. He is sad in a way that no other person, especially the reader, will be able to understand or sympathize with because Keats’ addresses his poem as if it is the beginning of a journey for the reader. Other writers can somewhat empathize with Keats in this poem, however Keats wrote the poem for the specific purpose of describing what writing is like for him. Both poets address a sad-like tone. In Yeats’ poem, the sadness is thought of as bittersweet because there is some happiness expressed by the characters of the poem. The happiness of being in love is created by Yeats when describing the scene of the poem, but quickly turned around at the end of the poem describing their hearts to be as weary as shells worn by the waters of time.
The emotional distance of both poems is extremely alike. The writers of both poems connect to the reader as if they are directly reciting the poem to the reader. The readers can recognize that the writers had a direct connection to what they are writing and were both emotionally drawn to their writings. After reading both poems, I felt as though both poets experienced an event in their lives which caused them to write about the experiences and directly connect to the reader in doing so. It seems as if they wrote the poems in the midst of their emotions and knew first hand of every sensation described in the poems. I believe Yeats fell in love with a beautiful woman yet still felt an emotional withdrawal from her and he wrote “Adam’s Curse” in the midst of all the passion he felt from the relationship. This helps connect to the reader more because if a reader can relate to the writer, the literature has more meaning. “This Living Hand” was such a short poem but it warrants more than two close readings to quite understand the intensity of the writers words. The reader has to differentiate between if the writer has a literal meaning in what he writes or if he is trying to convey something completely different. Keats writes of a living hand which a reader can interpret to mean a living being or any living thing, although Keats has a literal meaning to a living hand in which he uses to write as he used to write the poem in itself. Most importantly the living hand can also symbolize the poem itself.
The images used in “This Living Hand” advance the meaning of the poem in many ways. The living hand symbolizes life and when Keats writes the hand is living and “capable of earnest grasping,” he is describing the writing process in which a poet grasps for sufficient wording. This is the point when the work is alive in a reader. However, when the work, or on a larger scale, life, is over, that tool (the hand used to write)is turned cold, “in the icy silence of the tomb.” A writer is that hand “earnestly grasping” as he or she tries to express himself through words, “grasping” for a way to release the ideas and feelings in word form on paper. For most poets only writing can grant the release. There is a relationship between death and birth in which Keats conveys through the image of “so haunt thy days and chill thy dreaming nights.” His effect on the reader is in describing how the poem lives with, haunting the reader night and day although it is dead to the poet. Keats in a way gives the poem to the reader because it is already dead in the “silent tomb.” At the end of the report, Keats writes, “I hold it towards you” which emphasizes the idea that Keats is giving the poem to the reader because it is now dead to him. The image of Keats actually handing the poem over to the reader is very literal and prevalent to the meaning of the poem being dead. All the images in Keats’ poem are directly connected to one another because they support Keats’ belief of the dying hand of the poet and the beginning of the reading for the reader.
The images used in “Adam’s Curse” somewhat advance the meaning of the poem. I thought Yeats painted a beautiful scene in some stanzas but contradicted it with the melancholy and bittersweet tone. The image of the beautiful woman that Yeats mentions throughout the poem helps set the foundation of the poem. I think most of the images such as the beautiful woman are purely decorative to describe the scene and exactly what Yeats is trying to convey to the reader of the love between this beautiful woman and man. Yeats jumps from one image to the next but I was confused how the uses of images jumped from one scene to another scene so quickly. I think Yeats had a lifetime of personal experience to convey in a short poem so he quickly tried to describe different images to relate them to specific scenes.
Yeats and Keats both write of personal experiences which helps convey the literal meaning of their poetry. Yeats writes of a passionate relationship with a woman he deeply loved and Keats writes of his feelings of death as his writing approaches its end. Both writers convey personal experiences and are able to directly relate to the reader in doing so. In “This Living Hand” Keats writes of death and relates it to the writing of poetry. Every poet has his or her own death after the completion of a poem, but it is bittersweet because it is only the beginning for the reader. The poets convey their purpose for writing the poems through the use of language as well images and symbolism. It makes it easier for the reader to understand the purpose and meaning of a poem if they can understand the use of language patterns as well as the use of images.
I chose to write about both of these poems because they particularly interested me for two completely different reasons. Keats’ poem was more literal for me and I enjoyed connecting with Keats and understanding the sadness behind the end and the death of something important to you but the beginning of a journey to another person. I felt as though when reading the poem I was just beginning an expedition yet I felt somewhat distressed for the writer because it was his death. As for Yeats’ poem he wrote of love and the triumph of loving and being in love. It was of interest to me because I was able to connect with Yeats and understand his purpose for describing his love with a beautiful woman but to be so sad still. My own experiences with love helped me to interpret the poem because I directly connected with Yeats’ idea of love being a happy and joyous experience along with a sad and more melancholy-like feeling because it cannot always be strictly about happiness.
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