feb 6, 1819 - 'Odes', John Keats

Description:

'Ode on a Grecian Urn'
'To a Nightingale'
'To Psyche'
'On Melancholy'
'On Indolence'
'To Autumn'
The poet seeks refuge in the sensual communion with a 'thing of beauty' (the nightingale's song, the urn) but reconciling beauty and permanence proves impossible: the moment of aesthetic transcendance cannot be kept up for long, which leads to a deep sens of loss. Style: profusion of images, use of synazsthesia

Inspired by Greek mythology
contrast btwn the everyday world (transience of human life, pain, decay, death) and the world of imagination (can create eternal beauty). The poet immerses himself in beauty and love, dreams and illusion, which provide an escape from the suffering of the world, only to realise that a return to reality is unavoidable. All things of beauty are threatened and bound to die, love does not last, dreams come to an end - an echo of the poet's own sense of morality.