on sitting down to read king lear Flashcards
(8 cards)
summary of the story of king lear
king lear decided to split his kindom into three and give the best part of the daughter that loved him the most , he is furious his favourite daughter corelea does not shower him in phrase like his other duaghters, he banishes her and she leaves to marry her husband the king of france. General-th earl of gloestur-has a illegitate son called edmund who plans to over throw him. Lear storms of into a storm after he becomes mad with his two daughters,they come across edgar, edagras father is belived to be untrustworthy and has his eyes gouged out, edgar finds him, edgars father wants ti kill hismelf, brings himself to a cliff he jumps and edgar pretends he has mirccuslously survived. king lear is descending into madness. Coredilia looks after king lear and he asks her for forgiveness. the other two sister are successfull in winning the land. coredilia is murdered and king lear is distraught, king lear then also dies from aguish. no one gets a happy ending.
summary of poem
keats fights agaisnt his ulterior urge to create to induldge in one of his greatest passions: that of re-reading the play, King Lear one of the most influencial of shakespeares work.
Negative capability
the ability to accept uncertainties
letter to george
about ideas of salvation, man could be saved by forming an identity in the face of hardship-the vale of sould making
in the letter he used “poor bare forked animal” edgar used this when he disguised himslef as poor tom-“poor tom the voice of the nightingale” keats wrote ode to a nightingale shortly after his letter to george
structure
petrachian sonnet with rhyming pattern abba, cddc, efef, gg notable rhymes-‘lute’ and ‘mute’
“O golden-tongued romance with serene lute. / Fiar plumed siren! Queen of far way! “ “shut thine olden pages and be mute”
depicts romance as beautul and tempting due to the adjectives “golden” and “serene”
becomes an extended metaphor “fair plumed siren! Queen of far away!” a “syren is beautiful and tempting butr also dangerous, far away also connects to dreams and escapism. Criticising romance due to its escapism qualities. Commands it to be “mute” demonstrating his rejection of romance. Rejects romance to embrace tragic perfection and the awarness og his own preamature death.
“betwixt damnation and impassioned clay/ must i burn through/ once more humbly assay/ the bitter-sweet of this shakespearean fruit/ cheif poet and ye clouds of Albion”
“impassioned clay” releates to a lack of passion=place between heaven and earth liminal sapce, is this earth itself?
“the bitter-sweet of this shakespearean fruit” oxymoron relates to the vale of soul making but also constructs shakespearean as able to live in negative capabiloity and achive vale of sould making.
“fruit” devine images conveys adoration of shakespeare, “cheife poet” shakespeareas divinity-camolloinion poet
“when through the old oask forest i am gone/ let me not wonder in barren dream/ but i am consumed by fire/ give me new phonix wings to fly at my desire”
alluion to king lear “when through the old oak forest i am gone”
“gone” he s lamenting on his death, appears capable of negative capability
“barren dream”-creativity
“Phoenix” eternal; bird relates to death and his poetry, metaphor for rebirth and transcience-transformed by rereading
