Keats's Aestheticism - A Critical Study

Romanticism was a combination of Aestheticism and Mysticism. Reduced to its most quintessential form, mysticism is the direct apprehension of God and the experience of communion with Him. The Romantic poets wanted to peer beyond the visible world because they felt that the visible world was a veil beyond which lay the world of the Real and the Eternal. Keats's desire, like the other Romantics, was to draw upon all sources of Beauty and Wonder, including works of the Hellenic and Medieval and the Renaissance periods.

On the poets of the 19th century England, as also on Keats, Oriental mysticism had made a deep impact. Keats had clearly equated Beauty with Truth and Truth being identical with Beauty. It was indicative of the unified vision for the perception of truth.

The son of a distinguished professor of English, Dr. Prem Kumar was born in Patna, Bihar by the holy river Ganges. Given Dr. Kumar's background, his penchant for literature and philosophy was only natural. This inclination led him to pursue higher studies in English, and he ultimately served as both a professor at and the principal of Vanijya Maha vidyala, Patna. A staunch believer in the philosophy of "healthy body, healthy mind," Dr. Kumar was passionate about sports. He was able to apply his literary talents to the promotion of sports in his extensive career as a journalist and an international All India Radio commentator for cricket, tennis, hockey, table tennis, billiards and chess. Dr. Kumar was honored by the state government for his life-long contributions to sports in Bihar.

It is with the greatest pleasure that I acknowledge the debt of Dr. Nagendra Prasad, Reader in English, Magadh University, Bodh Gaya. Not only that Dr. Prasad inspired me to pursue scholastic habits but he guided the research work, the fruit of which is the present dissertation.

I can never forget the help I got from Dr. K.P. Ambastha, Retired University Professor of English, Patna University, my father, and from his extensive study of the Poetry of English Romantic Revival in completing my research.

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