The marbles are emblems of a culture to which keats and many of his friends in the leigh hunt circle thought it was noble to aspire.
The elgin marbles keats.
Such dim conceived glories of the brain bring round the heart an indescribable feud.
Upon seeing the elgin marbles keats is overcome by a sense of his own mortality.
The marbles have immense beauty and grandeur but they used to be part of the frieze on the parthenon in athens.
Read the excerpt from the poem on seeing the elgin marbles by john keats.
The classic collection of marble sculptures from parthenon at the british museum commonly known as the elgin marbles has been a vexed source of doubt appreciation enthusiasm disapproval and.
In five stanzas of ten lines each the poet addresses an ancient grecian urn describing and discoursing.
Through his awareness of other writings in this field and his first hand acquaintance with the elgin marbles keats perceived the idealism and representation of greek virtues in classical greek art and his poem draws upon these insights.
John keats sonnet begins with a statement about mortality.
Now the sculptures are in fragments and in london no longer a living part of religion but exhibits in a museum.
The parthenon marbles greek.
Lord elgin made an expedition to the parthenon in greece returning with a significant number of marble statues and friezes which he subsequently sold to the british museum in 1816.
γλυπτά του παρθενώνα also known as the elgin marbles ˈɛlɡɪn are a collection of classical greek marble sculptures made under the supervision of the architect and sculptor phidias and his assistants.
The longman anthology of poetry palgrave 2006.
The infusion of such art works from ancient greece could only strengthen and enrich british culture.
On seeing the elgin marbles john keats 1795 1821 my spirit is too weak mortality weighs heavily on me like unwilling sleep and each imagined pinnacle and steep of godlike hardship tells me i must die like a sick eagle looking at the sky.
So do these wonders a most dizzy pain.