NEGETIVE CAPABILITY

What is Negative capability? Explanation with an examples of keats' poems:-

Hello everyone....

This blog based on thinking activity, assigned by Megha ma'am. In which I'm going to deal with a topic negative capability. As we all know that negative capability is a term which firstly use by John Keats. So before discussing about negative capability here is some information about John Keats , and later on two poems of Keats which deals with our main topic negative capability.

John Keats (31 October 1795 – 23 February 1821) was an English poet of the second generation of Romantic poets, along with Lord Byron and Percy Bysshe Shelley. His poems had been in publication for less than four years when he died of tuberculosis at the age of 25. They were indifferently received in his lifetime, but his fame grew rapidly after his death.[1] By the end of the century, he was placed in the canon of English literature, strongly influencing many writers of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood; the Encyclopædia Britannica of 1888 called one ode "one of the final masterpieces". Jorge Luis Borges named his first time reading Keats an experience he felt all his life. Keats had a style "heavily loaded with sensualities", notably in the series of odes. Typically of the Romantics, he accentuated extreme emotion through natural imagery. Today his poems and letters remain among the most popular and analysed in English literature – in particular "Ode to a Nightingale", "Ode on a Grecian Urn", "Sleep and Poetry" and the sonnet "On First Looking into Chapman's Homer".

What is negative capability ? 

"Negative capability" is a term coined by the English Romantic poet John Keats. It refers to a concept in literature and art that emphasizes the capacity of an artist or writer to accept uncertainty, doubt, and ambiguity without pursuing logical answers or resolutions. In essence, it's the ability to embrace and engage with the mysteries and complexities of life and creativity without the need for a fixed, rational solution.

Keats introduced this idea in a letter to his brothers George and Tom Keats in December 1817. He wrote:

"I had not a dispute but a disquisition with Dilke, on various subjects; several things dovetailed in my mind, & at once it struck me, what quality went to form a Man of Achievement especially in Literature & which Shakespeare possessed so enormously—I mean Negative Capability, that is when man is capable of being in uncertainties, Mysteries, doubts without any irritable reaching after fact & reason."

Here's an example from one of Keats' poems,

"Ode to a Nightingale,"

where you can see the concept of negative capability in action:

My heart aches, and a drowsy numbness pains

My sense, as though of hemlock I had drunk,

Or emptied some dull opiate to the drains

One minute past, and Lethe-wards had sunk:

'Tis not through envy of thy happy lot,

But being too happy in thine happiness,—

That thou, light-winged Dryad of the trees

In some melodious plot

Of beechen green, and shadows numberless,

Singest of summer in full-throated ease.

In this poem, Keats describes his experience of listening to a nightingale's song. He is so entranced by the bird's beautiful and melancholic song that he is transported into a different state of mind. He acknowledges that the nightingale's world and his own are different, and instead of trying to rationalize or explain the experience, he embraces the uncertainty and mystery of the moment. He doesn't seek to dissect the bird's song or analyze its meaning; he simply immerses himself in the emotional and sensory experience, demonstrating his negative capability.

"Ode on a Grecian Urn":

In this poem, Keats contemplates an ancient Greek urn with various scenes depicted on its surface. He finds beauty and significance in the frozen moments captured on the urn, but he also acknowledges the limitations of art in capturing the full range of human experience. Keats, through his exploration of the urn's mysteries and uncertainties, demonstrates his negative capability by not demanding concrete answers from the artwork but by embracing its enigmatic qualities.

In both of these poems, Keats showcases his ability to dwell in a state of uncertainty and ambiguity, appreciating the beauty and depth of life's complexities without feeling the need to resolve them. He allows the mysteries and doubts to coexist with his artistic expression, which is a central aspect of negative capability. It's about finding beauty and meaning in the questions themselves, rather than always seeking answers or resolutions.In this way, Keats shows how negative capability allows the poet (or any artist) to appreciate and convey the profound and complex aspects of life and nature without reducing them to mere intellectual or logical constructs. It's about the ability to live in the moment of creative inspiration and accept the inexplicable, the uncertain, and the contradictory.

Thank you for reading.

Have a great time.