A Bruised Self Image: An Analysis of Conflict in John Keats' "On Seeing the Elgin Marbles"

John Keats' s "Seeing Elgin Marble" was a sonnet written during a visit to the British Museum after purchasing marble statues originally belonging to the parthenon temple in Athens. This poem contains a series of potential tensions and conflicts, all of them are obvious in the words and images of poetry. However, unlike other sonnets, where conflicts are often resolved at the end, this sonnet leaves a permanent hopeless feel, which reveals internal confusion of the speaker itself.

It is easy to look at poetry like "Seeing Elgin Marble" by John Keats or to classify it as many other old poems. "Viewing Elgin Marble" can be seen as a poem focusing on the concept of death, of course. However, due to this special poem, Keats seems to consciously write, aiming to present another meaning to the reader. If you choose to acknowledge this possible alternate meaning, you can see that this poem violates the strict Keats poetry; instead it can be regarded as a deliberately failed poem I will. Internal state capability

John Keats' s "Seeing Elgin Marble" was a sonnet written during a visit to the British Museum after purchasing marble statues originally belonging to the parthenon temple in Athens. This poem contains a series of potential tensions and conflicts, all of them are obvious in the words and images of poetry. However, unlike other sonnets, where conflicts are often resolved at the end, this sonnet leaves a permanent hopeless feel, which reveals internal confusion of the speaker itself.

Not only is the historical background related, but also an example of a specific work by John Keats that Romanticism is "in Elgin marble". Elgin Marble is a collection of Greek sculptures made before Christianity and was brought to the British Museum that gives Keats' inspiration in the early 19th century. In the seventh calculation of Elgin, we separated the statue from the Parthenon temple in Athens, Greece, then sold them to the British government and put it in the museum for public appreciation. (Esterhammer, 29) At first glance, this poem seems to focus only on the appearance of the sculpture, but it is worth seeing better. The aesthetic quality of the statue was spectacular and had a lot of influence on the audience; therefore it is clear that many poets believe that they are successful museums of several lines of poetry. (Ester Hammer, 30)