Word Like a Bell: John Keats, Music and the Romantic PoetMusic was supremely important to the Romantic poets, particularly to John Keats. In this first book-length study on the subject, John A. Minahan explores Keats's work in relation to the art of music. Word Like a Bell considers Keats's major poems as well as his letters and minor verse. Writing in a jargon-free style, Minahan examines the relationship between the musical and literary manifestations of Romantic theory, and the connection between that theory and Keats's work. He then offers new insights into Keats's poetry and his era, among them a detailed explanation of why the "Great Odes" ought to be considered a single extended piece. Also receiving extensive treatment are Wordsworth, Coleridge, Shelley, Haydn, Mozart, and Beethoven, whose ideas and creations illustrate how music influences every aspect of Romantic thought. In his exploration of the relationship between different but related arts, Minahan both locates Romanticism in its historical and aesthetic context and expands the capabilities of literary criticism. He finds that music enables Romanticism to voice its fundamental concern about time and its passage, and shows us that an understanding of poetry's relation to music can enrich our appreciation of both arts while deepening our own experiences of time. This interdisciplinary study will appeal to readers of poetry and literary criticism and to professional musicians who would increase their understanding of an age's art, songwriters interested in word/music relations, and poets who crave an extensive discussion of poetic technique and craft that uses music as a way to clarify such points. |
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Page 33
... rhetorical , Pythagorean , and affective . " Further , the Romantic use of these three ideas of music , thus of the three kinds of temporal understanding they involve , has its own well - ordered syntax . Each type of music has its ...
... rhetorical , Pythagorean , and affective . " Further , the Romantic use of these three ideas of music , thus of the three kinds of temporal understanding they involve , has its own well - ordered syntax . Each type of music has its ...
Page 67
... rhetorical , Pythagorean , and affective . The first two tend to suggest con- tradictory functions for music : an alternative to reality versus a reality in itself . The third becomes attractive when it offers itself not as yet another ...
... rhetorical , Pythagorean , and affective . The first two tend to suggest con- tradictory functions for music : an alternative to reality versus a reality in itself . The third becomes attractive when it offers itself not as yet another ...
Page 121
... rhetorical . He quickly answers them , and the few more that follow , by talking about sleep- " Soft closer of our eyes ! / Low murmurer of tender lullabies ! " ( 11-12 ) —and about the pleasures of indolence and dreaming . For a moment ...
... rhetorical . He quickly answers them , and the few more that follow , by talking about sleep- " Soft closer of our eyes ! / Low murmurer of tender lullabies ! " ( 11-12 ) —and about the pleasures of indolence and dreaming . For a moment ...
Contents
The Varieties of Musical Experience | 29 |
Words Music and Interpretation | 59 |
The Romantic Uses of Sound | 98 |
Copyright | |
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Common terms and phrases
achieve allows argued artist attention awareness Bate beauty becomes Beethoven begins called combination comes composed consciousness creates critical described difference dream early effect emotion empty enacts experience fact feel finally follow forward gives hear Heath ideas imagination important interpretation John Keats Keats's kind language lead less live loss lyric materials meaning melos memory mind move nature never notes odes once opposition ordinary organized particular passing past pattern perhaps poem poem's poet poet's poetic poetry possible present provides question re-collection reference region relation remains rhetorical rhyme rhythm Romantic Romantic poets says seeks seems sense shape Shelley song sonnet sound Special stanza structure suggests temporal theme thing thought tonal tone truth understand unfolding usual verbal verse voice wanted Wordsworth writing written