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Pagan Portals - Nature Mystics

The Literary Gateway to Modern Paganism

John Hunt Publishing Ltd.

John Keats (1795 – 1821)

John Keats is often cited as a seminal influence on many of the other writers in this series. Therefore, before turning to the other writers in this series who occupied the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, it is worth jumping back in time to the late Regency period in order to examine Keats' work and find out why Keats was so influential, and how his work relates to the spectrum of pantheists and other nature worshipping traditions. Reaching beyond the musings of my fifteen-year-old self who had heavily annotated my copy of Selected Letters and Poems of Keats, this particular exploration has yielded some surprises.

Keats represents the second generation of Romantic poets, coming hard on the heels of the first generation, Wordsworth and Coleridge, who published their trailblazing Lyrical Ballads in 1797. The Romantics are often referred to as pantheists, the belief system that states that god or the divine (the 'theism' part) is found everywhere (the 'pan' part), but such definitions are never clear cut. Wordsworth leaned more towards a Christian pantheism, while Coleridge experimented more with mysticism (and opium) most famously writing 'Kubla Khan' on awakening from an opium trip. This is where John Keats puts rather a spanner in the works of anyone hoping for a neat classification. His own belief system is misty, ineffable, and not clearly defined beyond his love of poetry and beauty, and his love of love. Keats did not just look to nature for inspiration, but rather to human nature; his muse was more often found in human behaviour (often his own) and also in the emotional storms of his life (of which there were many). Keats lived and loved with a passion, but also battled the black dog of depression throughout his life. If one were to identify an overarching theme in his work, it would probably be his quest for self-knowledge. For anyone on a spiritual path for any length of time, this theme cannot fail to resonate. John Keats is less of a Nature Mystic, and more a 'Human Nature Mystic'; a writer who endeavoured to 'know thyself', as the sign at the entrance to the Delphic Oracle once instructed. His path as a Nature Mystic was an inward looking one, instead of one that looked outwards to the natural world for inspiration.

Keats' Life: Putting his Work in Context

It is often apparent that the lives of great writers were more dramatic than fiction, and John Keats is no exception. Born in 1795 in London, his family life was somewhat tempestuous. His father was killed in a riding accident when John was only nine years old, leaving his mother in financial difficulty. She remarried within two months, and when her own father died, she entered into a very acrimonious lawsuit against her mother over her father's estate. Within two years of her second marriage, she and her husband separated, and she sent her children to live with the grandmother she had fallen out with. John Keats was the eldest of four children, and he and his two brothers were sent to school in Enfield. When he was thirteen, his mother and grandmother were reconciled, and his mother came to live with them. The reunion was short-lived, as she contracted tuberculosis and died a year later. The young John (then fourteen) had been in charge of her nursing, and took her loss very badly. Later that year, he left school and was apprenticed to a surgeon, but the relationship was stormy, and Keats later left his residence, to train instead at Guy's Hospital. By all accounts he became very skilled in medicine.

It was in his late teenage years that Keats discovered poetry, by spending much of his spare time with an old school friend who had remained in formal education. Keats was introduced to the work of Spenser, which inspired him to write his first poem, aged eighteen. The next few years were spent absorbed in poetry, as he experimented with different forms. In 1816 (at the age of twenty one) he obtained a license to practice as an apothecary, but he became more and more convinced that his calling was to be a poet, not a doctor. By the time he received his license, his grandmother had died, and his financial affairs had been left in the care of a trustee. The trustee had embezzled Keats' money, convinced that he wouldn't need the money if he was to be practicing the affluent profession of medicine. This had longlasting effects on Keats, who struggled financially for the rest of his life. Unknown to anyone at the time, his maternal grandfather had left a trust fund, which would have solved this problem, but no one knew of its existence until later.

In 1816 (when Keats was twenty one) he met Leigh Hunt, which was to be a life-changing event. Hunt had published some of Keats' work in The Examiner, and meeting Hunt opened up a new world of experience for him. He was now moving in literary circles, and his social group included writers such as Byron and Shelley. This gave Keats the momentum he needed to give up medicine forever, in favour of being a poet. Wordsworth and Coleridge had stormed onto the literary scene, publishing the Lyrical Ballads in 1797, as a reaction against the lofty language and highly structured work of the Augustan school, as typified by writers like Pope. By contrast, the Romantics set out to use common language, and freer forms of poetry, like the 'ballads' of Wordsworth and Coleridge's title. The first generation of Romantics also explored ideas of pantheism, although Wordsworth later returned to a form of Christian pantheism; Coleridge was more inclined to mysticism, and (for the sake of the title of this series) was probably more of a Nature Mystic than any of his peers. Keats was greatly influenced by both Wordsworth and Coleridge (although they had a somewhat strained personal relationship). The second generation continued to work in opposition to the approach of the classical school, and placed more emphasis on the value of emotional responses over rational enlightenment.

Keats' career as a poet was very short lived, as it really only lasted five years. To begin with, his poetry received mixed reviews, but his faith in his ability enabled him to continue, somewhat presciently stating that he thought he would become a great poet after his death. In 1818, Keats set off on a walking tour of Scotland with a friend, but returned home to Hampstead early as he was unwell. On returning, he found his brother very obviously dying with tuberculosis, and stayed to nurse him, whilst composing his epic poem, 'Hyperion'. When his brother died, Keats moved to Wentworth Place, to live with Charles Brown. This house has since been re-named Keats House, and now houses the Keats museum.

But the drama of Keats' life was by no means over. Soon after he moved to Wentworth Place, the Brawne family moved into the other half of the house. Keats fell in love with Fanny Brawne, and wrote some of his most impassioned work for her, such as 'Bright Star', and 'The Eve of Saint Agnes'. Following his brother's death, Keats entered a period of depression and restlessness, in which he wrote long and tortured letters to Fanny Brawne, desperate to be with her, but unable to marry because of his financial difficulties. A short while later, Keats became ill again, and this time he soon suspected he was suffering from latent tuberculosis, contracted whilst nursing his brother, although doctors told him he had nothing to fear. He knew the symptoms very well and also knew the prognosis was not good, having now nursed two family members through the disease. His final year was one of great pain and anguish, since doctors would not agree on a diagnosis, and therefore did little to alleviate his discomfort and suffering. In late 1820 it was decided he would benefit from spending the winter in Italy, so he and a friend set out for Rome, but it was there that he died in February 1821, at the age of just twenty six.

Keats was buried in Rome, with his chosen epitaph carved on his headstone, so clearly indicative of one who has walked a spiritual path of seeking self-knowledge. It read, 'Here lies one whose name was writ in water'.

Keats and Spirituality

While a Nature Mystic is essentially someone who connects to the divine through the natural world, there is little evidence to suggest that Keats did this, although his descriptions of nature are highly evocative (as are all of his descriptions of beauty in the world). Nature is an obvious source of beauty, and as such is written about in Keats' poetry, but whether he saw this as a way of connecting to the divine is not immediately obvious. Unlike Mary Webb, Keats did not appear to meditate in nature in order to find inspiration; he was a city dweller all his life, although the outlying parts of London he lived in (such as Hampstead and Enfield) would have been far less urban than they might be considered today. He did, however, find endless fascination in human behaviour, and was very much on a spiritual quest to know himself, and his own behaviour. Robert Gittings (one of Keats' biographers) suggests that Keats used his correspondence with close friends and family as a form of spiritual journal, recording over time a clear pattern of development. In his letters, Keats often ruminates over the processes in which he has reached various philosophical conclusions, and examines his own thought processes in great detail. Gittings also concludes that Keats' self-awareness was second to none for a young man of such intense feeling. Not surprisingly, he also had an innate sense of the tragedy of life.

Keats' upbringing with his grandmother was a Christian one, but later in life, his Christian faith dwindled and changed, according to Andrew Motion (the former poet laureate, and one of Keats' more recent biographers). His personal faith system is quite hazy, and is difficult to define clearly. Keats did dissent from organised religion, and instead is said to have favoured a more 'natural' religion. This would broadly be defined as the belief that divinity is part of nature, and not separate from it. But his only incontrovertible declarations of faith were in poetry, beauty, and love (both physical and spiritual), and his most consistent belief was in his calling as a poet.

Critics often have a polarised view of Keats' philosophy. Some biographers believe he was essentially a man of science (as a result of his medical training) and clearly a humanist, while others ascribe a profoundly mystical path. One study by Jennifer Wunder has examined his links to Hermeticism and secret societies, such as the Rosicrucian order and Freemasonry, and has found a consistent pattern of hermetic imagery within his poetry. Wunder points out that Keats' quest to know himself was also reflective of the initiatory system of secret societies, where one increased one's own self-knowledge while progressing through the degrees. She identifies his intended path as being one where he 'was to move from human passions to knowledge and transmute that knowledge to poetry that might provide physical to men'. Keats declared that he wanted to use his poetry to heal people, and by doing so, be 'one who pours out a balm upon the world'.

While there is no clear evidence to suggest that Keats was actually a member of the Rosicrucian Fraternity or the Freemasons, the imagery used by both movements shows up repeatedly in his poetry and his letters, so much so that it is too clear to be passed off as a coincidence. For example, his epic poem 'Hyperion' is sometimes interpreted as an initiation which shares much in common with those of the secret societies; from preparation through to the actual rite (which takes the form of a symbolic death and re-birth) followed by a period of reintegration, and continued learning through different stages. The same study also points out there may be several explanations for the hermetic imagery, aside from Keats having actually been a member of either movement. During his medical training at Guy's Hospital, Keats became firm friends with a fellow student, John Spurgin, who was a follower of the Swedish philosopher and Christian mystic, Emanuel Swedenborg, and discussed these philosophies at great length with Keats, as well as the hermetic philosophies. Wunder also suggests that the popularity of secret societies such as the Freemasons at this time meant that the philosophical ideas behind the movements, and the blending of Hermeticism and Neo-Platonism were commonly known within society. This in turn filtered into the arts, and was explored in gothic novels and other romantic literature, particularly in the work of those who influenced Keats, such as Coleridge, Burns and Hunt. While the Rosicrucians and the Freemasons may have been secret societies, they looked to similar alchemical and philosophical texts for inspiration. These books, such as works by Cornelius Agrippa, Hermes Trismegistus, Marsilio Ficino and Paracelsus, were also commonly read by Keats' contemporaries, particularly while studying (as Keats did) to become a doctor or an apothecary. Keats may not have allied himself with one particular definable religion or philosophy, but it does not mean he wasn't interested in them. Wunder concludes that during the Romantic period, mysticism and secularisation existed side by side in Masonic organisations, so it is possible to conclude that this may have disseminated out into wider society.

While Keats is considered to be fluent in the language of hermetic traditions, his only declared religious feelings were towards poetry, beauty and love. One of Keats' most often quoted philosophies comes from 'Ode on a Grecian Urn' where Keats writes:

Beauty is truth, truth beauty, – that is all
Ye know on earth, and all Ye need to know.

Additionally, in a letter to Fanny Brawne in October 1819, towards the end of his short life, Keats wrote:

I have been astonished that men could die martyrs for religion – I have shudder'd at it – I shudder no more – I could be martyr'd for my Religion – love is my religion – I could die for that – I could die for you. My creed is love and you are its only tenet.

Keats' Written Work

Keats work is remarkably extensive, for such a relatively short career. His oeuvre consists of both his poems and his recorded letters, and while it might be tempting to read only his poetry, his letters make for an enlightening context for the poems, and there is merit in reading them alongside each other. Keats experimented in several poetic forms during his career. Keats much admired Shakespeare, and consequently spent some time emulating the sonnets. Later he experimented with longer epic poems, such as in 'Hyperion' and 'Lamia'. His best known work comes from his later period, when he began to work with 'Odes'. 'Ode to a Nightingale' is one of his best known:

Darkling I listen; and for many a time
I have been half in love with easeful Death
Call'd him soft names in many a mused rhyme,
To take into the air my quiet breath

'Ode on a Grecian Urn' is equally remembered:

Thou still unravish'd bride of quietness,
Thou foster-child of silence and slow time,

But possibly the most well-known work by Keats (which often people know without realising) is 'To Autumn':

Season of mists and mellow fruitfulness,
Close bosom-friend of the maturing sun;
conspiring with him how to load and bless
with fruit the vines that round the thatch-eves run;
To bend with apples the moss'd cottage-trees,
And fill all fruit with ripeness to the core.

Keats may have lived a relatively short life, but his legacy to the artists who followed him (in all fields) is worthy of mention. Keats was a formative influence on Webb, Tennyson, T.S. Eliot, Yeats, Lawrence, and Hardy to name a few. His poetry was also immortalised in the artwork of the Pre-Raphaelite brotherhood, who painted works based on many of his poems, such as 'La Belle Dame Sans Merci', 'Isabella' and 'The Eve of Saint Agnes'. For such a young life, the ripples through the pond left by his passing went wide.

Mary Webb (1881 – 1928)

In 1928, Stanley Baldwin gave a speech at the Literary Fund dinner in praise of Mary Webb; a little known author who had won the Prix Femina Vie Heureuse for her novel, Precious Bane. The following day, The Times ran her obituary: it was five months after she had died at the age of forty six, leaving her sixth novel unfinished.

Soon after, Webb's works received some of the recognition she had so ardently wished for during her lifetime; various biographies were published during the 1930s, but as time passed, this attention waned. Another period of interest came fifty years later which coincided with several events; Gladys Coles published her autobiography of Webb, Flower of Light (1978); Virago issued new editions of Webb's novels, and Precious Bane was dramatized by the BBC (which is when I first came upon her in my early teens). Although Webb was admired by such illustrious people as Stanley Baldwin, Rebecca West and Walter de la Mare, she is rarely talked about in academic circles, thus Webb remains slightly obscure, and is left out of most canonical lists of writers of her time. While there are fewer than twenty books that are about (or at least have a chapter devoted to) Webb, most are biographical studies, and don't examine Webb's writing in its historical, occult or literary context.

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Excerpted from Pagan Portals - Nature Mystics by Rebecca Beattie. Copyright © 2014 Rebecca Beattie. Excerpted by permission of John Hunt Publishing Ltd..
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