Fallen Stars: A Comparative Study of the Poetic Works of John Keats and Li He

Abstract

Due to the short lives and similar poetic styles, the British Romantic poet John Keats and Li He from the Mid-Tang dynasty have always been the hotspot for research. However, most past research compared them by stating the superficial, factual details and failed to address their subtle differences and attribute them. Therefore, this paper aims to compare the pursuit of the ideal, use of imagery, and presence of the narrator to thoroughly contrast Keats’ and Li He’s poetic works and then propose personal and cultural reasons for such differences. It is concluded that Keats pursued poetry to reach the idealized integration, while poetry for Li was a means to enter the political arena until reality turned him down. Regarding imagery, Keats followed the “the death of beauty” pattern, while Li directly utilized macabre imagery to express his poignancy. Finally, Keats’ narrator demonstrates a shift between “realm with the poet” and “without the poet” due to his existential anxiety, while Li’s work demonstrates an unorthodox “realm without the poet”, where the narrator utterly detaches himself from the poem. While Keats’ poetry highlights a struggle to grasp the ideal, metaphorically an impeded upward tendency, Li He’s poetry reflects a downward tendency of merely portraying the macabre, the grotesque, and the degenerate. Personally, this could be attributed to Keats’ internal locus of control and Li’s external locus of control, while culturally, abundant social outlets for a poet in 19th century England and limiting careers for those in the Mid-Tang dynasty explained those discrepancies.