Keats as a romantic poet

Keats was one of the finest flowers of the Romantic Movement. In the history of English Romanticism, he possessed a unique position. In his poetry we find several romantic traits such as escapism, addition of strangeness to beauty, love of nature, supernaturalism, sensuousness, music and melody, romantic suggestiveness etc, 

Keats is the most romantic of all the poets in the sense that he is the most escapist of them all. Being frustrated with the present world he escapes imaginatively in an ideal world. In Ode to a Nightingale we find him dissatisfied with the world of reality. The weariness, the fever and the fret of the world of reality make him escape tp the dream forest of the Nightingale, where he finds all the sensual enjoyments of life. The song of the Nightingale seems to him to be a symbol of ever-lasting joy. 

The addition of strangeness to beauty is an important quality of romantic poetry, and it is found in the poetry of Keats. The remote, the distant and the unknown fascinated him. The Beauty if the unknown attracts him most. He imaginatively enjoys Beauties which are hidden from the physical eye. Thus the song of the Nightingale becomes for him a symbol of eternal Beauty. 

All the romantic poets are great lovers of nature and Keats is no - exception. His love of nature is frankly sensuous. The colours ands, charms of nature fascinated him. In Ode to a Nightingale we find a Sensual account of the beauty of nature in the following lines: 

And haply the Queen-Moon is on her throne, Clustered around by all her starry Fays, . 

Supernaturalism is one of the most striking qualities of romantic Poetry. Though in he poetry of Coleridge we find this quality the most, Keats is also fully alive in this respect. It is the magic and mystery, the belief in ghosts and fairies, of the middle ages that captivate his heart. 

Keats’s poetic style is also romantic. His poetry has the haunting music of the romantics. The captivating music of his poetry comes to him by nature. The 18th century classics confined themselves only to the heroic couplet, but Keats, along with other romantics, uses various kinds of metres and stanza-forms in his poetry.  

In the poetry of Keats there is a romantic touch of suggestiveness by which “more is meant than meets the ear.” In his poetry Keats suggests much more than he describes. Each of his images opens before us the view of far-reaching perspectives; and each of his epithets is highly suggestive; and each of his word is laden with a wealth of meaning. 

Poetry consists both of matter and manner of form and substance. In true classicism perfect balance is maintained between the form and substance of poetry. When this balance is disturbed in favour of substances we get romanticism; and when it is disturbed in favour of form we get classicism. In Keats’s poetry the two are kept in perfect harmony. We find classical perfection of form in union with unlimited  range of sensation and emotion.