‘On Seeing the Elgin Marbles’

1. ‘On Seeing the Elgin Marbles’ 1817

2. Have you ever seen . . . ? What did it make you think? How did you feel?

3. What are the Elgin Marbles? • http://www.britishmuseum.org/explore/galleries/ancient_greece_and_rome/room_18_greece_parthenon_scu.aspx • http://www.nytimes.com/1999/12/02/world/london-journal-on-seeing-the-elgin-marbles-with-sandwiches.html?pagewanted=all&src=pm

4. Background to the Poem John Keats and his friend Haydon viewed these ancient sculptures in 1817, 11 years after they were shipped to England from Athens, Greece. Keats felt an overwhelming sense of his own mortality and a love for the classical artwork. Soon after his visit to the British Museum, John Keats wrote the poem "On Seeing the Elgin Marbles" to share his experiences.

5. Poetic Terms • Ekphrasis • Petrarchan sonnet • Octave • Sestet • Enjambment • Anapest

6. Ekphrasis • Ekphrasis was created by the Greeks.  The goal of this literary form is to make the reader envision the thing described as if it were physically present.  In many cases, however, the subject never actually existed, making the ekphrastic description a demonstration of both the creative imagination and the skill of the writer.  • Keats made himself and his own experience of viewing art an important part of his ekphrastic poems.  This shift in emphasis reflects a transformation in the genre of ekphrasis, which increasingly came to include the reaction of a particular viewer as part of the description of an object. • http://writingaboutart.org/pages/ekphrasis.html

9. What are your views about where the Elgin marbles should be? • Read the following article BBC news article: The Real Story of the Elgin Marbles http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/entertainment/3841179.stm

10. Look at the following statements about the poem and see which ones you agree with Keats sees Grecian grandeur (the Elgin marbles) wasted by time and the elements until they become just a shadow of their former glory. It is in the wasting away of the Elgin marbles by time and the elements, that Keats sees his own mortality.

11. Keats also sees an immortality in the Elgin Marbles: that something so beautiful can still endure despite the wasting of time. Keats is left impotent by the sight of the Elgin Marbles His spirit is too weak to fully appreciate the Elgin Marbles in this first encounter

12. The main theme of this poem is the concept of mortality. Keats discusses his own internal conflict when looking at the Elgin Marbles, rather than focusing on the marbles themselves

13. Instead of opening up another new world of glory, beauty, and truth, the Elgin Marbles reflect his own image – and he does not like what he sees – because in it he can see nothing but his own mortality.

14. This poem is an example of a failed ekphrastic* poem *(Ekphrasis is a literary term created by the Greeks. An ekphrastic poem aimed to make the reader envision the thing described as if it were physically present.)

15. Comparison with: ‘On First Looking into Chapman’s Homer • Compare the reference to the eagle in both poems. How does the image differ? Explain how this simile/metaphor helps to convey Keats mood in both the poems.

16. The structure – comparision with: ‘On First looking into Chapman’s Homer’ • Both these poems are Petrarchan sonnets, but how do they compare? • Is there a definite split between the octet and sestet in terms of a mood shift in ‘Elgin Marbles?’