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抒情敘事詩與濟慈之詩人本體的認同
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Lyric Narrative and Keats’s Poetic Identity
—
“Ode to Psyche” and “Ode to a Nightingale”
Huey-fen Fay Yao
Department of Applied Foreign Languages
National Kaohsiung University of Applied Sciences
No. 415, Jiangong Rd., Sanmin Dist., Kaohsiung 8077, Taiwan
E-mail:
fayandflower@yahoo.com.twAbstract
Keats is a narrative poet: storytelling is a mode central to the
practices and achievements of John Keats. In “Sleep and Poetry,” he
refers to life as “The reading of an ever-changing tale”
(
line 91
)
. This
line suggests his sense of the centrality of narrative to human experi-
ences. Yet the Keatsian narrative is a medium for Keats to explore the
nature and development of his poetic identity. In this context,
through the application of the theory of “lyric narrative”
—
a theory
first applied by Keats scholar Judy Little and promoted by narratolo-
gist James Phelan: similarities and overlaps found between narrative
and lyric poetry, this paper will read “Ode to Psyche” and “Ode to a
Nightingale” in the light of this theory to discuss Keats’s narrative
skills in these two lyrics.
These two poems are indispensable in examining Keats’s poetic
identity because each poem presents a different side of Keats. This
paper investigates two aspects of “Ode to Psyche”: the figuration of
Psyche and Keats as a modern poet. While striving for his poetic iden-
tity, the figure of Psyche reflects Keats’s anxiety and ambition. Keats’s
personal and expressive stance shown in celebrating Psyche makes him
an unconventional poet. At the same time, he demonstrates his grow-
ing consciousness and confidence in his poetic voice as he transforms
from a self-doubting poet to one who says, “I see, and sing, by my
own eyes inspired”
(
line 43
)
. In “Ode to a Nightingale,” the po-
et-narrator exhibits a differing outlook. Here the narrator’s attitude is