UNIT 34 KEATS: HYPERION: A FRA GMENT-II

Structure
34.0 Objectives
34.1 Introductioil
34.2. Hyperion: A Fragments discussion
34.2.1 A critical summary of Hyperion: A Fragment
34.2.2 Critical views on Hyperion
34.2.3 Hyperion as political allegory
34.2.4 Hyperion as a poem about poets and poetry
34.2.5 Uncertainties and "Negative Capability"
34.2.6 Is Hyperion incomplete?
34.2.7 The difference between the two Hyperions
34.3 Exercises
34.4 Summing up
34.5 Answers to exercises

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34.0 OBJECTIVES ' -.

In the first unit we saw Hyperion: A Fragment in relation to Keats's life and times. In
this unit we will focus on the poem itself. You will notice that the meaning of the
poem becomes clearer because we can relate it to Keats's life.

After reading this unit you will know about

* The content of the poem,
s Hypenon as a political allegory and as a poem about poetry. These are the two
chief ways of reading the poem
* Why Keats stopped writing it and whether it is really incomplete
* The difference in structure and meaning of the two Hyperions

34.1 INTRODUCTION

In this unit you will learn about the structure of Hyperion, why its meaning seems
unclear, what did Keats mean by "Negative Capability,"and the two major ways of
reading it, as a political allegory and as a poem about poetry. You will lean1 about
what is meant by calling Hyperion a "fragment." Finally, we will look at Keats's
criticism of his poem and the difference between the two Wyperions.
Once again, you should read the poem before and aRer you read the discussion. After
you have understood the poem and the discussion, answer the questions on the unit
and then check them with the answers at the end of the unit.

34.2 HYPERION: A FRAGMENT

The structure of this section is given at the start of the Unit 2. First reread the
discussion on why Keats wanted to write an epic (33.3.l), then read the following.

34.2.1 A Critical Summary of Hyperion

Books I ond I . Following the opening of Paradise Lost, Keats starts fc~perionin
medias res, or in the middle of things. The war between the 'Titans and Olympians is
over. The defeated, bewildered Titan chief, Saturn, is sitting aloile. Thea, consort 09
 the sun god, Hyperion, leads Saturn to the other Titans. They discuss reasons for their Hypcrion
defeat and what they should do next. Most of the Titans hope to recover "the old
allegiance once more," to recover happiness by returning to power (Hyperion 1.162).
Oceanus and Clyrnene are the exceptions.

. Three important points are made in the conference. Oceanus, god of the sea, says that
change is natural and that is why they have been replaced by the more beautiful
Olympians.

much comfort will I give,

If ye will take that comfort in its truth.
We fall by course of Nature's Iaw, not force
Of thunder, or of Jove. . . . (Hyperion 2.179-182)

He represents the Enlightenment belief that the world progresses naturally in a

straight line towards perfection. Warlike Enceladus disagrees. He says that an era of
war has begun, tllat they must fight to regain their power, and that I3yperion who is
ykd undefeated is their hope. He represents those aristocrats of the ancien regime who
instigated the Revolutionary wars because they did not accept that monarchies were
obsolete. Clymene tells of her experience when she tried to make inusic to soothe her
grief at defeat, A new, unfamiliar, more beautifill music ovewowered her with grief
and joy. Through that "new blissful golden melody," she heard Apollo's l i m e being
called out (Hyperion 2.280). She cannot explain what this means. We are to assume
' that the hero of tlre new order is to be Apollo, Olyrnpiarl god of music, poetry and the
sun, and that knowledge will be inore complex in the new world. Clymene represents
intuitive, non-rational knowledge as well as the idea that a new era gives rise to new
art fonns. Her report is Kcats's clue to the reader that the poem must be judged on its
ow11 terms and not by the standard of older epics.

Epics have several simultaneous stories. So, while the Titans talk, Ilyperion is uneasy
I
in the heavens. At his disembodied father's suggestion, he visits the Titans and is
shocked by their despair.

* Book III: We are taken to the sacred island of Delos, the bid1 place and home of
Apollo and his twill sister, Artemis, Apollo has never been outside Delos and is
therefore ignorant, But he has an intuitive perception of what he does not know. He
knows that he is ignorant about natural laws and the suffering of the world and
questions Mnemosyne, mother of the muses and goddess of memory, about them.
Through mystic or intuitive communion with Apollo, Mne~nosynegives him
"lulowledge enorm~us,~' chiefly of others' sorrow, which makcs a god of him We
have seen that K.eats bel.ieved a great poem had to be based upon great knowledge
that would come from reading. Ry 1819, when he did ndt have the time to read
because of his rapidly developing consumption, he had begun to think of sorrow and
wisdom as sj~~onyinous. The ideal was to shoulder others' sorrow as Apollo does
(Muir).

As Apollo's ignorance dies and,greatknowledge is born within him, he goes through

a physical convulsion like labour pains. In fact, Keats uses the metaphor of birth
when he says that Apollo dies into life, deliberately linking wisdom and female
activity, Poetry works at many levels, i.e,, there can be several simultaneous
meanings indicated by details of the poem. ~hus',the recurring association of Apollo
with female deities and qualities is significant. He lives with his mother and sister
and then is made a god by another female deity. Among the many new, liberating
values of the period expressed by sowe of the Romantics is the importance they Save
to female deities and forces as the sources of wisdom. (But see the entry for Mrrrgarct
Hon~ansin the bibliography.)
Ronzuntic Poets Apollo's knowledge makes him superior to the Titans. They have questions but no
answers. They try out several possible explanations but do not have the certainty of
Apollo's knowledge. They lose their divinity because they are ignorant.

The poem breaks off in the middle of a sentence. We are not sure how Keats would
have continued the story. Whether it is complete at this point or not will be discussed
in 2.2.6.

34.2.2 Critical views on Hyperion

This section is in two parts. 1) An overview of critics' responses to Keats from his
time to the present. 2) Two usual ways of reading Hjperion

1) An over view of critical responses to Keats from his time to the present:
Nineteenth century views of Keats:
. a. The early nineteenth century:

In his owrntime, Keats was condemiled by conservative critics and admired by solve,
though not all, Radicals. Byron, for example, was savagely funny about his poetry but
later, possibly influenced by Shelley, became more sympathetic to him. Hjperion
was allnost universally admired in Radical sections. Shelley is said to have had a
copy of it in his pocket when he drowned, and even Byron thought it was a
magnificent fragment.

b. The mid-nineteenth century:

Keats remained among minor poets of the nineteenth century until about 1848 when
the influential middle-class intellectuals known as the Cambridge Apostles projected
him as a poet of c4sensuousness."Arthur Hallam was the first to use the word for
Keats in an admiring essay which, along with Monckton Milne's biography of Keats
did much to create a readership that Keats did not find in his own lifetime.

c. The end of the nineteenth century:

By this time, Keats was established as ,I poet who understood personal joys and
sorrows. Keats, who often wrote of his lilterest in contemporary affairs, would have
been surprised at this description of himself. But we must remember that the iniddli:
classes were playing down radicalism because stability was needed to continue the
remarkable economic prosperity their class was then enjoying,

Twentieth century views o f Keats:

a. Up to the 1940s and beyond:

T.S.Eliot7s and F.R.Leavis's disdain for the Romantics dominated criticism for
decades. Eliot, however, is often very perceptive about them while Leavis's student,
D.G.James, included a good analysis of the two Hjperions in his book, Uis Ron?antic
Comedy (1948).

In the 1940s, Keats became a favourite subject for the American New Critics who
tended to discuss' poetry without reference to the poct's life md times. They helped us
to appreciate Keats's craftsmanship and his aesthetics, i.e., his concern with poets and
poetry.

b. 1989 onrvards.

Aft'tcr the bicentenary of the French Revolution in 1989, there has been a lot
rethinking about the Romantic poets and what we mean by Roma~ticisn~
 I
I
Several articles published to coincide with Keats's bicentennial year, 1995-96, show Hyperion
the new trends in Keats criticism. Most critics have tried to restore Keats's poetry to a
material context. That is, they have used biographical, cultural and political material
to illuminate Keats's poems.

Particularly interesting are those who have analysed certain recurrent imagery in
Keats's poetry, such as gardens or flowers, or recurrent terms of abuse used for him,
such as "suburban." They have used contemporary literature and social hierarchies to
reveal that these images and terms are politically and socially biased, and that what
seem to be pretty and harmless images are often statements of rebellion. Keats's
readership has been analysed according to gender and it has been found that more
woinen read him than men. Was this Keats's intention? These and other questions
have been asked and answered with documentary evidence to prove the arguments.

I! 2) Two usual ways of reading Hyperion:

In spite of this apparent variety of readings, critics take two opposed stands on the
meaning of Hyperion. One view is that Hyperion is a political allegory. The second is
that the poem is about the nature and hnction of the poet, i.e., about aesthetics.

I I These have been discussed in 2.2.3' and 2.3.4 respectively.

I I 34.2.3 Hyperion as political allegory

An allegory is a story whose meaning is something different to what one reads. The
animal stories of the Panchtaniara, for instance, are allegories about human
behaviour. During times of political repression, writers often use allegory to evade
censorship. They may wish to criticise the government but cannot do so openly. They
might, therefore, write about Greek gods and goddesses as Keats did, but so
transparently that readers would know it was an account 'of contemporary politics.
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In the political reading of Hyperion, the Titans represent the ancien regime or the
politic.al system before the Revolution in France. They embody its notion of power
and its values.

Like a king of the ancien regime, Saturn has ruled alone When he is overthrown, he
sits apart from the other Titans. Unused to sharing, he stays apart even in defeat.
Keats wrote much against the danger of being separate from others. He thought of it
as lethal and wrote of "The deadly feel of solitude" (Endjmion 2.284). Apollo, by
contrast, wants the share the experience of others.

Saturn represents absolute, solitary power and is nothing without power. Once it is
taken away, he reacts with despair, unable to think or act. He has been so blinded by
power that he has not even suspected the possibility of revolt. Even Oceanus tells him
that he has been "blind from sheer supremacy" and therefore unable to learn that they
must submit to change (Hyperion 2.185). Naturally, then, he cannot understand why
he has been defeated nor what he should do next. He is sporadically full of boastful
words but has no ideas to offer at the Titans' conference. Ile cannot lead but has to be
led. Another deity suggests that he should join the other Titans and she has to lead the
i way.

Saturn's being led by a female deity symbolises the end of values that Else important
to the Titan's reign. Like the ancien regime, the Titan reign is patriarchal, It isthe
reign of older, nlale deities. Goddesses are relatively unimportant until Tl~eacomes to
Saturn. You will see how Enccladus encapsulates the patriarchalism of thc Titans.

Enceladus stands for war. The ~ a d i c aview

l of war was that kings indulged in it for
their own gain and did not care that ordinary people were destroyed by it. The post-
71
Romantic Pods Revolution world was to be without kings and therefore peaceful, sometlting like
Delos.

Enceladus also asserts the patriarchal values of the ancien regime. For him, the
opinion of a male, especially a senior male; is valuable, nothing else is. Clymene is
younger and a female which is why he contemptuously dismisses her views. In
contrast, Apollo gains wisdom from another female deity, Mnemosyne,

Hyperion is the decisive figure in this political allegory. Worried that he will suffer
the fate of the other Titans, he says

Saturn is fallen, am I too to fall?

Am I to leave this haven of my rest,
This cradle of my glory, this soft clime,
This calm luxuriance of blissfill light,
These crystalline pavilions, and pure fanes,
Of all my lucent empire? (Hyperion 1. 234-239)

Hyperion is motivated by self-interest. He is distant froin those who worship him and
he is not concerned about the grief of the other Titans. His solitariness is a lot like
Saturn's. He represents an aristocrat of the ancien regme surrour~dedby cornfort. He
wants to help Saturn regain his throne only because he can then conti~iueto be the
god of the sun and retain his luxury. In contrast, Apollo leaves his home to lean]
about the world's sorrows.

It is interesting to see how often Keats gives in~portanceto deities who are in some
way marginal to the mythology. For exainple, he celebrates Apollo as the god of
music, harmony, beauty, knowledge and everything he held dear. Apollo was deified
very late in Greek history, the earlier Olympian sun god being Phoebus. Clyn~eneis
only a nymph and nymphs came low in the hierarchy of immortals but she alone
among the Titans is open to the new world and its knowledge. These marginal figures
are the sources of knowledge and vision in Keats's poetry. Oceanus says something
like this to Saturn who claims that nothing in his existing sources of knowledge can
explain their condition:

But for this reason, that thou art the King,

And only blind from sheer supremacy,
One avenue was shaded from thine eyes
Through which I wandered to eternal truth.

Constructing knowledge from what had been the marginal groups in society was a
prominent part of Radical activity in the early nineteenth century, E.P.Thompson has I

an interesting acoount of this phenomenon (see bibliography. See also the entry for
Keach) .
Knowledge of the period will help you to work out' skveral other political parallels.

34.2.4 Hyperion as a poem about poets and poetry

In this section, we will interpret the three issues raised by Oceanus, Enceladus, and
Clymene, and Apollo's dying into life in the context of Keats's views on poetry. At
the time of writing his last poems, Keats had not settled the debate about poetry that
he had with himself, To h o w how his ideas cl~anged,if they changed at all, we need
to look at poems other than Hyperion. We will briefly discuss Hyperi~nin the coqtext
of Endymion and The Fall of Hyperion.
I

The Romantics, including Keats, were conscious that older forms of poetry had
become irrelevant. They thought deeply on what the subject, style, and social i
I

I
 finction of the poet should be and created a variety of new forms. Periods of radical Hyperion
change give rise to new art forms but experimental literature is not well received by
readers. Knowing this, the Romantics felt it necessary to educate readers on the how
to read their poetry.

Keats's explanations of lds poetry are to be found in his letters, mostly.

His statements about poetry rose out of two issues: 1) What should poetry be about?
2)Wiat kind of poetry would ensure his place among the "mighty dead?"

[i We have discussed the issues in relation to Hyperion.

1) Everything that is beautifillove, youth, seasonsdeteriorates wit11 time and

makes one very unhappy. Shot~ldpoetry be escapist and create unreal worlds where
nothing changes and is therefore always bea~~tiful?
Or should it be about "the
agonies, the strife 1 Of human hearts" ?

Keats felt he was too inexperienced to have answers. Yet by 18 19 lie sceins to have
settled the first issue by replacing "beauty" with "truth." Thc subject of poetry should
be truth, and if it was true, it was beautiful. The truth was that time causes changc and
often change creates sorrow but it 11ad to be accepted. This is what Oceanus says. It
seellls close to Keats's own view that "the agonies, the strife I Of l~urnanhearts" is
the truth a poet should write about,

From Enceladus' speech, we know that Titiu~sare not willing to accept change.
Enceladus wants to fight against it and restore the past as it was. Hyperion, too, wants
Saturn to regain his throne and thus return to the past. Since the Titans refuse to
accept change, they lose their divine power. By contrast, Apollo becomes a god
because he makes the sorrows of the world his own. The change'in him from
ignorance to knowledge is accompanied by pain. Unlike the Titims, he does not
shrink from change, knowledge, or pain,

Clemene reacts to the new music she hears with simultaneous pain ,and sorrow. It is
an uncomfortable experience. She wishes to sllut her ears to it, to run away froin it,
but she cannot. She is not like Enceladus and Hyperion who reject the new order as
unimportant. But she cannot be among the new gods becausc unlike Apollo, she does
' not understand that this is true knowledge.

A related issue here is of how one gains knowledge. Is it through reason and the
conscious mind? Or is it through the emotions and intuitioi~?Keats had not settled
this either, but we have seen that he preferred Wordsworth's understandine of the
human heart to Milton's reason. Both Clymene and Apollo have intuitive, emotional
experiences. We can assume, then, that Keats felt that emotions <andintuition wcre
more important ways of gaining knowledge than reason.

2) What kind of poetry would ensure posthumous famc for Keats?

The answer follows from the possibility that knowledge is personal, intuitive. and
emotional. If it is indeed personal, then a poet's dreams arc a valid subject for poetry.

But poems are written for readers. Would readers accept poetry that was about one
nian's dreams? Keats's experience was that they would not, Endymion, Kcats's Iong
poem about one man's dreams, was badly received. It was in his review of Endymion
that Lockhart had belittled Keats for being of the Cockney School of Poetry.
Lockhart's was only the most vicious review. Most reviewers had not liked the poem,

This brings us to the issue of fame. We know that Keats wanted to bc among the
"mighty dead."What sort of poetry would ensure this? Clearly not the luxuriant,
almost self-indulgent poetry of Endj~mion.Milton was among the "mighty dead," so
 Romantic Poets were the ancient Greeks. Why not write an epic about contemporary events as Miltoil
i did but in the "naked, Grecian" style? This is what Keats attempted in Hyperron and
he disapproved of the result. .

In The Fall ofHyperron, Keats seems a dfferent poet. The doubthl and uncertain
meaning of the first Hyperion is replaced with confidence about the subject and style
of poetry. We will isolate salient points about The Fall ofHyperion that have been
I further elaborated in 2.2.8.

i) First and most important, Keats is not worried about posth~lmousfame

because he cannot coiltrol readers' responses. This leaves him free to write
about what he believes in strongly regardless of fame.

ii) The subject is the personal dream of the poet.

iii) The poet intemalises "the agonies, the strife / Of human hearts." In this he is
like Apollo but because knowledge of sorrow comes to him before it comes
to Apollo, he is superior to the god who is only a creature of the poet's
imagination. The idea that human beings are superior to gods, if there are any
gods, is in keeping with the humanism and atheism of the time that Keats
shared with the Radicals and many of the other Romantics poets.

34.2.5 Uncertainties and "Negati~v

Capability"
The title of the poem is from the name of the fallen Titan god of the sun. not of the
new Olympian god, Apollo. Keats was inspired by Milton's Paradise Lost which also
begins with the loser of the war in heaven, Satan. Milton, however, is very clear that
Satan had sinned against God and was justly punished with defeat. Keats seeills less
sure about the wrongness of the Titans. His apparent uncertainty could be because
unlike in Paradise Lost, there is no "argument" to tell the reader what to think about
the poem.

There are many reasons why the Romantic writers left readers to fornl their own
opinions. Readers and writers no longer shared commoil values so writers could not
assert opinions and be certain that they would be understood. Then, writers were
genuinely uncertain about their evaluation of events, and their writing embodies this
uncertainty. Finally, reacting against the authoritarian style of the eighteenth century.
Romantic poets wrote as if they were sharing an experience or idea in such a way that
the reader could make up his own mind about the meaning of the poem.

The uncertainty was often only a pose because they provided plenty of clues on how
to read their work. Wordsworth's description of his own writing as a cathedral is a
usefil guideline. What he meant was that any one poem must be read along with
everything else the poet had written in prose and verse. This has become the usual
way of reading the Romantics. Hyperion, for example, gains in meaning wllen we
read it along with Keats's letter on "Negative Capability" (Gittings 43).

We have seen that Hyperion is like a selfish aristocrat of the ancien regime. Why
Keats did not draw him in strong outlines as a villain is explained by his ideal of
poetry which he called "Negative Capability" in a letter of 21, 27 December, 1 8 18:

, . .it struck me, what quality went'to form a Man of Achieveinent

especially in Literature & which Shakespeare posessed [sic] so
enormously-I mean Negative Capabiliv, that is when a man is
capable of being in uncertainties, Mysteries, doubts, without 'any
irritable reaching after fact & reason-
(Gittings 43)
Keats's ideal seems to have been a style of writing in which the writer does not bully Hyperinn
the reader towards his point of view. "We hate poetry that has a palpatlc design upon
us," he said. In his own best poetry, the reader is allowed to decide the meaning of
the poem for himself oilly after being gently pushed towards the right interpretation
by the poet. For example, Hyperion's concern for his comfort contrasts with Apollo's
concern for the sorrows of the world. Hyperion forfeits divinity, Apollo gains it. This
is how wc know that Apollo and not Hyperion is the hero of the poem.

34.2.6 Is Hyperion incomplete?

Some critics say that the fragment is a regular Romantic poetic form, therefore the
poem is complete. But Keats's contemporaries referred to it as a fragment, i.e., as
incomplete.

Critics have tried to explain why Keats did not finish it. Some say that Keats did not
continue the poem because the main difference between the Titans and Olympians is
established in two-and-a-half books and anything further would have been repetitious
(Muir). Another view is that the poem is about knowledge and tllat Keats was too
young and inexperienced to write any more about knowledge.

Keats himself said he did not finish it because he did not like its echoes of Milton. Hc
was also quite ill. He waited for the spring to improve his health when he wrote
several pocms. But he did not continue Hjperion. Yet he prepared it for publication.
using the second Hyperion to do so (see Muir). It was published in the volume Lnmin,
Isabella, The Eve of St.Agnes, and Other Poems, 1820.

Although we cannot be sure why Keats published Hyperion, it could have been
because of the twin pulls of writing sincerely and fame. Keats had said that though
Endymion was not a good poem, it was an accurate record of his development until
that time. Possibly he saw Hjperion as another accurate autobiographical record.
Secondly, Hyperion was complimented by the critics. Possibly Keats knew it would
bring him some fame even if he thought it a flawed poem.

34.2.7 The wference between the two Hyperions

Keats spoke of his two Hyperions as if they were one poem. He probably thought of
the sccond poem as a revised version of the first.

He had said that the first Hyperion would be in the "naked, Grecian manner," without
the digressions and luxuriant imagery of Endymion. Critics feel that he succeeded
well in this aim, He does not deviate from the story of the Titans and the rise of
Apollo, There is little of Endymion 's chief weakness, namely, the development of
images simply because he wants to develop them even if they add nothing to the
story. He is completely impersonal, as if he had mastered the technique of "Ncgativc
Capability." And yet he was dissatisfied with the poem and rewrote it as The Fall of'
qvperion. He retained the blank verse but divided it into cantos instead of books. The
second Hyperion has one complete canto and the small part of a second one. Thc
poem starts with an induction.

The chief difference between the two poems is that thc opening of The Fall of'
Hyperion is uncompromisingly personal. In the induction, Keats speaks for poets.
Though everyone has dreams, he says, the poet has the power of words by which he
can prevent his dreams from being lost. He asserts very strongly that i:poet's
materials are his personal dreams md knowledge. As for the problem of fame, he
says that fUture generations will settle the question. He seems to accept that he has no
control over whether he will be among the "mighty dead." Keats changed the
structure of the second Hyperion to accommodate the idea that the poet makes poetry
out of his own dreams. He recast that the narrative as a dream in which the poet is the
lllost important character, as he is of the entire poem.
I
Romantic Poets A new deity, Moneta, explains a vision to the poet. She values him because she says
he is one Eor whom the miseries of the world are misery. In other words, the ability to
shoulder the world's sorrow which was Apollo's alone in the first Hyperron is here
given first to the poet and then to Apollo.

The mythological story is delayed and sbown as a dream within a dream, making the
poet" story more immediate than the ancient Greek story.

In style, the difference is that Meats abandons the austere impersonality of Ifyyerion
and returns to the sensuous, intensely personal voice of his early poetry. The verse is
more rhythinic and focused. The two poems together are an accurate autobiography
than either by itself.

Some critics maintain that Keats's development into maturity was reflected in his
writing more impersonal, "objective" verse. A cornparisoil of the two Hyperions
shows that Keats had not yet settled whether personal poetry was necessarily inferior.

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34.3 EXERCISES

These exercises are to help you to see liow much you have learnt. Try to answer thein
in your own words then check them against the answers in 2.5.

Q. 1. Sum up Hyperion in about 150 words using your own language.

Q.2. The immortals

1. Who is the father ofthe Titans? What does he look like?

ii. Who are the Titan and Olympian gods of the sun, sea, and sky?
Hyperion

iii. Who is the unfallen Titan in the poem?

iv. Who is Hyperion's consort?

v. Which females does Apollo live with on Delos?

vi, Whom does Apollo gain knowledge from?

vii. Why is Apollo associated with a harp?

...- .- - -.--
,
,
Romantic Poets Q.3. The Titan conference
1. How many significant issues are raised and by whom?

ii. Which of these views represents the Enlightenment and why?

iii. Who supports the war? What does Keats feel about this?

iv. Sum up Clymene's experience.

v. What is Saturn's contribution to the discussion? What does it tell you

about him as a leader?

4.4. What makes Apollo divine?

Q.5. What is an allegory? Why do periods of social repression produce allegories?
Hyperion

4.6. What are the two chief ways of reading Hyperion?

4.7. Sum up Hvperion as a political allegory in about 75 words.

Rumuntic Pods Q .8. What were the two kinds of poetry that Keats considered writing? Which did
he seem t o prefer?

Q.9. What did Lockhart say about Keats in his review of Endymion?

Q.10. What is the similarity between the poet and Apollo in The Fall of Hyperion?

1 1 How did Keats describe the style of Hyperion?

Q. 12. What does Keats feel about posthumous fame in The Fall of Hyyerion?

Q .13. Compare the attitudes of Enceladus and Apollo towards female deities.
Q.14. What are the three ways of considering Hjyerion as a fragment?

Q.25. The Fall ofHyperion

1. Who is the protagonist of the second Hyperion?

ii. Who gives him knowledge?

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iii. What compliment does she pay him?

iv. How did Keats reanrange the material of the poem, or what is its
structure?

Q .16. What do you understand by 'Negative Capability?" Which of the two

Hyperions seems ta follow the ideal of 'Negative Capability?"
Romantic
34.4 LET'S SUM UP

Hyperion as a political allegory or as about aesthetics continue to be the two chief

ways of reading it. Newer criticism usually fits into these categories but the balance
seems to be shifting towards seeing Hypevion within its cultural context. Though we
have discussed political and aesthetic interpretations of Hyperion in separate sections,
it was because of social and political change that Keats, like his contemporaries,
rethought the nature of poetry and the social role of poets. In addition, his views were
influenced by personal circumstances such as poverty and illness.

In short, Hyperion was created out of Keats's life and times.

34.5 ANSWERS TO EXERCISES

Q.1. A summary should include the major events in the narrative. Some critical
comments are permitted. Check your summary against the pGem and the
synopsis in 2.2.1.

a. Calus is the father of Saturn and Hyperion and of most of

the major Titans.
b. We do not know what he looks like since he is only a voice,
ii. The Titan gods of the sun, sea, and sky are Hyperion, Oceanus, and
Saturn.
The Olympian gods of the sun, sea, and sky are Apollo, Poseidon,
and Jove.
iii. Hyperion is the unfallen Titan.
iv, Hyperion's consort is Thea.
v. Apollo lives with his mother, Leto, and twin sister, Artemis, on
Delos.
vi. He gains knowledge from Mnemosyne, goddess of memory and
mother of the muses.
vii. Because he is the god of poetry. Traditionally he is associated with
the lyre. Keats calls it a harp in this poem.

The Titan conference

i. Three significant issues are raised by Oceanus, Enceladus, and

Clymene respectively.
ii. Oceanus' view is closest to the Enlightenment view of progress. He
says that their downfill is natural because at their "heels a fresh
perfeetion treads," i.e., the world progresses naturally towards greater
perfection. Change is therefore always a change for the better. Since
the Olympians are more beautifbl than the Titans, they must
inevitably replace the Titans.
iii. Enceladus. Keats's view is not expressed in the poem but he had
Radical sympathies and Radicals were against war. He therefore
probably disliked Enceladus' support of war.
iv. clymene says that she wai trying to forget her grief by making music
when a new music overwhelmed her. It filled her with joy and
sorrow but was uncomfortable. It did not make her happy yet she
could not shut her ears to it. She also heard Apollo's name called out.
 What this means is probably the Titans cannot escape sorrow; that
Apollo is the deity of the future; that knowledge will be more Hyperion
complex after the fall of the Titans because it will embrace joy as
well sorrow.

v. Saturn initiates the discussion by asking the Titans why they are so
filled with despair and that there is nothing in all he knows to explain
their gloom. He has searched in stories of the past ("legends of the
first of days" Hyperion 2.132) for an explanation but found nothing.
He has not understood that since their fall has never occurred before,
past knowledge is not likely to help them. A new stage in history
demands fresh thinking which Satum cannot provide. He is therefore
not worthy of leading the Titans any more.

"Knowledge enormous" makes Apollo divine.

a. An allegory is a story whose real meaning is quite different from its

surface meaning.
b. Repression, especially political repression usually includes
censorship and harsh punishment for those who criticise the state. To
'
avoid such punishment, writers partially hide their criticism in
allegorical writing.

The two chief ways of reading Hyperion are

a. As a political allegory
b. As a poem about pocts and poetry, or aesthetics.

Check your surmklary against 2.2.3.If you use you own language, you will be
sure that you have understood the ideas.

The two kinds of poetry were

a. Escapist poetry in which time does not pass and everything is

permanentIy beautifid
b. Poetry about change and sorrow, about "the agonies, the strife I Of
human hearts." He seemed to prefer this kind of poetry.

Lockhart called Keats Leigh Hunt's "bantling" and said'that he belonged to

the "Cockney School of Poetry" as well as to the "Cockney School of
Politics."

Both participate in the world's sorrow. This is "knowledge enormous" from

which poetry is made and which makes Apollo a god.

He said it was in the 'baked, CSreoian manner."

Keats's view about posthumous fame is in the induction to The Fall of

Hyperion.He felt that it was beyond his control and that all that he could do
was to write sincerely.

Female deities as sources of knowledge are unimportant for Enceladus but

important for Apollo, Because of his attitude, Enceladus dismisses
Clymene's experience of the new world. Apollo, however, has dreamed of
Mnernosyne and when he meets her, he questions her and gains knowledge
from her that makes a god of him.

a. When Keats called it a fragment, he meant that it was an unfinished

poem. This is how most of his contemporaries saw it.
 b. Some twentieth century critics think that Keats could not have
written any more of the poem because the main conflict has been
stated and because he was too inexperienced to write any hrther 011 a
poem about knowledge. Kenneth Muir's essay has a good discussion
on this.
c. More recently, Marjorie Levinson has said that the fragment is a
regular poetic form in Romantic poetry. She argues that the
Romantics deliberately left their poems unfinished, and that these
fragmentary poems are actually complete.

Q.15. i. The poet.

11. Moneta
iii. That he is among those to whom the misery of the world is miserq.
i.e.,that he does not try and escape sorrow by transforming it into
something else.
iv. He structured it as a dream within a dream. The poet dreams that he
is near as altar in a forest when he meets Moneta. He then has
another dream while he is already dreaming, In this second dream, he
sees the Titans. Thus, he starts by telling us about himself and the11
includes the Hyperion's story. The effect is to emphasise that the
story is the poet's invention, i.e., entirely subjective.

Q.16. a. By 'Wegative Capability," Keats meant that a poet should negate his
personality and opinions, leaving the reader free to make up bis own
mind about the meaning of the poem. The writer should not force his
vies on the reader.
b: The first Hyperion.