To Solitude
To Solitude - form Summary
A Rural Sonnet's Turn
Keats writes a 14-line sonnet that frames solitude through a rural scene, asking to be removed from urban clutter and led to Nature’s "observatory." The poem’s structure creates a clear turn: the octave paints sensory landscape and vigil, while the sestet shifts to inward value, asserting that the sweetest pleasure is the "sweet converse" of a kindred mind. The sonnet form concentrates image and argument into a compact emotional logic.
Read Complete AnalysesO Solitude! if I must with thee dwell, Let it not be among the jumbled heap Of murky buildings; climb with me the steep, -- Nature's observatory -- whence the dell, Its flowery slopes, its river's crystal swell, May seem a span; let me thy vigils keep 'Mongst boughs pavilion'd, where the deer's swift leap Startles the wild bee from the foxglove bell. But though I'll gladly trace these scenes with thee, Yet the sweet converse of an innocent mind, Whose words are images of thoughts refin'd, Is my soul's pleasure; and it sure must be Almost the highest bliss of human-kind, When to thy haunts two kindred spirits flee.
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