| John Keats : This Living Hand |
| This living hand, now warm and capable Of earnest grasping, would, if it were cold And in the icy silence of the tomb, So haunt thy days and chill thy dreaming nights That thou wouldst wish thine own heart dry of blood So in my veins red life might stream again, And thou be conscience-calm'd—see here it is— I hold it towards you. |
| John Keats (1795-1821) 1819? |
In John Keats poem, “This Living Hand” there are three vivid images which are portrayed and help to convey the meaning behind this piece of literature. The living hand, tomb, and blood all work together to show the difficulty he is having finding/falling in love with another. The poem starts with the image of this living hand which seems to be outstretched for another which shows that he is yearning for love. Yet, this idea of being open to love changes when, in line 3, the image of the tomb arises creating the idea that he is trapped in this cold, icy place where love cannot reach him and he, similarly, cannot reach love. The tomb he is trapped in is not a wooden box so to say, but rather his own body, thus, portraying the idea that it is he who is restricting himself from finding love. Keats then goes on to describe the third image of blood in line 5. The first time blood appears in the poem, it is said to be in his dry heart; this dryness comes from being trapped in the tomb and hidden from love, and, although he tries to reach for it, it always seems to be just beyond what he can grasp. His heart is continually closed off from love, thus he has seemed to become frozen in the cold, icy tomb of his body. Yet, line 6 shows optimism as he has hope that one day this dry blood within his veins will be of “red life” again when he is finally able to reach out to the one he loves and feel the same love back. Thus, the poem ends with the image of the hand again, still outstretched for his love to hopefully grasp it back one day.
No comments:
Post a Comment