The question below refers to the selections “Ode to a Grecian Urn.”and “When I Have Fears” by John Keats. The speaker of "When I Have Fears" sometimes feels that love and fame are "nothingness." Based on both sonnets, what values do you think Keats holds to be the highest in life? In a short paragraph, support your claim with evidence from the poems' contents, tone, and style. Include imagery and figures of speech.

Answer:

Based on both poems, Keats seems to value beauty, art, and meaningful human experience above fame or worldly success. In “When I Have Fears,” the speaker worries about dying before he can write all that his imagination contains, showing how deeply he values artistic creation. Yet in the final lines, love and fame seem to fade into “nothingness,” suggesting that external success is not ultimately the highest good. In “Ode on a Grecian Urn,” Keats celebrates beauty preserved in art through vivid imagery of lovers, music, and eternal spring. The tone is meditative and reverent, and the poem’s famous idea that beauty and truth are linked suggests that Keats sees lasting beauty in art as one of life’s highest values. His imagery of ripened grain, starred faces, and frozen youthful figures shows that he treasures imagination, beauty, and truth more than fame.