The Student Room Group

Keats help please

Just flicking through some past questions and came upon this stinker:

Keats believed that “Poetry should surprise by a fine excess”.
What evidence have you found in this selection of ‘surprise’ and ‘fine excess’? In your answer, either analyse in detail one of his poems or a substantial extract from one of his longer poems or range across a number of poems in Selected Poems.


I understand "suprise" in the poems but don't understand what they mean about "fine excess". Can it be linked to Keats use of excessive detail and imagery within the poems?
Reply 1
Yes, I do think it can be linked to his excessive use of imagery and detail within the poem. However, I don't think this example alone will be sufficient enough to support an overall argument. (Sorry if you realise this already and intend to use more examples, but I’ll offer you another example anyway. :smile:)

Another example that springs into my mind is shown in the way he squeezes an extra syllable into the last line of each stanza, in his poem To Autumn. In doing so, Keats’ personifies the 'fullness' of the month autumn through an excess of syllables in a single line of poetry. There are various other examples of fine excess too and you just need to focus on more than one for a coherent argument. Nevertheless, your initial idea is fine. :smile:
Reply 2
No point starting a new thread seeing as its all Keats related. How many quotes are you learning for the LTA 4 exam, and how are you learning them I know like 4 and im stuck big time.
Reply 3
Please help
Endymion
Keats’ personifies the 'fullness' of the month autumn through an excess of syllables in a single line of poetry.


That isn't 'personification'. I think that, both in and out of an exam, you should be careful when using technical vocabulary metaphorically.

Quotations:

If I wanted to learn short quotations, I would copy them onto a sheet of paper then read it a few times.

For Keats, however, I took a different approach. I memorised the Odes by reading them several times, and then making an effort to commit each stanza to memory, repeating it in my head. Finally I just wrote them all out without the text. This sounds like an awful lot, but learning six medium-length poems isn't really a mammoth task. I spent a couple of days on it, but I think it was the best possible preparation: the Odes are rich enough to provide sufficient material for any question the board might set, and by learning complete poems you will also be able to talk about argument and structure.

Besides this I memorised a few important phrases from letters (Negative Capability, etc.) and a some lines here and there from 'Fancy', 'Hyperion' and 'Endymion' (this last proved useful for discussing the earlier Keats). For these I just emplyed the 'write it out and read it through' technique. I also read a few critical essays, but didn't learn quotations - I just remembered the arguments.

If you want to be absolutely sure that you'll have something to talk about, just learn the Odes! (However, I think the rubric insists on including letters / "context" of some kind... spurious)
Reply 5
Da Bachtopus
That isn't 'personification'. I think that, both in and out of an exam, you should be careful when using technical vocabulary metaphorically.

Quotations:

If I wanted to learn short quotations, I would copy them onto a sheet of paper then read it a few times.

For Keats, however, I took a different approach. I memorised the Odes by reading them several times, and then making an effort to commit each stanza to memory, repeating it in my head. Finally I just wrote them all out without the text. This sounds like an awful lot, but learning six medium-length poems isn't really a mammoth task. I spent a couple of days on it, but I think it was the best possible preparation: the Odes are rich enough to provide sufficient material for any question the board might set, and by learning complete poems you will also be able to talk about argument and structure.

Besides this I memorised a few important phrases from letters (Negative Capability, etc.) and a some lines here and there from 'Fancy', 'Hyperion' and 'Endymion' (this last proved useful for discussing the earlier Keats). For these I just emplyed the 'write it out and read it through' technique. I also read a few critical essays, but didn't learn quotations - I just remembered the arguments.

If you want to be absolutely sure that you'll have something to talk about, just learn the Odes! (However, I think the rubric insists on including letters / "context" of some kind... spurious)


:eek: Learning all the Odes OMG, No way would I be able to do that and really dont have the time with revision for my other exams. You must have a great memory.
Whislt I do think I have a good memory, I think you're understimating yourself. They're not really that long: I just learned them as I'd learn lines for a play. How long do you plan to spend revising for this paper (both Keats + Othello)? If you've two days on each topic that's plenty of time to learn many 'select' quotations; however, I do suggest you take several from the Odes.
Reply 7
Im doing Keats and Duchess of Malfi, I do a bit on each subject everyday, but at the mo im learning a quote from each major poem so that is 18 quotes. I created a flashcard game at http://www.quia.com/jg/669457.html. The flashcards have been proving useful.

I have 3 exams before that so not really that much time to learn the Ods off by heart and I was never into drama so have never really had to learn lines for a play.
Reply 8
Da Bachtopus
That isn't 'personification'. I think that, both in and out of an exam, you should be careful when using technical vocabulary metaphorically.

Quotations:

If I wanted to learn short quotations, I would copy them onto a sheet of paper then read it a few times.

For Keats, however, I took a different approach. I memorised the Odes by reading them several times, and then making an effort to commit each stanza to memory, repeating it in my head. Finally I just wrote them all out without the text. This sounds like an awful lot, but learning six medium-length poems isn't really a mammoth task. I spent a couple of days on it, but I think it was the best possible preparation: the Odes are rich enough to provide sufficient material for any question the board might set, and by learning complete poems you will also be able to talk about argument and structure.

Besides this I memorised a few important phrases from letters (Negative Capability, etc.) and a some lines here and there from 'Fancy', 'Hyperion' and 'Endymion' (this last proved useful for discussing the earlier Keats). For these I just emplyed the 'write it out and read it through' technique. I also read a few critical essays, but didn't learn quotations - I just remembered the arguments.

If you want to be absolutely sure that you'll have something to talk about, just learn the Odes! (However, I think the rubric insists on including letters / "context" of some kind... spurious)


Exactly what I'm doing. The Odes are certainly the 'standard' required for this exam and I don't think you should avoid them! Learning them off is actually quite easy. Reading them is not enough though. For them stick in your mind, I suggest rewriting the Odes a few times until you memorise them. Take one Ode per day and you should be fine! As you may bulls*hit like I will, learn off a few sonnet quotes just to fill the parenthesis i.e. 'On the Sea' which has some nice language.

I did your question as a mock and it was quite ok. I thought the epic style poems were better such as Lamia especially her dense description.
Reply 9
In the exam can they specify the question towards a certain poem or poems?
what board are you on?
sorry if you've said it earlier!
I think I'm on a different board (edexcel english lit.) but generally if the exam is unseen they don't specify. This is true of drama and prose exams but I've never come across unseen poetry!

Good luck
Reply 12
AQA
sorry - I've no idea then