17 pages • 34 minutes read
John KeatsOn Seeing the Elgin Marbles
Fiction | Poem | Adult | Published in 1817A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Further Reading & Resources
Related Poems
“Ozymandias” by Percy Bysshe Shelley (1818)
Shelley was a Romantic poet and contemporary of John Keats. His “Ozymandias,” like Keats’s “On Seeing the Elgin Marbles,” is a kind of ekphrasis inspired by antiquity that focuses on the speaker’s emotional response to a work of visual art. In a similar vein to Keats’s poem, “Ozymandias” explores themes such as mortality and the ravages of time.
“Ode on a Grecian Urn” by John Keats (1819)
One of Keats’s most famous poems, “Ode on a Grecian Urn” is a mature example of Keats’s innovations with the ode form. Like “On Seeing the Elgin Marbles,” this is an ekphrastic poem that describes a work of visual art from classical antiquity (in this case, the subject is the Sosibios Vase).
“Landscape with the Fall of Icarus” by William Carlos Williams (1963)
An ekphrastic poem by the American Imagist poet William Carlos Williams, this work also turns to classical antiquity, though Williams’s approach to ekphrasis, the past, and even the nature of verse is very different from the Romantic ideal represented by Keats and his contemporaries.
Further Literary Resources
“John Keats (1795-1821)” by Poetry Foundation (2023)
A comprehensive article on John Keats’s short life and contributions to Romantic poetry, this article provides a readable introduction to the style, themes, and artistic influences that shaped Keats’s poetry.
“The Parthenon Sculptures” by The British Museum (2023)
This overview of the history of the Elgin Marbles offered on the British Museum’s website discusses the controversies surrounding the sculptures and outlines the museum’s position on the issue.
“The Parthenon Marbles Had a Time and a Rightful Place for Keats” by George Vardas (2019)
In this letter to the editor of The Guardian positing that the British Museum should restore the Elgin Marbles to Greece, the author discusses his own interpretation of Keats’s poem and the stance it takes on the status of the sculptures.
Listen to Poem
Voice actor and sound engineer G. M. Danielson reads “On Seeing the Elgin Marbles” (2019).
Related Titles
By John Keats
