Difference between John Keats and Percy Bysshe Shelley

Both John Keats and Percy Bysshe Shelley are second-generation poets of the Romantic age of English literature. After Samuel Taylor Coleridge and William Wordsworth, both Keats and Shelly had a great contribution to English literature. They were influenced by different ideals and had similarities and differences in their ideologies. Keats’ works mainly focused on individualism and beauty while Shelley focused on society and revolution. Yet, both of them are highly talented poets and are major figures in English literature. 

Keats believed that poetry should present beauty and truth to the readers. Poetry should not act as a philosopher and teach people.  In fact, Keats did not see much difference between truth and beauty. “Beauty is truth and truth is beauty.” This was his motto. He was not interested to teach people through his poems. Here lies the difference between Keats and Wordsworth. Wordsworth strongly believed that the sole purpose of a poet is to guide people.

Shelley’s thoughts were different because he was an atheist. His poetic works centered on liberalism and freedom. At that time, people of European society did not have much freedom. A revolution was necessary to achieve that freedom. Shelley wanted to bring that freedom. His “Ode to the West Wind” reveals this ideology of freedom. Shelley believed that poetry is an instrument to convey a revolutionary message. In this regard, Shelley’s ideals were close to that of Wordsworth.

Nature also played a big role among Romantic poets. To Keats, nature was the symbol of truth and beauty. In his “Ode to Autumn,” the poet showed beauty and truth together. The poem describes the beauty of nature during the Autumn season and says that Autumn has its own song which can be found in the hum of the “small gnats” among the "the river sallows," the bleat of the “full-grown lambs,” song of the crickets, and whistle of robin and swallows from the garden.

Shelley presented nature in his works in a different manner. He saw the strength and forces of nature and considered nature as a major means to cause revolution and source of inspiration. He wanted human beings to be influenced by nature and cause a revolution to bring change in society.

Both Keats and Shelley had been highly influenced by the classical literature of Greece and Rome. Hence, we see classical elements in Keats’ poetry. His “Ode on a Grecian Urn” is a good example of this. Here he raised the issue of perfection again and again. However, his works did not focus much on Roman and Greek philosophy and social systems.

Another major feature of Keats’ work is that his poems are very sensual. While describing nature, he used five senses. Very few poets in English literature could represent nature in such a beautiful manner.

On the other hand, Shelley mainly focused on comparison and allusion of classical literature. Shelley was also not very interested in the ideology of Roman and Greek civilization and philosophy of the classical literature. He was also not interested in the underlying message of classical literature. He only took those elements that would help him to convey his message of revolution. 

The use of classical elements, by Keats and Shelley, in their works, was very much different than those of Wordsworth and Coleridge, the pioneers of the Romantic age. Both Wordsworth and Coleridge wanted to create a new kind of poem. They wanted to break the convention and introduce something new.

On the contrary, Shelley and Keats did not want to throw away everything. Both Keats and Shelley are great poets of English literature. Still today, their poem is read by many people all over the world.