The word “Hellenism” is derived from the word ‘Hellene’ which means Greek. So, “Hellenism” means Greek temperature quality, culture, manner, Greek spirit and Greek idioms.
English literature sustained its greatest loss due to the premature death of John Keats. He was not only the last but also the most perfect of the Romantics. Keats among the Romantics was different in many ways, especially in mood, temperature, spirit and love of Greek art, culture and mythology.
Keats “Hellenism” on his love for Greek arts, sculpture and mythology has made him distinct in the gallery of Romantics. It was Shelley who first expressed his opinion that “Keats was a Greek”. Though, Keats was not an English man or not an English poet. His passion of Greek ideals and idols was very great which vividly expressed in his poems.
The Greek influence came to him through his reading of translation of Greek classics, Lempriere’s classical dictionary and through Greek sculpture.
One of his friends Lent him a copy of Champan’s translation of Hommer. He was fascinated by the new word of wonder and delight, which Hommer revealed to him. He felt as he had discovered a new planet
Then felt I like some watcher of the skies,
When a new plant swims into his ken.
Secondly, his study of Lemprier’s classical dictionary fully acquainted him with the Greek mythology, he loved every bit of it and freely used it in his poetry.
The third source is Greek sculpture. His sonnet, On Seeing the English Marbles indicates his emotion reaction to the sculptured “wonders” of ancient Greece.
But the most important factor in Keat’s Hellenism was his own Greek temper – the inborn temperamental Greekness of his mind.
The Greek were lovers of beauty, and so is Keats. To him, as to the Greeks, the expression of beauty is the aim of all art, and beauty for Keats and Greeks is not exclusively physical or spiritual but represents the fullest development of all that makes for human perfection. His passion for beauty finds a concrete expression in his ode to Psych :
Yes, I will be thy priest and build a fane
In some untrodden region of my mind,
Where branched thoughts, new grown with pleasant pain
Instead of pines shall murmur in the wind:
Thank you..:)
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