The feud 'twixt nothing and creation: Eschatological politics in John Keats' early verse

This dissertation addresses the place of politics in Keats' early verse through the first Hyperion fragment. I situate my reading of the poetry and letters within the context of Keats' historical/cultural milieu and the criticism of the past generation dealing with the issue of Keats and politics. My approach differs from that of other historicist/political approaches to Keats in that I move beyond an examination of the contemporary social and ideological connotations of Keats' prosody and imagery to look at a more direct political vision offered in his writings. The dissertation focuses on Keats' embrace and then turn from the apocalyptic longing felt by many of the leading artist of the day. I read Keats' poetry in light of the strong revival of various---often secularized---forms of millennialism which occurred in the wake of the French Revolution. I begin with the vision of a golden age presented in Keats' first two published volumes, Poems 1817 and Endymion, and on the means by which this poetry suggests such a vision is realizable. I also trace a development in the young poet's thinking on these matters from his first attempts at verse through his flirtation with progressivism in the first Hyperion. I conclude that Keats was more explicitly aware of and engaged with millennial impulses of his day than is normally realized. But I further argue that Keats gradually moved away from what he came to consider the unrealistic aspirations of apocalyptic movements until finally abandoning altogether schemes for radically altering society.