John Keats and Percy Bysshe Shelley were two prominent English poets from the Romantic period. While both lived short lives and were contemporaries of one another, they differed in their views of poetry and themes. Keats focused on beauty and describing nature for its own sake, without hidden meanings. Shelley saw nature as a living being and explored themes of ideal love and rebellion against authority. Both poets emphasized the power of imagination, though Shelley viewed it as revolutionary while Keats found imagery in his own experiences.

1. COMPARISON BETWEEN KEATS AND
SHELLEY
Presented by Khushbu Makwana
Smt.S.B Gardi Department of English MKBU
presentation topic –Comparison between
Shelley and Keats
paper no-3 Literature of the Romantics
M.A Sem-1
Roll no-21
Enrolment no- 4069206420210019
Batch -2021-23

2. John Keats
• John Keats was one of the finest English poets
of the Romantic school of writing.
• Keats was born in London (October 31, 1795),
the eldest of five children. His father was a
livery stable keeper, but died when Keats was
only 8 years old.
• He grew up in his grandmother’s home at
Edmonton, near London.
• He was famous for the “Ode to a Nightingale,”
“Ode to a Nightingale,” and “Ode to Autumn”.

3. Percy Bysshe Shelley(P.B. Shelley)
• He was born in 4 August 1792 and died in 8
July 1822.
• He was from a wealthy and conservative
family. His father was a member of
parliament.
• He was famous for his association with
contemporaries John Keats and Lord Byron.
• He was married to the famous novelist Mary
Shelley, author of Frankenstein.

4. Perception on poetry
John Keats
• No formal theory of
poetry
• His Poetics were
expressed in letters to
family friends and fanny
Brawne.
• Explained poetry in two
points
- Romantics
- Negative Capability
P.B. Shelley
• He defined poetry in his
work ‘ A Defense of
Poetry’ as ‘ an
expression of the
imagination’ and poetry
is connate with the
origin of man.
• Claim that “ Poets are
the unacknowledged
legislators of the world”

5. Attitude towards the Nature
John Keats
• Keats described nature in
two ways
- He tells us about the
beauty of nature
- He tells us about the joy
and relief nature can bring
• His love for nature is purely
sensuous and he loves the
beautiful sight and scenes of
nature for their own sake
• He doesn’t try to find any
Hidden meanings in the
nature and describes it as he
sees it
P.B. Shelley
• He believed that nature was
a living being as a man and
that is endowed with soul.
• Pantheism vision
• Articulate an aesthetic
philosophy through
metaphors of nature.
• Most characteristic images
are of sky and weather of
lights and fires.

6. The Role of Imagination
John Keats
• Believes in supreme value of
Imagination
• The Imagination of Keats is
the fruit of two main form
1. The world of his poetry is
predominantly artificial
2. Keats’s poetry stems from
imagination in the scene that
a great deal of his wok is a
vision of what he would like
human life to be like
stimulated by his own
experience of pain and
misery
P.B. Shelley
• Defended poetry as the
expression of Imagination
and understood as
revolutionary creativity
• Shelley’s reality shows itself
to be strongest than the
ideal and desire and his
world refuses to change

7. Central theme
John Keats
• Also known as ‘ A lover of
beauty’
• Contemplation of beauty is
the central theme of Keats’s
poetry.
For instance :
• “ Beauty is truth, truth
beauty- that is all” (Ode on
a Grecian urn)
• “A things of beauty is a joy
fore ever”(Endymion)
P.B. Shelley
• Victorian called Shelley as
poet of ideal love
• The Pursuit of ideal love.
• The rebellion against
authority
For instance :
• “That Beauty in which all
things work and
move”(Adonais)
• Poets’ food is love and
fame(An Exhortation)

8. Conclusion
“We’re all the same, yet we’re all very
different”
Keats and Shelley both famous poets from the
late Romantic period both lived short lives,
dying Young Shelley at age 29 from a boating
accident and Keats at 25 from the horrible
Illness described as consumption. The two
poets shared a passion for life. Keats for
enjoying and celebrating it, and Shelley seeking
to perfect the human condition.

9. Reference :
https://www.newworldencyclopedia.org/entry/P
ercy_Bysshe_Shelley
https://englishhistory.net/keats/

10. Thank you