Summary of poem "written in the field" by johwrite the poem
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In the poem the writer explains the pain of not being in nature like he used to
The vision he sees while gazing at the wide blue sky reminds the writer of the pain he is in in the city in the busy life and he wants to be
he poem is a sonnet where the narrator, here Keats himself, glories nature and the open landscape. City life is claustrophobic with its filth and gloom. In contrast the poet finds the country-side a breath of fresh air, an escape from the suffocating and cheerless atmosphere of industrial London.
He extols the pleasure of looking up into the sky after being pent up in the city for so long. It is a celebration of natural existence, a solemn rite almost, to look into the open face of “Heaven” and “breathe a prayer”;
“Full in the smile of the blue firmament.”
The poet makes sacrosanct, the act of looking up at the vast, expanse of the blue sky which is like Heaven. Out of the stifling confines of his home, the poet’s breath becomes a prayer offered up to the entire blue smiling “firmament”.
The word “firmament” elevates the line and transforms the beautiful outdoors into a place of consecrated worship. We the audience, feel with the poet, the rejuvenating power of nature and her inherent divinity. The contrast between the confines of the city and the life-affirming quality of nature is vividly and strategically done. The secular tone gives way to a reverent one as the poet escapes into nature’s lovely openness.
In the next lines, the poet amplifies the redemptive virtues of nature and affirms positively, “who is more happy?” than he himself with heart’s content, when weary and tired, he drops down onto the wavy grass (a pleasant lair), with a book that tells of “love and languishment”.
The lines speak of the freeing power, the natural surroundings have on the poet, leading to a progression of happy contentment; a cosy grassy place to lie down in under a blue sky, and enjoy a sophisticated book of love and longing.