Keats as an Escapist

KEATS AS AN ESCAPIST   John Keats was an ardent lover of beauty. He had an extra-ordinary visionary sensibility for beautiful objects of nature. Therefore, he cried;   “A thing of beauty is a joy forever.”   This was the life long creed of Keats. But, did his love and pursuit of beauty make him ignore the actualities of life? let’s evaluate his poetry to decide whether he was an escapist or not. In one of his early poems, ‘Sleep and Poetry’, he says that he will plunge into the realm of Flora and Pan. It was the world of beauty free from pain and ugliness. Then Keats himself puts the question in the next lines;   “Can I ever bid these joys farewell?”   Then comes the answer in the proceeding lines;   “Yes! I must bid these joys farewell, Yes! I must pass them for a nobler life, Where I must find the agonies, the strife of human hearts.”   These are not the words of an escapist. Now, another question haunts our mind i.e., did Keats follow this ideal of li