The Romantic1 poet John Keats (1795-1821) coined the phrase 'Negative Capability' in a letter written to his brothers George and Thomas on the 21 December, 1817. In this letter he defined his new concept of writing:
I mean Negative Capability, that is when man is capable of being in uncertainties, Mysteries, doubts, without any irritable reaching after fact and reason.
What Keats is advocating is a removal of the intellectual self while writing (or reading) poetry – after all:
Beauty is truth, truth beauty – that is all
Ye know on earth and all ye need know
- Ode on a Grecian Urn, lines 49-50
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What Keats is advocating is a removal of the intellectual self while writing (or reading) poetry – after all:
- bill 3-10-2005 10:32 pm