To My Brother George - John Keats - an introduction

If anyone knows me, they'll know that I love the poet Keats with a passion. He was an English poet who had an incredibly tragic life in the early 19th century. So what is 'To My Brother George' about? Keats had two brothers and one sister. Keats' brother Tom died at a very young age due to tuberculosis, and his other brother George emigrated to America. Whilst George did not die at a particularly young age, in those days it would have felt like a person who emigrated had in fact died because of the limited communication - it was likely you would never see the person again.

This poem is written in a Petrarchan Sonnet format, which means that each line has an iambic pentameter (10 syllable) pattern and the rhyme scheme goes ABBAABBA CDCDCD. The octet at the beginning usually portrays a problem and the sestet at the end usually resolves the problem. However this poem is slightly different. It follows a rhyme scheme of: ABBAABBA CDCDEE. Keats was a clever man; going outside of the normal Petrarchan rhyme scheme rules was deliberate. But we will come to the reason for that later.

The structure of the poem resembles the progression of a day. The morning is shown at the beginning through 'the sun' and 'kist away the tears/That fill'd the eyes of Morn'. This personification is very evocative and shows a parental relationship. This is shown through kissing away the tears. The sun is personified and shown to be a parental figure. Evening is shown through 'Cynthia is from her silken curtains peeping'. Cynthia is the Greek goddess of the moon, and this beautiful image portrays the moon peeping through the clouds. We can see this juxtaposition of the sun, as a paternal figure and the moon as a sensual, loving figure. Additionally, another juxtaposition is the notion that the sun represents a man whilst the moon represents a woman.

The poem is structured in a way which represents the different relationships within a person's life. Whilst the sun represents a parental relationship, the moon represents a sexual and sensual relationship. At the beginning of the sestet, on the ninth line, he addresses his brother directly which shows his relationship with his sibling.

In the second quatrain, Keats writes about "The ocean with its vastness, its blue green,/ Its ships, its rocks, its caves, its hopes, its fears.' This motif links to various other Keats poems and the ocean represents human life, and our need to think about what is beyond, and what we can discover next. The ocean is a metaphor for life. The ships, rocks and caves represents the challenges and our hopes and fears. It shows the power of the ocean to provoke restlessness.

The last couplet, 'But what, without the social thought of thee,/Would be the wonders of the sky and sea?' is perhaps the most interesting and beautiful aspect of the poem. Keeping in mind that George was moving to America, it is important to understand and appreciate that George and John shared their love of nature and observation. Without George by John's side, John is not able to effectively describe or write about nature. George represents a fraternity; a brotherhood. Without him there, John is saying that he finds it difficult to be as vivid with his writing and appreciate nature as much. We can see this through the interruption in the normal Petrarchan rhyme scheme and the words 'sky' and 'sea'. These two words are particularly 'un-Keatsian' and are very blunt and literal. Keats usually uses much more vibrant and vivid ways to describe nature. By using these plain words, Keats is making the point that he cannot write effectively without George with him.

Overall, this poem covers all aspects of relationships in life and John's brother, George represents familial love, which is unconditional and unwavering. Without this love and support, these experiences of nature and writing are inaccessible as is his ability to bring it to life through poetry - they are reduced to the simple, literal, lifeless and unsatisfying diction of 'sky' and 'sea'.