"On Sitting Down to Read King Lear Once Again" is a poem about Keats' connection with the drama that motivated him to become a poet. In lines 1-4 of the poem, Keats reflects on his work 'Golden-tongued Romance with serene lute!' The mentioned "romance" is an allusion to the middle ages part of literature, which idealizes the tales of magic, knights, and damsels.
Section two of the poem discusses what Keats must do to succeed in poetry. For instance, Keats plans to re-read the play The bitter-sweet of This Shakespearean fruit. The "Bitter-sweet" in the play alludes to King Lear's disaster when his daughter died shortly after reuniting with her. The following section of the poem reveals the harsh reality of life. For instance, King Lear loses his power and discovers he is powerless and mortal, like any ordinary citizen.
In the third and last section (lines 9-14), Keats acknowledges Shakespeare as the chief poet he greatly admires. Keats wants to write his future poems like those of Shakespeare. Shakespeare mastered the art of tragedy and beauty during the Romantic era. Keats concludes the poem "On Sitting Down to Read King Lear Once Again" by showing his appreciation for Shakespeare, who inspires him. In the last line, Keats says, "Give me new phoenix wings to fly at my desire," implying that Keats would like to learn new writing styles.
Thematically, the poem explores romance and artistic inspiration. In the first three lines, the speaker tells readers they should not struggle reading "On Sitting Down to Read King Lear Once Again" because it is not a romantic poem, unlike Shakespearean's King Lear tragedy, which is complex. The speaker goes ahead to explain his romantic feelings for Adieu, a personified character in one of the medieval fairytales of magic. The other important theme in the novel is artistic inspiration. The speaker expresses his gratitude throughout the poem to the Shakespearean King Lear play. The speaker says he reads the Shakespearean play severally to get artistic inspiration because he wants to become a renowned writer. However, the speaker intends to refrain from replicating Shakespeare's writing style but gain inspiration to improve his writing.
