Heaven, Beyoncé
An ESSAY
PT. I: The Power of Keats
In 1818, British Romantic poet John Keats penned a letter to his friend, John Hamilton Reynolds. At this point in his life, Keats was certain that since he had been exposed to tuberculosis while caring for his brother, he would die soon enough. Enclosed in the letter was a sonnet that contemplated his death and the importance of achieving love, success and fame upon the realization of his illness. The speaker spends most of the poem describing the instances that he spends dreading his own death. He is afraid that he will die before he can fill books with words the way that garners are filled with grain. When looking at the night sky, he penultimately fears he will not live to trace their shadows, or capture their beauty in writing. The third description of his unrealistic yearnings involves the magic of an impulsive love with a beautiful creature. His solution for all of these doubtful desires? He stands on the shore of the vast world and thinks about the importance of love and fame until his worries seem incredibly small in comparison. Like all Shakespearean sonnets, the poem is composed of 14 lines, with every other line rhyming, and concludes with a rhyming couplet. In the first line, which unintentionally became the title, Keats establishes his greatest terror: impending death and the effect that an early demise will have on his legacy as a poet. His poetic philosophy is called “Negative Capability.” As a poet during the Romantic era, Keats identifies with and loves to describe human emotions such as fear. He believed that the greatest fears, even his extreme ones, could be faced and hopefully resolved through the intense thinking that goes along with writing a poem. In the first quatrain, he uses a simile to compare the countless books he aspires to write with “rich garners” that hold the “full ripen’d grain” (Keats 4). The meaning here is that he wishes to fill volumes and volumes of books with his poetry, but he is afraid that he will not have enough time in his life for his pen to pick his “teeming brain” (Keats 2), or extract all of his thoughts. He dreams of success. I share his ambition of writing everything I want to see change in the world. The only thing stopping me is myself, which I think Keats would relate to, although he does have a better excuse for being discouraged. Keats’ reverence for the natural world becomes clear when he describes the “huge cloudy symbols of a high romance” (Keats 6) that exist “upon the night’s starr’d face” (Keats 5). He worries that he will never live to write a long metrical romance inspired by the beauty of his surroundings. His philosophical ideas indicate that by wanting to “trace / Their shadows” (Keats 7-8), Keats may mean that he wants to spend time uncovering the meaning of the world and his existence in it. Whether he will ever be able to depends on “the magic hand of chance” (Keats 8), or fate. The third quatrain describes his desire for an impulsive, passionate love that time will not allot for. The “fair creature of an hour” (Keats 9) that the speaker is talking to could be a woman that he has met or observed briefly, or the poet could just be commenting on everyone’s limited time here on Earth. When it comes to love, maybe however long we have is never enough. I have never been in love, but I am inclined to agree with him based on my vast experience with listening to Taylor Swift. Keats describes his desire to be relishing in “the faery power / Of unreflecting love” (Keats 11-12), which creates a connotation of love being magical and mystifying. With these lines, he admits he is inexperienced in crazy, stupid love. Is the thrill and excitement of it all really worth it? He does not have the chance to find out. Like the Romantic that he is, Keats spends time in nature to sort out these doubts, and throws himself at the mercy of intense emotion in the process. Since he has chosen the form of a sonnet, I was not surprised when Keats’ train of thought makes a complete one-eighty during the concluding couplet. What I do find interesting, however, is that Keats includes part of the line preceding the couplet in order to effectively create his final thought. To further emphasize that he does not have enough time, the speaker does not even fully complete the third quatrain before describing his last actions. He states, “-then on the shore / Of the wide world I stand alone, and think / Till Love and Fame to nothingness do sink” (Keats 12-14). Keats has spent a good deal of time thinking about making a name for himself, his writing, and the possibilities of love. Now, he takes a step back and considers the whole world. Basically, he has been talking about his fear of death and his quest to create meaning in his existence. Given the knowledge of death, he concludes that these ideas of love and fame are really insignificant in comparison to all of the beauty that our world has. He finds peace in accepting what he cannot change or calculate. It is ironic that he has to become ill to realize that he cannot spend his precious time on Earth worrying about death or becoming famous. In reading this poem, I was reminded of a truth from Bryce Courtenay’s gripping work of fiction, The Power of One. The protagonist Peekay, in response to being persecuted by his childhood peers, adopts the theory that “mediocrity is the best camouflage known to man” (Courtenay 30). The young boy originally hides what makes him special in order to appease the masses and stay safe. If you really want to make an impact and be remembered, though, you have to wholeheartedly do what you love and hope to resonate with others through your art. If nobody appreciates you, so be it. Do not try to immortalize yourself, because that defeats the purpose and you will not be remembered fondly. I mean, at the end of the day, it is the sneaky, subtle shapers who have the real power. Funnily enough, the poet did not need to worry about his having an impact after all. In fact, my respect for the well-known Romantic, John Keats, shot through the roof when I learned what his tombstone reads. Not his identity, exactly, but a reminder: "HERE LIES ONE WHOSE NAME / WAS WRIT IN WATER.”
PT. II: ‘XO’ Never Said So Much
XO, Beyoncé
On December 30, 2013, Beyoncé secretly dropped a brand-new, self-titled album on iTunes, and I stood back as the world slowly shifted into chaos. No warning. No promotion. No album cover. Just a “Surprise! Here’s my new album with 14 songs and 17 music videos to accompany each song. Enjoy. Love, Your New God.” Well, I’m paraphrasing, but that’s pretty much how it went. Given that the price for her work of art was $15.99, I held off on purchasing Beyoncé’s visual album until a couple months later. In retrospect, I am ashamed for even the slightest bit of hesitation on my part. However, one of the songs in particular caused a bit of controversy. Beyoncé has been criticized for the single XO because it includes a sample of the NASA commentary of the Space Shuttle Challenger explosion. NASA responded by stating that the choice to include the audio was trivializing the accident that killed seven astronauts rather than honoring their legacy. Beyoncé then stated that the song “was recorded with the sincerest intention to help heal those who have lost loved ones and to remind us that unexpected things happen” (Sneed). She says that it was a supposed to pay tribute to those that died so that they would not be forgotten. While this allusion may have been in bad taste, it undoubtedly added another layer to the song’s meaning. In the beginning of the song, she immediately establishes that she is in love with someone, who we can presume is Jay-Z. She compares her love to a light by stating “Your love is bright as ever / Even in the shadows.” Their love is powerful enough to shine through darkness. Darkness usually represents the unknown, whereas light represents knowledge. Thus, Beyoncé’s love is strong enough that it eradicates all doubt about her wanting to spend time with him while she still has him. Likewise, Beyoncé describes that her feelings are powerful enough to sustain her during the dark times. In the hook, she says “In the darkest night hour / I search through the crowd / Your face is all that I see / I’ll give you everything.” Even when things seem uncertain or there is trouble in paradise, she’ll always love him. Giving up is not an option at this point. Further in the song, Beyoncé urges her man to kiss her “before they turn the lights out” and “before time has run out.” Turning the lights out is a metaphor for death in this case and she is not afraid of it. She welcomes the notion that it is very well a possibility when she tells her love interest that he can turn her lights out. Fortunately, Beyoncé recognizes that their time on Earth is limited and tomorrow is not guaranteed when she says, “We don’t have forever / Baby, daylight’s wasting / You better kiss me.” Beyoncé does not let her realization interfere with living her life. She does not let it keep her from making the most out of the moment she is in right now. In addition, she is continuing to equate light with goodness and life and couple darkness with death. Later, in regards to her relationship, she states that “Nobody sees what we see / They’re just hopelessly gazing.” She means that people can look at her and Jay-Z together, but they do not understand what is so special about their love for each other. There are people going through life on autopilot, not really seeing and appreciating what they have in front of them. Towards the end, Beyoncé returns to the relevance of the song’s title. In the bridge, she sings “I love you like XO / You love me like XO / You kill me, boy, XO.” In a way that only Beyoncé can, the singer manages to allude to an overused symbol for hugging and kissing while simultaneously making it sound fresh and exciting. At first, I thought it was merely a fun way to show her love for her husband, but the meaning is actually relevant to those in relationships or those with loved ones that they neglect to cherish. Even in the shadows, even when they are separated by a crowd of people, Beyoncé and Jay-Z manage to show each other they love each other with simple gestures. I think nowadays people forget to do that - show that they still care, that is. It is easy to forget when we spend so much time focusing on the negatives in life, the darkness and the uncertainties. For better or for worse, in good times and in bad, you have to show your love in order to keep the light glowing. Simply kissing and hugging is enough; it serves to represent your appreciation for the value that someone else has taken in your life. After all, you never know when the lights will go out and that person’s time on Earth will end. Sometimes you will not even be given a warning. No promotion, but a mere sickly surprise.
PT. III: Love & Fear, 4Ever Joined at the Hip
Drunk in Love, Beyoncé
Although they were born in different centuries, Romantic poet John Keats and current singer Beyoncé both discuss their experiences in areas of life such as love, impermanence, death or uncertainty, and legacy. In the poem, the speaker is shrouded in darkness and doubt regarding when his illness will take over, which is why in order to find peace, he must stand “on the shore / Of the wide world” (Keats 12-13). The lack of light, or the inability to know how much time he has left, causes him a great deal of pain. In the song, however, there is a metaphor of light to symbolize love, positivity and conviction. Despite the darkness, their love is powerful enough to not have to contemplate whether or not they will stay together. Beyoncé emphasizes to her husband that she wants him to kiss her “before they turn the lights out,” or rather before they die. Both artists clearly recognize that their time on Earth is limited. The difference is that Beyoncé does not allow that fact to prevent her from making the most out of every experience she has left with the people she cares about. When she sings “Nobody sees what we see / They’re just hopelessly gazing,” it reminded me of when the speaker in Keats’ poem decides to “stand alone, and think / Till Love and Fame to nothingness do sink” (Keats 12-14). Keats speculates about what the experiences such as “the faery power / Of unreflecting love” (Keats 11-12) should or will be like, rather than making the sincere effort to go out and make it happen. He is “hopelessly gazing,” or accepting his fate and letting it control him for most of the poem. Lastly, since the songwriters of XO decided to include the audio of the Challenger explosion, it becomes clear that Beyoncé cares how people are remembered. In regards to her deciding to release a visual album, she said “I just hope that I continue to move forward and challenge myself, and I think now that I've become a mother, I just want my legacy to inspire people” (Fekadu). Similarly, Keats always wanted to be remembered for his poetry. Just how the Romantic poet decided not include his name on his tombstone, Beyoncé gave no warning when she released her art into the world. She did not try to force people to see her as someone in particular; the singer just wanted to create messages through her music and matching visuals, and hoped to maybe resonate with others. This conscious choice to make art which is meaningful to each of them has made all the difference in the way that they are remembered. I can assure you with the utmost sincerity that neither Beyoncé nor John Keats will be associated with a word even resembling the meaning of “mediocrity” any time soon.
WORKS CITED
Courtenay, Bryce. The Power of One. New York: Ballantine, 1996. Print.
Fekadu, Mesfin. "Beyonce Talks Surprise Album, Success at NYC Event." U.S. News & World Report. U.S. News & World Report LP., 21 Dec. 2013. Web. 12 Mar. 2014.
“John Keats.” Poets.org. The Academy of American Poets, n.d. Web. 12 Mar. 2014.
Saksono, Suryo Tri. “John Keats's Sensuous Imagery in ‘When I Have Fears That I May Cease To Be.’” TEFLIN Journal: A publication on the teaching and learning of English 22.16 (2011) : n. pag. Web. 12 March 2014.
Sneed, Tierney. “Petition Asks Beyonce to Donate 'XO' Profits After Challenger Controversy.” U.S. News & World Report. U.S. News & World Report LP., 8 Jan. 2014. Web. 12 Mar. 2014.