Keats and Tolkien on Art and Death
Today is the two hundred and second anniversary of the death of John Keats, who died of tuberculosis in Rome at the age of 25. I have now outlived Keats for 11 years, but as a poet, I have come nowhere near him.
Keats was one of the first poets to truly capture my attention for their poetry. I had read Spenser and Milton and the Beowulf poet, but it was Keats who first opened my eyes to the rhythm and music of the English language. I can still remember the early days of pretention, sitting in a coffee shop while a high school student, reading the poetry of Keats. I read him first because it was something I believed I should do, that it was fitting with my character. I continued to read Keats because of the effects of his poetry on me. One poem in particular has always stuck with me, not only for the beauty of it, but for how prescient Keats was in writing it.
That poem is Keats’s “When I Have Fears that I May Cease to Be”. Written 5 years before his death, but only published 20 years after, this poem gets at the heart of all people. What if I die before I accomplish all the things I hope to? What if my time is up and I still have things to do? J.R.R. Tolkien could be said to have taken Keats’s poem as a jumping off point for his story, Leaf by Niggle. Likely, it is more accurate to say that Tolkien had those same feelings, what if I can’t finish my work before I’m gone?
Keats’s poem ends on a rather dour note. He lacks an understanding that love and beauty and creativity do not end when we die. And this is where Leaf by Niggle becomes an excellent corrective.
In the story we are introduced to a painter named Niggle. Niggle has painted many things, but his biggest work, his most important, is an enormous painting of a tree. True to his name, Niggle spends most of his time on fiddly details, especially the leaves. After many interruptions from his neighbor, Parish, Niggle is finally called upon to go on his final journey. When the man comes to collect him, Niggle exclaims that he can’t leave, he isn’t finished with his painting, but leave he must. This journey is death, and Niggle finds himself in what we would call Purgatory. There Niggle has to learn how to properly use his time. When he finishes, he sent somewhere for “gentle treatment” before his final trip over the mountains. This place he is brought to amazes him, because there before him is his tree, finished, complete, every idea he ever had but never actualized now standing before him in a real tree. “It’s a gift” he exclaims referring not only to this tree, but to his artistry that made its beginning. And so Niggle’s art survives and is even used to help others on their final journey.
It is natural for us to worry that death will take us before we have done all we hope to do. And as it seems to have done with Keats, it should spur us on to do, to create. But we should not forget the two lessons Niggle has for us. The first is that we cannot neglect our neighbor for the things we want to do, both are important. The second is the reminder that death is not the end of love, beauty, or even art. In truth, it is only the beginning.
