Dialogical and Monological Study: An Analysis of Structural Patterns of Keats Selected Odes

Abstract

This paper explores the thematic, philosophical, and structural dimensions of John Keats’s poems “Ode to a Nightingale” and “Ode on a Grecian Urn.” The study employs Mikhail Bakhtin’s concept of Dialogism as its theoretical framework. By analyzing these works through both monologic and dialogic lenses, the study reveals Keats as a socially engaged poet whose odes reflect complex emotional experiences—such as pain, joy, mortality, transience, and existential concerns. Key Bakhtinian concepts including heteroglossia, introspection, and chronotope are utilized to perform a detailed structural and contextual analysis of the poems. Through this lens, the research highlights how Keats engages with cultural, historical, and societal issues while simultaneously adopting an escapist tendency to transcend immediate social and temporal conflicts through aesthetic contemplation. Furthermore, the study examines the use of irony, paradox, symbolic imagery, intertextual references, and other structural elements to uncover deeper philosophical, emotional, and aesthetic layers of meaning, ultimately revealing the dynamic interplay between poetic voice, personal introspection, and broader human concerns within Keats’s work.