Essay On Hymn To Apollo By John Keats Vs Hymn Of Apollo By Percy Bysshe Shelley

In Hymn of Apollo the poet, Percy Bysshe Shelley, writes in the first person telling us that he (Appollo) has eternal power over nature. ‘I feed the clouds, the rainbows, and the flowers’ He is the eye of the universe and victory and praise are due to him as without him all things would come to an end. ‘one power, which is mine’. He condescends, with ‘unwilling steps’, to walk down to the Atlantic from Heaven. He is all-powerful and the universe depends on him for all things. When he leaves one place to go on to another, nature ‘weeps and frowns’.
In Hymn to Apollo, Keats talks of a God (Apollo) who is ‘golden’ and whom he idolizes. ‘Like a blank idiot I put on thy wreath’. The poet strives to be more god-like, more golden, more Apollo-like. However, he feels like an insignificant worm in the face of a god. He wonders why he was not crushed by Apollo since he compares himself to a lowlife worm. ‘Why was I not crush’d --- such a pitiful germ? O Delphic Apollo!’ The poet talks about Apollo being Delphic because he compares Apollo to the ancient Greek oracle in Delphi. He implies that Apollo is wise and all-knowing.
While Shelley writes as though he is Apollo and he is omnipotent, Keats, on the other hand, feels insignificant when compared to Apollo. This is the main difference between Keats’ description of Apollo and Shelley’s description although there are also similarities. Both poems are classic cases of great beauty in the realms of literature which come alive in more ways than one.