ABSTRACT
The implicit critical understanding is that John Keats has embarked upon a journey in which he hopes to both learn and create. As Wolf Hirst argued, the overall evolution of Keats's poetry was regarded as development 'toward a philosophical resignation to the inevitable triumph of mutability over love, beauty, and happiness, and of actuality over a poet's visions'. The hermetic framework of Rosicrucian and Masonic philosophies requires a more subtle distinction because these philosophies required that such diverse poles exist in a constant interchange. Endymion is a hermetic poem in which readers can discern some of Keats's earliest attempts to engage both the processes of metaphysics and the underlying philosophical imperatives commonly attached to the secret societies. Many scholars believe that Keats meant to present Endymion as passing through all the elements, but they often have had difficulty discussing the element of fire and have tended to simply dismiss it.
