Analysis on the peom Ode to a Nightingale by : John Keats - Essay Example

Ode To A Nightingale Analysis The finest of all odes written in the spring of 1819, the ode to a nightingale is passionately human and personal .The poet did not think about a particular bird of Hampstead but of its song which had been beautiful and delightful for centuries. First, the poet feels himself overwhelmed listening to nightingale‘s spontaneous song. He wants to leave the world and unite with the bird. He first thinks that wine would transport him to the world of the nightingale.

According to Cleanth Brook “The world of mankind and the world of nightingale are contrasted with each other “. The thought of wine leads him to think of such places as Provence and Hippocrene which are famous for the wine that is produced there. He thinks further of the dance and song of the people working in the vineyards in Provence. He visualizes their merry-making in the sun. On having second thoughts, however, the poet realizes the ineffectiveness of wine. Still he wants to escape somehow from this life which is full of sorrow.

The thought of life leads the poet to think of the many ills that human life is heir to. He finds people sitting and groaning with pain. Old age, diseases such as palsy ravage beauty and youth. Even mere thinking only intensifies our sorrow and despair. Beauty and love are fleeting .Life is, on the whole, dismal. The poet has an urgent wish to escape from such a dismal, dreary life. Having realized the ineffectiveness of wine, the poet now thinks that imagination can very easily transport him to the world of the nightingale.

In the very next moment imagination wafts him there. Though reason checks the flight of imagination, the poet already finds himself with the bird. The night is soft. The moon is in the sky and is surrounded by attendant stars. But the poet can see neither the moon nor the stars, because there is thick foliage above his head. The poet and the bird are in the dark. Next, the poet tries to distinguish the flowers that are at his feet. Though the poet ‘cannot see the flowers because of the darkness, yet he can smell their fragrance borne by the wind and distinguish the flowers.

The white hawthorn, the eglantine, the short – lived violet, the muskrose {first to appear in May}- these are some of the flowers strewn at the poet’s feet. The musk-rose is full of wine and the poet hears the humming of the bees which are sipping that wine. The poet is very happy, listening to the song of the bird. Strangely enough, he is seized with the death –wish. Being with the nightingale and listening to its songs the poet experiences supreme joy. He wants to die at his happiest moment of his life.

Living further would be only a disappointing anti-climax. Even if the poet dies, the will continue to sing. This leads the poet to regard the bird is an immortal creature. The bird which is pouring out its song .and cheering up the poet now might have cheered up the homesick Ruth in her foreign home. It might have also brought solace to the high-born lady kept imprisoned in an inaccessible tower. The bird’s song has magic power and so might have easily opened the windows of the tower and reached the lady shut inside and left in a ‘forlorn’ condition.

David Perkins felt the need to defend the use of the word ‘forlorn’ and claimed that it described the feeling from the impossibility of not being able to live in the world of imagination” The mention of the word ‘forlorn’ rudely reminds the poet of his forlorn condition. It shatters the poet’s imagination and brings him back to the world of painful realities. The nightingale flies away. Its song recedes and then finally dies out. The poet is left wondering whether the song and the bird are or part of a vision or dream.

” Thus the poet ends where he begins. His attempt to escape from sordid realities has proved abortive. The poem was highly praised by critics. Sydney Colvin says “Throughout this ode Keats’s genius is at its height” . Work citedBrooks, Cleanth& Warren, Robert Penn, “The Ode To The Nightingale “Eaglewood, 1968.Perkins, David, “The Quest for Permanence: The Symbolism of Wordsworth, Shelly, and Keats “Haward University Press, 1959.Colvin, Sidney, “John Keats, “Macmillan, London 1920