Ode to a nightingale - Essay Example

Ode to a nightingale Poetry just as any other form of literature requires the use of appropriate stylistic devices inorder to enhance readability. In his Ode to a Nightingale, John Keats portrays understanding of the numerous literary techniques used in the poetry as he uses an assortment of styles and techniques thus creating the masterpiece celebrated to this day. Besides the realistic representation of the society by depicting realistic social and cultural features, John Keats uses numerous literary techniques and styles including imagery, repetition and alliteration among other styles in developing the poem as the discussion below portrays.

Epic form, just as the name suggests is a literary technique used by authors and poets in unique works that portray heroic characters often of divine origin. Such works are always long narrations told in elevated styles. In such works, the narrators adopt dignified and formal tones. Ode to a Nightingale, is a work that portrays different features of the epic form. The poet describes the journey of Keats, the key character, into the state of negative ability (Hilton 67). The persona in the poem who is also the key character maintains a legendary personality as he faces his advisories.

He maintains a strong and bold personality even when he faces his enemies. The long stricture of the poem is strategic and a tool used in tandem with the features of epic form. The poem that has eight stanzas introduces the key characters besides providing the poet with adequate time and space to develop and resolve all the conflicts that sustain the poem. In ensuring the dignified, objective and formal tone in the poem, the poet uses strategic poem development techniques that enhance the recital thus the consumption of the poem.

While John Keats strives to use numerous stylistic devices in the poem, his use of the styles remains limited to the epic form discussed earlier. He for example strives to develop a definite sound pattern in the poem. Sound patterns enhance the recital of poems. He therefore uses numerous stylistic devices including rhythms and repetition among many others in trying to develop a rhythmic pattern. However, the epic form nature of the poem limits the poet to the use of free verse. The technique refers to avoidance of consistent meter patterns.

This implies that such poems do not have specific rhythms arising from the assortment of rhymes that the poet uses. The poet strives to maintain the free verse technique in all the stanzas of the poem. In the first stanza for example, the author uses different sound patterns as he strives to earn the poem a natural speech type of narration. Additionally, the author uses blank verse, a technique that refers to the lack of balanced and rhymes in a poem. This just as is the case with free verse helps portray the natural style of speech in the poem.

Imagery is a major literary technique used in writing poem among other types of literature. The technique helps poet describe different features in the works including the characters, action and setting among many others. Imagery thus refers to the strategic use of vivid description in order to enhance the plot. John Keats uses numerous types of imagery including similes and metaphors in depicting numerous features. Right from the first stanza, the author strives to describe both the setting and characters a feature that facilitates the audience’ comprehension of the plot.

Vivid description helps in creating mental images a fundamental feature that enhances the comprehension and conceptualization of the action in the poem. In the second line of the first stanza, the poet likens his senses to those of hemlock My sense, as though of hemlock I had drunk. In the line, the author des not only depict a social feature by comparing his senses to hemlock but also describes his senses at the time a feature that enhances the conceptualization of the action he describes.The success of poetry relies on the poet’s ability to depict sound patterns.

The seamless unification of sound patterns in poetry does not only enhance the recital of the poetry but is a compulsory regulation in poetry. John Keats portrays understanding of the importance of sound patterns in his poem as he develops effective sound patterns in the poem. Among the features of poetry and literary techniques that enhance the sound pattern in poems, include alliteration, repetition and rhymes among many others. Rhymes are conspicuous in the poem Ode to a Nightingale in developing a specific rhythm in the poem.

Rhymes help develop specific sound patterns that enhance the recital of the poem. The lines in the poem end in similar sound patterns thus developing a particular rhythm in the poem. The poet sustains the ab, ab sound pattern in the poem thus resulting in the artistic masterpiece.Work citedHilton, Timothy. Keats and His World, New York: Viking Press, 1971. Print. John, Keats. Ode to a Nightingale. London: OUP, 1899. Print.