Ode to a Nightingale by John Keats

Context

• Written in May 1819, "Ode to a Nightingale" is one of Keats' most famous odes.
• Written at Charles Brown's house, after Keats was struck by the melancholy singing of a Nightingale bird.
• Reflects Keats' deep engagement with themes of mortality, the transcendent power of nature, and the role of imagination.
• Keats was grappling with the illness of his brother Tom and his deteriorating health, adding a layer of introspection and melancholy to the poem.
• The poem captures the Romantic fascination with the sublime and the desire to escape from the harsh realities of life through art and nature.

Structure and Form

• Ode is composed of eight stanzas, each with ten lines.
• Rhyme scheme: ABABCDECDE.
• Written in iambic pentameter, maintaining a formal and reflective tone.
• The structure allows Keats to explore different facets of his emotions and thoughts as he contemplates the song of the nightingale.

Key Themes

Transience and Mortality

• "Where youth grows pale, and spectre-thin, and dies;"
• Highlights the inevitability of ageing and death, contrasting with the nightingale's seemingly eternal song.
• Reflects Keats' preoccupation with the brevity of life.

Escape and Imagination

• "Fade far away, dissolve, and quite forget / What thou among the leaves hast never known,"
• Describes the desire to escape from the harsh realities of human existence into the timeless, idealized world of the nightingale.
• Emphasizes the power of imagination to transcend reality.

Nature and Beauty

• "Singest of summer in full-throated ease."
• Celebrates the beauty and vitality of nature, as embodied by the nightingale's song.
• Reflects the Romantic ideal of finding solace and inspiration in nature.

Suffering and Despair

• "Where but to think is to be full of sorrow / And leaden-eyed despairs,"
• Describes the pervasive sense of suffering and despair in human life.
• Contrasts with the nightingale's carefree existence.

Immortality of Art

• "Thou wast not born for death, immortal Bird!"
• Suggests that the nightingale, as a symbol of art and beauty, transcends the limitations of human mortality.
• Reflects the Romantic belief in the enduring power of art.

Similar Poems

• "Ode on a Grecian Urn": Shares themes of transience, beauty, and the desire to escape from reality through art and imagination.
• "To Autumn": Celebrates nature's beauty and explores themes of time and change, similar to the contemplation of the nightingale.
• "Ode to Psyche": Reflects on imagination and the creation of an ideal world, akin to the nightingale's transcendent song.

Line by Line Analysis

Stanza 1

My heart aches, and a drowsy numbness pains My sense, as though of hemlock I had drunk, Or emptied some dull opiate to the drains One minute past, and Lethe-wards had sunk: 'Tis not through envy of thy happy lot, But being too happy in thine happiness,— That thou, light-winged Dryad of the trees In some melodious plot Of beechen green, and shadows numberless, Singest of summer in full-throated ease.

"My heart aches, and a drowsy numbness pains / My sense, as though of hemlock I had drunk,"

• Begins with an expression of physical and emotional pain, likening it to the effects of poison.
• "Hemlock" suggests a sense of lethargy and despair.
  • Smaller doses are used as a sedative, in larger doses it kills.
  • This could link to Socrates and his punishment for corrupting young minds.
  • The theme of escapism is to avoid human suffering.

"Or emptied some dull opiate to the drains / One minute past, and Lethe-wards had sunk:"

• Continues the imagery of intoxication, comparing it to sinking into the river Lethe, symbolizing forgetfulness and escapism.
  • Lethe is the river of oblivion in the underworld.
• Reflects a desire to escape from consciousness.
  • The rhyme of "drunk" and "sunk" suggests being disattached.

"'Tis not through envy of thy happy lot, / But being too happy in thine happiness,—"

• Clarifies that the speaker's pain is not due to envy, but an overwhelming sense of shared happiness.
• Highlights the nightingale's carefree existence.

"That thou, light-winged Dryad of the trees / In some melodious plot / Of beechen green, and shadows numberless,"

• Describes the nightingale as a Dryad, a mythical tree spirit, emphasizing its connection to nature.
  • Adjectives describing the bird contrast to the suffering Keats has.
• "Melodious plot" suggests an idyllic setting filled with music.
  • Sweet seclusion.
• Sensory description imagining where the nightingale lives, Keats can only hear it.

"Singest of summer in full-throated ease."

• Celebrate the nightingale's song, which embodies the joy and vitality of summer.

Stanza 2

O, for a draught of vintage! that hath been Cool'd a long age in the deep-delved earth, Tasting of Flora and the country green, Dance, and Provençal song, and sunburnt mirth! O for a beaker full of the warm South, Full of the true, the blushful Hippocrene, With beaded bubbles winking at the brim, And purple-stained mouth; That I might drink, and leave the world unseen, And with thee fade away into the forest dim:

"O, for a draught of vintage! that hath been / Cool'd a long age in the deep-delved earth,"

• Expresses a longing for a drink of aged wine, symbolizing a desire for escape and transcendence.

"Tasting of Flora and the country green, / Dance, and Provençal song, and sunburnt mirth!"

• Flora is the Roman goddess of plants, strongly associated with spring.
  • Keats wrote this poem in Spring.
• Describes the wine as embodying the essence of nature, music, and joy.
• Imagery creates a pastoral setting.

"O for a beaker full of the warm South, / Full of the true, the blushful Hippocrene,"

• "warm South," has connotations of healing, thoughts at the time that warmth would help to heal the sick.
• Wishes for a drink that captures the warmth and inspiration of the southern regions and the mythological fountain of poetic inspiration.
  • Hippocrene was a sacred spring found on Mount Helicon said to bring poetic inspiration to those who drank it.

"With beaded bubbles winking at the brim, / And purple-stained mouth;"

• Evokes the sensory pleasures of wine, with its bubbling surface and rich colour.
  • Illustrated with the alliteration of 'b' sounds.

"That I might drink, and leave the world unseen, / And with thee fade away into the forest dim:"

• Desires to escape from the visible world and join the nightingale in its secluded, idealized realm.
  • Long vowel sounds of "leave the world unseen" indicate a yearning to escape.
• The enjambment of the last line of the stanza has connotations of disappearing with the pause in the poem.

Stanza 3

Fade far away, dissolve, and quite forget What thou among the leaves hast never known, The weariness, the fever, and the fret Here, where men sit and hear each other groan; Where palsy shakes a few, sad, last gray hairs, Where youth grows pale, and spectre-thin, and dies; Where but to think is to be full of sorrow And leaden-eyed despairs, Where Beauty cannot keep her lustrous eyes, Or new Love pine at them beyond to-morrow.

"Fade far away, dissolve, and quite forget / What thou among the leaves hast never known,"

• Longs to fade away and forget the troubles of the human world, which the nightingale is unaware of.

"The weariness, the fever, and the fret / Here, where men sit and hear each other groan;"

• Describes the suffering and anxiety of human existence.
• Illness and melancholy.

"Where palsy shakes a few, sad, last gray hairs, / Where youth grows pale, and spectre-thin, and dies;"

• Highlights the inevitability of ageing and death, contrasting with the nightingale's seemingly eternal song.
• Depicts pre-mature death, perhaps that of Thomas Keats.

"Where but to think is to be full of sorrow / And leaden-eyed despairs,"

• Suggests that even thinking brings sorrow and despair to the human world.
• "to think is to be full of sorrow" could be a link to Hamlet, the curse of the human condition.

"Where Beauty cannot keep her lustrous eyes, / Or new Love pine at them beyond to-morrow."

• Reflects on the transient nature of beauty and love, which cannot endure.
• The personification of the Abstract: "Beauty" and "Love".

Stanza 4

Away! away! for I will fly to thee, Not charioted by Bacchus and his pards, But on the viewless wings of Poesy, Though the dull brain perplexes and retards: Already with thee! tender is the night, And haply the Queen-Moon is on her throne, Cluster'd around by all her starry Fays; But here there is no light, Save what from heaven is with the breezes blown Through verdurous glooms and winding mossy ways.

"Away! away! for I will fly to thee, / Not charioted by Bacchus and his pards,"

• Sudden change in tone where Keats rejects reaching the Nightingale through escapism, but through poetry.
• "Baccus and his pards" is a classical allusion to a Greek God, Bacchus, associated with drinking and debauchery.

"But on the viewless wings of Poesy, / Though the dull brain perplexes and retards:"

• Chooses to use the imagination and creativity of poetry to transcend reality.

"Already with thee! tender is the night, / And haply the Queen-Moon is on her throne,"

• Feels a sense of connection with the nightingale, personifying the night as tender and moonlit.

"Cluster'd around by all her starry Fays; / But here there is no light,"

• Imagines a celestial scene with the moon and stars, while the speaker remains in darkness.

"Save what from heaven is with the breezes blown / Through verdurous glooms and winding mossy ways."

• Describes the faint, diffused light filtering through the trees, creating a mysterious and enchanting atmosphere.

Stanza 5

I cannot see what flowers are at my feet, Nor what soft incense hangs upon the boughs, But, in embalmed darkness, guess each sweet Wherewith the seasonable month endows The grass, the thicket, and the fruit-tree wild; White hawthorn, and the pastoral eglantine; Fast fading violets cover'd up in leaves; And mid-May's eldest child, The coming musk-rose, full of dewy wine, The murmurous haunt of flies on summer eves.

"I cannot see what flowers are at my feet, / Nor what soft incense hangs upon the boughs,"

• Acknowledges the darkness, making it impossible to see the flowers and scents around him.
• "incense" has religious connotations and ideas of the sublime.

"But, in embalmed darkness, guess each sweet / Wherewith the seasonable month endows"

• Relies on imagination to perceive the beauty of the surrounding nature.
• "embalmed darkness" has connotations of death, being preserved in life.
  • Suggests the cyclical nature of the natural world.

"The grass, the thicket, and the fruit-tree wild; / White hawthorn, and the pastoral eglantine;"

• Lists the various plants and flowers that he imagines to be present.

"Fast fading violets cover'd up in leaves; / And mid-May's eldest child,"

• "Fast fading" demonstrates the transience in nature.
• Describes the violets and the musk-rose, both emblematic of the season.

"The coming musk-rose, full of dewy wine, / The murmurous haunt of flies on summer eves."

• Conveys the sensory richness of the season, with the musk-rose and the buzzing of flies.

Stanza 6

Darkling I listen; and, for many a time I have been half in love with easeful Death, Call'd him soft names in many a mused rhyme, To take into the air my quiet breath; Now more than ever seems it rich to die, To cease upon the midnight with no pain, While thou art pouring forth thy soul abroad In such an ecstasy! Still wouldst thou sing, and I have ears in vain— To thy high requiem become a sod.

"Darkling I listen; and, for many a time / I have been half in love with easeful Death,"

• "Darkling" literally means "in the dark" also a combination of dark/darling.
  • Keats addresses the darkness and death itself.
• Describes listening in the darkness and contemplating death, finding it attractive in moments of despair.
• The personification of an abstract with "Death".

"Call'd him soft names in many a mused rhyme, / To take into the air my quiet breath;"

• Reflects on past thoughts of death, considering it a peaceful release.
  • Keats' relationship and friendship with death.

"Now more than ever seems it rich to die, / To cease upon the midnight with no pain,"

• Finds the idea of dying amid the nightingale's song appealing and peaceful.

"While thou art pouring forth thy soul abroad / In such an ecstasy!"

• Describes the nightingale's song as an ecstatic outpouring of its soul.
• "In such ecstasy!" has two meanings
  1. Suggests extreme happiness and delight.
  2. Suggests a spiritual transcendental state, somewhere between the mortal and mystical realms.

"Still wouldst thou sing, and I have ears in vain— / To thy high requiem become a sod."

• Imagine the nightingale continuing to sing even after the speaker's death, rendering his ears useless.

Stanza 7

Thou wast not born for death, immortal Bird! No hungry generations tread thee down; The voice I hear this passing night was heard In ancient days by emperor and clown: Perhaps the self-same song that found a path Through the sad heart of Ruth, when, sick for home, She stood in tears amid the alien corn; The same that oft-times hath Charm'd magic casements, opening on the foam Of perilous seas, in faery lands forlorn.

"Thou wast not born for death, immortal Bird! / No hungry generations tread thee down;"

• Declares the nightingale as immortal, untouched by the passage of time and generations.

"The voice I hear this passing night was heard / In ancient days by emperor and clown:"

• Suggests that the nightingale's song has been heard by people throughout history, regardless of status.
• Contrast between Keats' mortality and the immortality of the Nightingale's song.

"Perhaps the self-same song that found a path / Through the sad heart of Ruth, when, sick for home,"

• Imagines the nightingale's song comforting Ruth from the Bible, who longed for her homeland.
  • Could also refer to the poem 'Ruth' by Wordsworth.
  • Various meanings of the name Ruth.
  • Hebrew = companion, vision of beauty.
  • Middle English = pity, sorrow and grief.
  • All meanings of Ruth relate to the poem in some way.

"She stood in tears amid the alien corn; / The same that oft-times hath"

• Continues the image of Ruth, emphasizing the timeless and universal nature of the song.

"Charm'd magic casements, opening on the foam / Of perilous seas, in faery lands forlorn."

• Describes the song as enchanting those who gaze out over dangerous seas from magical windows, evoking a sense of wonder and escapism.

Stanza 8

Forlorn! the very word is like a bell To toll me back from thee to my sole self! Adieu! the fancy cannot cheat so well As she is fam'd to do, deceiving elf. Adieu! adieu! thy plaintive anthem fades Past the near meadows, over the still stream, Up the hill-side; and now 'tis buried deep In the next valley-glades: Was it a vision, or a waking dream? Fled is that music:—Do I wake or sleep?

"Forlorn! the very word is like a bell / To toll me back from thee to my sole self!"

• The word "forlorn" brings the speaker back to reality.
  • It Awakes Keats from his imagination and reinforces the idea that Keats feels suffering and melancholy are key to his life and creative path.

"Adieu! the fancy cannot cheat so well / As she is fam'd to do, deceiving elf."

• Acknowledges that imagination cannot fully escape reality, as it is often reputed to do.
  • Limited power of Keats' imagination and creativity.
• Through the description of a nightingale as a "deceiving elf" this links the nightingale to a fantastical world and recognises its trickery.

"Adieu! adieu! thy plaintive anthem fades / Past the near meadows, over the still stream,"

• Bids farewell to the nightingale's song, which fades away into the distance.
  • The repetition of goodbyes at the start of the lines emphasises this.
• Mourning the loss of the nightingale's song.

"Up the hill-side; and now 'tis buried deep / In the next valley-glades:"

• Describes the song as moving away and becoming faint, buried in the landscape.
• The pastoral setting is re-established, and as the nightingale's song fades, Keats' imagination dissipates.

"Was it a vision, or a waking dream? / Fled is that music:—Do I wake or sleep?"

• Ends with a sense of ambiguity, questioning whether the experience was real or a dream.
  • Threshold between two states of being.
  • Questioning tone to finish the ode.
• Reflects the blurred line between reality and imagination, a key theme in the poem.
• "Do I wake or sleep?" is less of a meditation on an experience, but more of a question of what he should do next, live or die?
  • Links to Hamlet and the question of 'to be or not to be'.
  • Keats idealises life and death throughout the ode, so this question cannot be answered, hence ending the ode with a question.