John Keats’ Ode to a Nightingale An Interpretation

John Keats Revived the ode form, an Ancient Greek song performed at formal occasions, usually in praise of its subject, for modern readers with poems like

Ode to a Nightingale A Horatian ode, after the Roman poet Horace. In general, a Horatian ode has a consistent stanza length and metre. "Ode to a Nightingale" is notable for being the longest of Keats's six "Great Odes." It is also often considered the most personal, with its reflections on death and the stresses of life. The poem has eight separate stanzas of ten lines each, and the metre of each line in the stanza, except for the eighth, is iambic pentametre. The eighth line is written in iambic trimetre which means it has only three stresses in the line, not five.

Ode to a Nightingale First Stanza: Keats, in his heartache, feels as though he has drunk poison, but declares that he does not envy the nightingale for being happy—in fact, he revels in the fact that the bird sings so happily in the forest. Second Stanza: Keats wishes for wine that tastes like “Dance” and the “country green” so that he could use alcohol’s psychological effects on the mind to float away with the nightingale.

Ode to a Nightingale Third Stanza: Keats lists things that the nightingale “has never known,” such as palsy, and solemnly admits that in the human world, youth, beauty, and love don’t last forever. Fourth Stanza: Keats decides that he will not use wine to float away with the bird. “Though the dull brain perplexes,” he tells the bird to fly away, so that he can follow it on the wings of poetry.

Ode to a Nightingale Fifth Stanza: Keats writes that although he can’t see the different flowers, he can use each flower’s scent to label them in the “embalmèd darkness.” Sixth Stanza: Keats has been “half in love” with the idea of dying. The nightingale’s song would make dying then and there easier, but his ears would then only be able to hear the bird’s song “in vain.”

Ode to a Nightingale Seventh Stanza: Keats comments on the bird’s immortality, saying it sang for emperors “[i]n ancient days.” He also writes that the bird’s song could open “magic casements.” Eight Stanza: Keats halts his adoration of the nightingale to concentrate on himself. He is saddened by the bird’s flight elsewhere and by his seeming lack of imagination.

Literary Devices, Allusion The River Lethe: Greek and Roman mythology, underworld’s river of forgetfulness Flora: Roman goddess of flowers Hippocrene: Muses’ fountain Bacchus (and his leopards): Roman god of wine Ruth: widow who left her people for a new land.

Literary Devices, Alliteration/Assonance “Fade far away…and quite forget/…the fever and the fret” “Perhaps the self-same song/…the sad heart…sick for home…stood in tears…” “While thou art pouring forth thy soul abroad…” “Thou was not born for death, immortal Bird…”

Literary Devices, Personification Death: “Called him soft names…” Fancy: “…cannot cheat so well…” Youth: “…grows pale…” Beauty: “…cannot keep her lustrous eyes…” Love: “…pine at them….”

Literary Devices Synesthesia: Describes one sensation in terms of another (i.e. sound as taste, color as sound) Diction/Style: Uses archaic words (beechen; thine, thou, thee) Elevated Vocabulary: verdurous, palsy, plaintive anthem, embalmed, lustrous

The More You Know An ode is a complex, long lyric poem on a serious subject, intimate, meditative; not a story, but emotions and thoughts Keats’ use of slant rhyme (been + green) Ode to a Nightingale is an example of Quintessential Romanticism.

Works Cited "John Keats." Poets,org. 2010. Web. 1 Feb 2010. <http://www.poets.org/poet.php/prmPID/66>.