Thesis:
Keats presents a stark contrast between the real and the surreal by examining the power of dreams. For the narrators of each work, dream works as a gateway to the unconscious, or rather, a more surreal and natural state of mind. Keats presents the world as a place where one cannot escape from his/her troubles. For the narrator in “Ode to a Nightingale” he attempts to artificially medicate himself as a means of forgetting about the troubles of the real world which cause him to feel a “drowsy numbness” (Ode to a Nightingale 1) which “pains / My senses, as though of hemlock I had drunk,” (1-2). The narrator, seemingly in search for both inspiration and relief, drowns out these feelings through an overindulgence in wine as a way to “leave
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Within both poems, Keats blurs the lines between what is dream and what real. As the narrator of “Ode to Psyche” expresses, “Surely I dreamt to-day, or did I see / The winged Psyche with awaken’d eyes” (“Ode to Psyche” 5-6) and as was previously seen, the narrator in “Ode to a Nightingale” expresses concern, wondering if the experience he had with the nightingale “Was it a vision, or a waking dream? / Fled is that music:—Do I wake or sleep?” (“Ode to a Nightingale 79-80). This distinction between dream and reality creates an interesting relationship between both narrators and their subject matters: the nightingale and the Goddess Psyche. Firstly, the implication of sleep implies a state of unconsciousness, or rather, a more natural frame of mind. When awake, we are actively thinking and examining the world around us, constantly distracted—just as the narrator in “Ode to a Nightingale.” When asleep, the mind is in a more natural state, creating an intimate relationship between mankind and its place within nature. Here, Keats uses the idea of the goddess Psyche could serve a duel meaning. Firstly, the narrators question as to whether he is dreaming or truly witnessing Psyche with his own mind indicates a connection between Psyche and dream, or rather, the idea of human mind in an uninterrupted state of being. Simply, dreaming allows the …show more content…
Examining the definition of “ode,” there is a strong connection between song and poetry—an ode being “a poem intended to be sung or one written in a form originally used for sung performance”--, and within both poems the inspiration of each narrator is described in terms of creating poems meant to be sung. Essentially, Keats’s poem plays with the concept of the poetic form of an ode on a couple of different levels. Firstly, the nightingale, in stark contrast to the narrator’s feelings of despair, is presented as a “light-winged Dyrad of the trees, / In some melodious plot / … Singest of summer in full-throated ease” (“Ode to a Nightingale 7-8, 10). By introducing the nightingale in this manner, and by referring to it twice with musical adjectives—referencing its “melodious plot” and how the bird “singest of summer”—establishes this element of song as the focal point of the nightingale. Similarly, the goddess Psyche is first introduced by means of song, as the narrator begins “Ode to Psyche” by singing, and asking her to hear “these tuneless number” (Ode to Psyche 1) and to “pardon thy secrets should be sung” (3). The musical references to Psych continue in the third stanza, as the narrator laments the inclusion of Psyche into the Greek pantheon, he reveals
In Act IV, scene III of The Tragedy of Romeo and Juliet, Juliet is forced to make a decision; take a sleeping potion gifted to her by Friar Laurence and risk possibly being stuck in the Capulet family tomb, or marry Paris. To her, marrying Paris is not an option and so she drinks the vile. Although, before consuming the Friar’s remedy, Juliet expresses her worries in her soliloquy. To do this, Shakespeare manipulates imagery and the rhetorical device of questioning to reveal his main character’s deepest and darkest fears.
In ancient Greek, the word “nightingale” translates into “poet” or “night singer”- which plays particular significance to the bird itself, not only in actual life but in poetic representation as well. The nightingale is known as being a nocturnal creature, but they are known to sing both at night and during the day; each nightingale’s song is distinct, no two nightingale’s song is ever alike; the melody is completely individualized and differs day-to -day, moment to moment, based on a particular spontaneous mood or feeling (McKusick 34). What is important to note, however, is that only the male nightingale...
John Keats’s illness caused him to write about his unfulfillment as a writer. In an analysis of Keats’s works, Cody Brotter states that Keats’s poems are “conscious of itself as the poem[s] of a poet.” The poems are written in the context of Keats tragically short and painful life. In his ...
While Lord Byron's poem enhances the beauty of love, Keats' does the opposite by showing the detriments of love. In “She Walks in Beauty,” the speaker asides about a beautiful angel with “a heart whose love is innocent” (3, 6). The first two lines in the first stanza portray a defining image:
... imagery, as both meanings could describe Keats longing, as he could wish to remain for as long as possible in the embrace of his lover, but also how he could wish to continue to hear her ‘tender-taken breath’, in which the alliteration portrays his lover as beautiful and inviting, further showing how Keats now prefers the life of reality. He forgets about the impossible, and being immortal and being alone, but rather embraces the temporary and exhilarating.
“But soft, what light through yonder window breaks?/ It is the east, and Juliet is the sun/ Arise, fair sun, and kill the envious moon/ Who is already sick and pale with grief/ That thou her maid art far more fair than she/ Be not her maid since she is envious/ Her vestal livery is but sick and green/ And none but fools do wear it. Cast it off!/ It is my lady. Oh, it is my love/ Oh, that she knew she were!” (Shakespeare II ii 2-11).
Keats uses the song of the nightingale as his vehicle to a perfect, nature infused realm. Throughout the poem Keats has given his own personal opinion of the nightingale’s song. He uses a supernatural mythical creature in order to demonstrate that song is transporting him into a different realm. Keats identifies the perfect world when he wrote “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.” Keats is comparing the nightingale to a Dryad and using personification to put forward this idea that the nightingale song is leading him to a perfect world of summer time. In the background the Drayad and the song are together in order to demonstrate how these put together will further explain Keats idea to a perfect world. Therefore the nightingale’s song has the ability to be this bird that would sing this perfect song but it can also be the symbol of
White, Keith D. John Keats And The Loss Of Romantic Innocence.(Costerus NS 107). Minneapolis: Rodopi BV Editions, 1996. Print.
Throughout Keats’s work, there are clear connections between the effect of the senses on emotion. Keats tends to apply synesthetic to his analogies with the interactions with man and the world to create different views and understandings. By doing this, Keats can arouse different emotions to the work by which he intends for the reader to determine on their own, based on how they perceive it. This is most notable in Keats’s Ode to a Nightingale, for example, “Tasting of Flora, and Country Green” (827). Keats accentuates emotion also through his relationship with poetry, and death.
In Keats “Ode to a Nightingale” we see the sense embodied through a variety of different literary techniques and in particular his use of synaesthesia imagery. The dejected downhearted nature of the poem promotes emotion in the reader even before noting poetic devices at work. The structure of the meter is regular and adds to the depth of this poe...
From the very title we find that this “Ode” is different. It is the “Ode on a Grecian Urn,” as opposed to “Ode to a Nightingale,” or “Ode to Psyche.” The word “on” provides a little more interpretive flexibility. On one hand, the word on can be taken to mean “about” or “concerning,” suggesting that this is an ode about a Grecian Urn. This is in fact true. However, it can also suggest that this ode is taking place quite literally on the Grecian Urn—the ode itself would therefore not be Keats’ own poetry, but the actual Urn. This interpretation is backed up by in Stanza I. when Keats calls the Urn “Sylvan historian, who canst thus express / A flowery tale more sweetly than our rhyme” (lines 3-4). The urn can express the tale more sweetly because it presents the ode without the passage of time. Thus all the paintings are forever frozen and ever becoming, and any fulfillment would betray potential.
Keats’s Ode to Melancholy is best described by one word, melancholy. The Oxford English Dictionary defines Melancholy as a feeling of pensive sadness, typically with no obvious cause. In this poem, melancholy is the art of embracing sorrow and a sort of madness in order to be able to cherish the joy of truly living. Keats accomplished the idea of melancholy by using his imagery to reinforce the idea of sustaining opposites such as sorrow and joy in a person’s life. In the beginning of the poem, the speaker warns, “No, no go not to Lethe” which is the forgetful water of Hades (Keats 932).
Arguably one of John Keats’ most famous poems, “Ode to a nightingale” in and of itself is an allegory on the frail, conflicting aspects of life while also standing as a commentary on the want to escape life’s problems and the unavoidability of death. Keats’ poem utilizes a heavy amount of symbolism, simile and allusion to idealize nature as a perfect, almost mystical, world that holds no problems while using imagery taken from nature, combined with alliteration and assonance, to idealize the dream of escape from the problems life often presents; more specifically, aging and our inevitable deaths by allowing the reader to feel as if they are experiencing the speaker’s experience listening to the nightingale.
or the poet himself, he said. He chooses no casual settings or circumstances. for these two poems. For Coleridge the mind cannot take its feelings from nature and cannot imbue nature with its own feelings, as in the Nightingale poem. Coleridge shows us that human feelings and the forms of nature are mainly separate from the.
Before discussing the poem in great detail, it is significant to look at how this ode came to be. While living with a friend in Hampstead during the first months of 1819, a nightingale built a nest in the garden. Keats felt a connection to the bird’s joyous moments each time it sung. It is then that the poet decided to compose a poem expressing his feelings regarding the nightingale’s song (Stillinger 34-5). There are three other odes that follow on the same themes and imagination.