Critical Analysis Of John Keats's Ode To A Nightingale

1556 Words4 Pages

In an ‘Ode to a Nightingale’ by John Keats, the speaker is setting up the tone to be a rather sad poem. Simply, that is not what he intends to continue to do throughout the poem, though. It is more so the speaker working through the realistic aspects of life and dying. How even the good things in life, can and will leave you such as drinking. Being drunk is fun, you forget what you want to forget, but eventually it comes back. The speaker explains in this stanza that sadness is like alcohol, it makes you numb and aches, yet you want more of it – similar to the notion of an addiction. That is how the speaker describes the nightingale in the first stanza of the poem. Although that is how the poem seems to start off, it seems that he is conflicting his feelings throughout the rest of the poem.
In the second stanza the speaker yearns for a drink of wine, but the wine that is made deep inside the earth and is filled with ‘vintage’ fruits. The speaker is explaining the taste of flowers and plants within that wine coming from the earth. The speaker describes how the wine tastes like flowers – but, also tastes like happiness and dancing. The speaker continues to talk about the beautiful taste of
The speaker explains how he cannot see anything and that is because it is night time. Like stated before, a play on the nightingale name. The speaker describes the smell of ‘soft incense,’ which could be from the trees (Oak, maybe?). The speaker continues to walk around in the dark, without being able to see much – if anything at all. While the speaker is in the night he describes the smells of what is around him based on what season he thinks it is. The speaker not only describes what he is smelling, but he also is listing things he can hear as well. These last 8 lines describe what it is like being in the dark, similar to what it would be like when you are dead. Minus the ability to smell and hear anything at

Show More
Related

  • The Life and Works of Ezra Jack Keats

    1874 Words  | 4 Pages

    After a four week survey of a multitude of children’s book authors and illustrators, and learning to analyze their works and the methods used to make them effective literary pieces for children, it is certainly appropriate to apply these new skills to evaluate a single author’s works. Specifically, this paper focuses on the life and works of Ezra Jack Keats, a writer and illustrator of books for children who single handedly expanded the point of view of the genre to include the experiences of multicultural children with his Caldecott Award winning book “Snowy Day.” The creation of Peter as a character is ground breaking in and of itself, but after reading the text the reader is driven to wonder why “Peter” was created. Was he a vehicle for political commentary as some might suggest or was he simply another “childhood” that had; until that time, been ignored? If so, what inspired him to move in this direction?

    Read More

  • Combined Experience of Suffering, Death and Love all at Once

    1547 Words  | 4 Pages

    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 ...

    Read More

  • Comparing the Themes of Love in Lord Byron's “She Walks in Beauty” and Keats' Poem, “La Belle Dame sans Merci”

    929 Words  | 2 Pages

    These lines may seem confusing if not read properly. At first look, these might not make sense because the night is acquainted with darkness, but when the lines are read together as intended, one can see that the night is “cloudless” and filled with “starry skies” (1, 1-2). The remaining lines of the first stanza tell the reader that the woman's face and eyes combine all the greatness of dark and light:

    Read More

  • Literary Analysis Of 'Ode To A Nightingale And Bright Star'

    1443 Words  | 3 Pages

    Keats’ poetry explores many issues and themes, accompanied by language and technique that clearly demonstrates the romantic era. His poems ‘Ode to a Nightingale’ and ‘Bright Star’ examine themes such as mortality and idealism of love. Mortality were common themes that were presented in these poems as Keats’ has used his imagination in order to touch each of the five senses. He also explores the idea that the nightingale’s song allows Keats to travel in a world of beauty. Keats draws from mythology and christianity to further develop these ideas. Keats’ wrote ‘Ode To A Nightingale’ as an immortal bird’s song that enabled him to escape reality and live only to admire the beauty of nature around him. ‘Bright Star’ also discusses the immortal as Keats shows a sense of yearning to be like a star in it’s steadfast abilities. The visual representation reveal these ideas as each image reflects Keats’ obsession with nature and how through this mindset he was able

    Read More

  • The Love Song of J, Alfred Prufrock

    1179 Words  | 3 Pages

    The first half of the poem creates a sense of place. The narrator invites us to go “through certain half-deserted streets” on an evening he has just compared to an unconscious patient (4). To think of an evening as a corpselike event is disturbing, but effective in that the daytime is the time of the living, and the night time is the time of the dead. He is anxious and apprehensive, and evokes a sense of debauchery and shadows. Lines 15-22 compare the night’s fog to the actions of a typical cat, making the reader sense the mystery of a dark, foggy night in a familiar, tangible way. One might suppose that “In the room the women come and go/ Talking of Michelangelo” refers to a room in a brothel, where the seedy women for hire talk about elevated art between Johns (13). The narrator creates a tension in the image of dark deserted streets and shady activities in the dark.

    Read More

  • Acquainted With The Night Analysis Essay

    1237 Words  | 3 Pages

    “Its deserted streets are a potent symbol of man and nature 's indifference to the individual. The insistence of the narrator on his own self-identity is in part an act of defiance against a constructed, industrial world that has no place for him in its order” (Bolton). As the poem continues on, the narrator becomes aware of his own consciousness as he comes faces nature and society during his walk. He embraces nature with the rain, dark and moon but he also reinforces his alienation from society as he ignores the watchman and receives no hope of cries for him. The societal ignorance enforces our belief that he is lonely on this gloomy night. “When he passes a night watchman, another walker in the city with whom the speaker might presumably have some bond, he confesses, ‘I… dropped my eyes, unwilling to explain.’ Likewise, when he hears a voice in the distance, he stops in his tracks--only to realize that the voice is not meant "to call me back or say goodbye" (Bolton). The two times he had a chance to interact with the community, either he showed no interest in speaking or the cry wasn’t meant for him. These two interactions emphasize his loneliness with the

    Read More

  • Compare And Contrast Percy Shelley And The Sublime/Beautiful

    1126 Words  | 3 Pages

    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.

    Read More

  • Romanticism In Annabel Lee By Edgar Allan Poe

    962 Words  | 2 Pages

    Poems have really intricate meanings that can be portrayed in many different ways. They can be used to express feelings and emotions towards someone or something. Poems can be about love, hate, nature, or anything in particular. The poem “Annabel Lee,” by Edgar Allan Poe is a romantic poem, written during the Romanticism period. The poem is about the narrator, a young man, who is dealing with the tragic loss of his fair maiden, whom he fell in love with at a young age. The love between the couple is described as very childlike and innocent. Their love for each other is extremely passionate, for that reason, the angels became jealous and killed Annabel Lee. Although his wife passed away, the narrator does not want to give up on their love and

    Read More

  • Analyzing Sara Teasdale's Poem 'Barter'

    430 Words  | 1 Pages

    This poems meaning can change in the eyes of the reader. For example I believe ‘’Scent of pine trees in the rain’’ means taking in the beauty and smells of a peaceful rainy day standing under a beautiful pine tree. But a different reader may feel the pine trees are considered bad and smelling them is the price one must pay for the joy of the rain. I believe the author wanted to write a positive and encouraging poem for her

    Read More

  • The Literary Techniques Used to Evoke the World of Senses in Keats Odes

    1576 Words  | 4 Pages

    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...

    Read More

  • Analysis Of Keats's Ode To Melancholy Essay

    844 Words  | 2 Pages

    Here the speaker clearly warns against Melancholy’s fit as if she is a force of nature. As a force of nature beauty is drowned out by “a weeping cloud” or Melancholy’s fit when she “fosters the droop-headed flowers” (Keats 932). The force of her fit drowns out the beauty as seen in spring time flowers. Furthermore, in order to personify Melancholy, she is referred to her as, “thy mistress some rich anger shows, / Emprison her soft hand, and let her rave, /And feed deep, deep, deep upon her peerless eyes” (Keats 932). The depiction of this mistress is another personification, but this time it is of Death as a Goddess. These confusing lines of the poem could refer to Melancholy or Death in this stanza as either goes from an untouchable Goddess to a Goddess with a human nature that includes anger and pain. A distinct opposition to Melancholy or Death’s choler is the soft hand that the speaker is asking someone to restrain. This opposition shows Keats highlighting the delicate correspondence between happiness, death and melancholy having humanistic

    Read More

  • The Poem, To Autumn by John Keats

    310 Words  | 1 Pages

    In the poem “To Autumn” the initial impression that we get is that Keats is describing a typical Autumn day with all its colors and images. On deeper reading it becomes evident that it is more than just that. The poem is rather a celebration of the cycle of life and acceptance that death is part of life.

    Read More

  • Criticism In William Butler Yeats's Leda And The Swan

    1047 Words  | 3 Pages

    What is a king to a god? Even if that god has committed unspeakable acts? Leda and the Swan is a poem that causes a lot controversy; some people feel that Zeus raped Leda where as others feel that she was seduced. William Butler Yeats officially published this poem in 1928. He was known as one of the world’s greatest authors of his time.

    Read More

  • When I Have Fears That I May Cease To Be By John Keats Analysis

    853 Words  | 2 Pages

    John Keats is an early nineteenth century Romantic poet. In his poem “When I have Fears that I May Cease to Be,” Keats makes excellent use of a majority of poetry elements. This sonnet concentrates merely on his fear of death and his reasons for fearing it. Though Keats’ emphasizes his greatest fear of death, he offers his own resolution by asserting that love and fame lacks any importance. Keats uses articulate wording to exemplify his tone, while using images, figures of speech, symbols, and allegory to illustrate his fear of death. His use of rhythm, sounds, and patters also contribute to his concentration of fear and the effects on his life. As one of the most famous Romantic poets, John Keats utilizes the elements of poetry in “When I Have Fears that I May Cease to Be” to convey his fears and allow the reader to realize how much these fears affect him.

    Read More

  • Keats Attitude Towards Nature

    483 Words  | 1 Pages

    As pains and sufferings are the part and parcel of man's life,therefore,to forget his personal sorrows. He indulges in the world of natural beauty. As in the "ode to Nightingale", Nightingale and he becomes one, his soul sings in the bird which is the symbol of joy. The song of the bird transfers him into the world of imagination and he forgets his peronal sorrows in the happy world of the nightingale:

    Read More

More about Critical Analysis Of John Keats's Ode To A Nightingale

Open Document