Literary Analysis Of 'Ode To A Nightingale'

Ode to a Nightingale by John Keats is one of the most notable poems throughout the history of English literature. In this lyrical poem, Keats addresses the themes of beauty and perpetuity through the characteristics the nightingale. The poet then describes the nightingale as a symbol of perfection, immortality, and freedom from the world’s secular activities. Keats wrote this piece at a time when he found himself stuck at the intersection between the two worlds of reality and fantasy. He was diagnosed with tuberculosis, found out that his brother died, and recently became engaged to Fanny Brawne. Struggling with two paradoxical idea of "fancy escape” and "mortal limitation", Keats echoes his personal life to this poem. In addition, he fully

He is constantly in a search of the freedom that the nightingale so elegantly sings about. The bird’s song of freedom symbolizes pure joy, showing that is oblivious to the real world that Keats describes as “weariness, fever, and fret” (line 23). Keats also longs to release his soul from his troubles by “fancying” into the nightingale’s world of beauty and eternity. In addition, he is in a deep despair and longs to fade away “among the leaves hast never known” to forget all his burdens (line 22). As the poem progresses, he explores many ways to join the nightingale. However, he realizes that he must inevitably face the reality that it is not possible for one to fade away with a nightingale, “Adieu! the fancy cannot cheat so well” (line 73). He admits that using his imagination to cheat (fancy) his way to the nightingale’s world is not so effective. He is not sure if he ever entered its world at all, thus leading to multiple rhetorical questions that he raises himself: Am I sleeping or awake? Have I returned to the “real” world? Maybe the nightingale’s world is reality and the “real” world is just a