Ode to a nightingale

Keats

(1st two stanzas)

This ode was inspired after Keats heard the song of a nightingale while staying with a friend in the country. This poem was also written after the death of his brother and the many references to death in this poem are a reflection of this. Among the thematic concerns in this poem is the wish to escape life through different routes. Although the poem begins by describing the song of an actual nightingale, the nightingale goes on to become a symbol of the immortality of nature.

In lines 1-3 Keats expresses a wish to dull and numb his senses artificially. He wishes to use "hemlock" or "some dull opiate" to numb his pain. He also makes a reference to Lethe, the river that those who are about to be reincarnated must drink from to forget their old lives when he says in line 4 that he has to "Lethe-wards…sunk". However it is not out of envy of the joy in the bird's song but because he is too happy that he wishes to numb his senses. In line 7 Keats refers to the nightingale as a "Dryad of the trees", a tree spirit, the bird has become a symbol.

In stanza two, Keats call "for a draught of vintage" that tastes of "Flora and country-green". In line 14 the wine tastes of "Dance, and Provencal song, and sunburnt mirth". "Provencal" was a language used by medieval troubadours. Here Keats does not want to be drunk but rather he wants the wine to get into a state of happiness and merriment. He also wishes the wine to inspire him when he alludes to the "Hippocrene" in line 16, a fountain sacred to the muses said to bring poetic inspiration to those who drank from it.

The idea that wine will give him ideas is illustrated in line 17 with "beaded bubbles winking at the brim". Besides describing the Hippocrene, the bubbles are Keats' thoughts about to overflow. Drink is also a way for him to escape as he wishes to "fade away into the forest dim". The word "Fade" is repeated at the beginning of the first...

In mythology, to drink the waters of the Lethe (the river of Hades) is to forget the sadness of life, yet to reach the Lethe one must first die. Thus, death is oblivion and vice-versa. In the third stanza, the speaker focuses on the forgetfulness of death. He wishes to enter the “immortal” world of the nightingale, to “leave the world unseen” and to “dissolve, and quite forget” the sufferings of a human world overshadowed by the knowledge of death. That world, characterized by “weariness” and “fret,” is one ravaged by the consequences of human foresight, “where but to think is to be full of sorrow.” Because consciousness brings on “leadeneyed despairs,” youth lives under the gloom of death and beauty becomes tainted by the knowledge that it is passing. Thus, under the normal conditions of man’s existence, both beauty and the response to beauty are undermined by the limiting nature of time and death. In contrast, the nightingale does not need to “forget” or to be numbed by wine. On the contrary, it “hast never known” the fear of time and death because it does not “think.” It therefore can enjoy a “happy lot” and sing “of summer in full-throated ease.”

Stanza I

Line 2, hemlock: a poison made from an herb or a poisonous drink made from that herb.
Line 4, Lethe: a river in Hades (the underworld). Souls about to be reincarnated drank from it to forget their past lives.
Line 7, Dryad: a wood nymph or nymph of the trees. Dryads or nymphs were female personifications of natural features, like mountains and rivers; they were young, beautiful, long-lived and liked music and dance. A Dryad was connected to a specific tree and died when the tree died. s

Stanza II

Line 3, Flora: goddess of flowers and fertility.
Line 4. Provencal: of Provence, an area in the south of France associated with song, pleasure, and luxury.
Line 6, Hippocrene: a spring sacred to the Muses, located on Mt.Helicon. Drinking its waters inspired poets. (The nine muses were associated with different arts, such as epic poetry, sacred song, and dancing