ode to a nightingale Flashcards
(21 cards)
how does the speaker begin the poem?
by stating that he feels as if he has drunk something poisnous that has drugged his senses. He ascibes his sensation to listeing to the song of the nightingale and to being subsequnctly intoxicated by the birds happiness.
‘where but to think is tio be full of sorrow’
the speaker wishes for oblivion to escape from the cares of being human, he tells the nightingale to fly away and he will jion it, carried aloft on the wings of his own creation’
what does the speaker assert about death?
that he woudl be content to die there and then whilst listening to the nightingale song, although he admits that weew he to do so he would no longer be able to hear the beautiful sounds made by the bird.
what does he say about the birds song?
that it is nit subject to the rules governed by human art, which mean that human artists have to follow in teadition established by their predecessors ans in which each new generation seeks to outdo the last. Insead the bords song is eternal herad just as equalluy by both ‘emperor and clwon’ hwoever the speaker is brought back to his senses
what is the poems conclusion?
he is no lomger sure whether he has experinced a vison or a ‘waking dream’.
context
Keats was living with Charles Borwn in hampstead in the spring of 1819 ad he wrote about how a nightingale has built a nest near theri house and keats felt a tranquila nd continul jot in her song and one morning he took his cghair from teh breakfast table and sta under the pulm three for two to three hours, he then came back into the house with scraps of peaper in his hand. he found the paper and they contained poetic feelingh about teh songe of the nightingale.
‘ache’ ‘drowsy numbness’
having witnessed the death of his brother Tom from tuberculosis a few montsh previously keats alsio now surcumming ti the same illness and fimailar to the effect this could be the reason he describes the ‘weariness, the fever, and the fret’ whivh had already caused him to ‘leaden eyed despairs’
sounds
sppproariaye for a poem inspired by the soiund of birdsong, there is much onomatopoeia in the poem to create a variety of moods, harsh ‘t’ and ‘k’ sounds in ‘heart aches and heavy ‘d’ and ‘p’ sounds at the beggining of the poem to replicate keats dreary mood. This contrasts bthat light sounds in the second half of the stanza ‘light-winged dryad’ the joay assocated with the nightingales song suggested by the repition of the long ‘ee’ sounds ‘beechebn’ ‘green’ ‘ease’
‘cool’d a long age’ tastes ‘pf flora and the country green’ ‘provencal song’ and ‘purple-stained mouth’
through keats description of wine, he appeals to each sense appleaing to the assement of keats as the ‘poet of the senses’ . By relating to senses he is also relating to teh world bounded to time and change. The final lines of stanza 2 strike a sharpe contrast as the wine serves paredoxically nt only to heighten pleaure but allow imagination to escape the physical world ‘that i might drink and leave the world unseen and with thee fade away into the forest dim-“
‘embalamed darkness’ ‘murmurous haunt of flies on summer eyes’
in the fifth stanza the sense move to sound and smeel as the dusk fails his sight.
tone
there has been critical disaggreements with some critics arguing taht keats rejects imagination ‘decieving elf’ as he rekects the possibility of joining the bird in the immortal world hwoever teh poets final question still carries the suggestion that such transcedent experince is still possible, the tone is difficult to pin down. ‘do i wake or sleep?’
what contrast is teh doe structured around?
the poet who is earthbound and the bird which is free. The moprtal world that is markled by sorrow and transcience and the world of the nightingale, which is set apart by its jpy and immorality. Thsi is expressed by keats stark use of langauge ‘where youth grows pale, and spectre-thin and dies’ as opposed ti the heavens assaciated with the birds somg full of ‘tender’ moonlight and the scent if hawtrhord and pastrorial eglantine’
structure
eight ten line stanza withs the first 7 and last two lines written in aimbic pentometer and with stanza written ins trimeter. the ryme schem in each stanza in is the same abab cde cde, this is the same scheme he employs throughout his later odes
communication
the nightingale is the poems central image and symbol. the music it produces becomnes a symbol of pure beauty. It is not retructed by meaning like words are, it ios the direct communiaction between the natural world and the human one . Unlike human art the birds song does not need education to be appreicated, this is where it draws its power from. it sings mostly at niggt so tehrefore muight appeat invistable hwoever in this way it can bve seen to transcend the human world and be ‘immortal’
what has the nightingale been a symbol of from ancient times?
love in greek mythology. Philomel- was a beauitiful gitl who after she had been raped has her tongue cut out by her attacker and was turned into a nightingale by the gods
death
the poem aslo contaims imagages of death ‘hemlock’ ‘lethe’ ‘embalmed’ ‘darkness’ when assocaited with ‘fret’ and ‘despiars’ death can be seen as a negative presence on the human spirit. However it alos has positive associations ‘easful ‘rich’ expeince which releases the poet into a pain freee eternity. All living thgings are subject to death howveer the symbol of the nightingale can be considered immortal.
fundamental pardox in the poem
the nightingale song seen as a offerung from day to day paims ‘the weariness, teh fever and the fret’ but also as a symbol of ‘immorality’ which makes keats painfu;;y aware if the fragility of his won life
the vale of soul making
the poem follows the troubled mediation of power of the human imagination to allow joy but also for it to transform the soul.
‘where youth grows pale, and spectreb thin and dies’ ‘a beaker full of of warm south’ ‘on the viewless wings of poesy’
the poet triues to escape humanities tragic experince through imagination itself, in the central section of the poem the minds attempt to transcend ligfe and reamin aware of itself leads it to becoming lost, keats describes the ‘embalmed darkness’ of transitory senseations suggesting that he is not escapting but dying.
‘charm’d magic casements, opening on the foam of periolous seas, in faery lands forlorn’
immorality enticment is dangeous, the world ‘forlorn’ is a turning point for the poet , as the contemplation of beauty leads to the painful awareness of perfection that cannot last. The human imagination allows us to transcend but not permanently.
