Preview

Ode to a Nightingale

Good Essays
Open Document
Open Document
702 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
Ode to a Nightingale
Ode to a Nightingale In Ode to a Nightingale, John Keats, the author and narrator, used descript terminology to express the deep-rooted pain he was suffering during his battle with tuberculosis. This poem has eight paragraphs or verses of ten lines each and doesn't follow any specific rhyme scheme. In the first paragraph, Keats gave away the mood of the whole poem with his metaphors for his emotional and physical sufferings, for example: My heart aches, and drowsy numbness pains
My sense (1-2) Keats then went on to explain to the reader that he was speaking to the "light-winged Dryad" in the poem. This bird symbolizes a Nightingale that to many, depicts the happiness and vibrance of life with the way it seems to gracefully hover over brightly colored flowers to get nectar but, to Keats death, because his was becoming.
"Shadows numberless" at the end of the paragraph signifies the angel of death and spirits that had surrounded Keats. Keats vividly and beautifully described wine: … for a beaker full of the warm South… With beaded bubbles winking at the brim, And purple stained mouth; That I might drink, and leave the he used to bury his fears and emotions about death. In verse three, Keats expressed that most people enjoy a full life and die old, when he pens: Here, men sit and hear each other groan; …last gray hairs,
Where youth grows pale, and spectre-thin, and dies… (24-26) He felt that youth was a time in one's life to enjoy. According to him, being rich, popular, beautiful, funny and smart didn't matter because the angel of death was blind. Keats was afraid of death because of the loved one's he had to leave behind. He expresses that with the phrase:
And with thee fade away into the forest dim (20) Keats explained that he had wanted to wander off into the forest so no one would've had to be bothered by him. In paragraph four, Keats had spoken to the Nightingale and

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Good Essays

    Lian Hearn was born in England and immigrated to Australia in 1973. Lian Hearn is a pseudonym which means that she used a different name to publish her book. She chose the name Lian Hearn because Lian has been a family nickname for her and Hearn because it is Japanese for Heron which is a key symbol in her books. She is a rather famous author and the books that made her famous where the “Tales of Otori series.…

    • 1337 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    “I owe them my roots and memory. I am duty-bound to serve as their emissary, transmitting the history of their disappearance, even if it disturbs, even if it brings pain. Not to do so would be to betray them, and thus myself.”…

    • 468 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    ENG2D1 CPT Essay

    • 1725 Words
    • 3 Pages

    his father’s love has not perished. The author used the idea of family to show going home in this…

    • 1725 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    Antigone - 13

    • 1735 Words
    • 7 Pages

    he lost his wife, his son, and his happiness. This is what is expressed in the line, "No wisdom but…

    • 1735 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Silent Spring

    • 892 Words
    • 4 Pages

    The following quote "The sedge is withr'd from the lake, And no birds sing," (Keats)…

    • 892 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Similarly, both authors use symbols to depict the different meanings between the two poems. Keats uses symbols to show how he has been missing out on life and how he regrets not being in love, whereas Longfellow uses symbols to show his fear for his approaching death. The regret that Keats feels is reiterated throughout the poem. During the night he looks up and sees, “Huge cloudy symbols of a high romance” (6), which shows that he wants someone to love, but feels that love is too far out of reach. Also, Keats reveals that, “unreflecting love” (12) is something that he has qualms over and that no one has ever loved him back. Keats uses the clouds and a blank mirror to show that achieving love is such an astronomical task, but yet he still wishes he would have tried harder at accomplishing this duty. Likeweise, Longfellow also uses symbols in his poem, but to show his trepidation of upcoming death. To display his dismal years of life, Longfellow explains that he is “half-way up the hill, I see the Past / Lying beneath me with its sounds and sights / A city in the twilight dim and vast” (11). Longfellow uses the “hill” to represent his years of life and he uses the dim and vast city to signify his past.…

    • 469 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    As we can see, the nightingale symbolizes various things in this story. First of all, the nightingale can be considered sincerity between the lady and her beloved. Two lovers tryst with each other under the pretext of the nightingale’s singing. When the bird was killed, their relationship turned into a fond dream without happy ending. Secondly, middle class’s women often oppressed by their education, family and social expectation, lacking of independence and hope at that time. However, in this story the author created an active and strong female character contrast with the nightingale which I regard as an epitome of the women of that time. The nightingale is fragile, weak and indecisive that are exactly the traits which middle class’s women possess in middle ages. Thirdly, the above-mentioned lacking hope that I have talked about is also the sorrowful social oppression toward women. The women at that time were often compelled to marry a man whose family of equal standing with her, no matter whom they really fall for. Therefore, the nightingale symbolizes their hope of free love, ideals or those things they can’t achieve. To sum up, if we…

    • 381 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    Keats' poem is a Shakespearean Sonnet with an elevated tone and is divided into three quatrains and rhyming couplet as opposed to octave and sestet. Continuity is gained by the repetition of the word "when" at the beginning of each quatrain. This builds the tension of the poem describing areas of concern for unfinished tasks. The word "before" in the second line is echoed during the third reinforcing the speaker's list of desired accomplishments before it is too late. This syntax sets the tone to ensure understanding of the speaker's growing fear about time running out.…

    • 317 Words
    • 1 Page
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Implying that it is a discipline, like Art, to hide in plain sight the real issue that losing hurts. Bishop’s rationality makes it hard for the speaker to continue denying their feelings. Bishop uses imagery to describe the person and places the speaker loves and lost, “I lost two cities, lovely ones” (5.1) the speaker paints a portrait of a cherished place that is no longer there, causing pain. The reader also learns of the speaker’s loss of a loved one, “Even losing you (… I love)” (6.1) leaving the emptiness of…

    • 638 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    John Keats Research Paper

    • 1314 Words
    • 6 Pages

    John Keats’s writing genre varied from work to work, as there were many in narrative, lyrical, and epic poetry (Henry 187). His early poetry was successful for its strong emotion while using themes of love, the relationship between poetry and nature, and the eternalness of beauty (Henry 187). He also enjoyed major success that endures to this day in “Laima”, “Isabella”, and “The Eve of St. Agnes” (Henry 187). Critics celebrate the dexterity, the wonderful imagery, and the sympathy that is in all of these poems (Henry 187). Though Keats had many successful poems, there was one early poem, Endymion, that was quite a failure (Henry 188). Many readers complained of Keats’s confusing and overuse of metaphors (Henry 188). Therefore, Keats was forced to change his style of writing because he was living solely off of the profits he received from writing (Henry 188). Keats’s writing also exemplified the Romantic idea of going back to a simpler, better time (Bergum…

    • 1314 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    Ode to Nightengale

    • 522 Words
    • 3 Pages

    Keats does not only use the literary device of figurative language to get the message that life is better than it seems across. He also uses diction, which is a necessary tool in the romantic poem. Diction provides readers with a clearer understanding and adds more emotion into the text. Readers are reminded that, “thou was not born for death, immortal bird” and instead people of the world are supposed to live their life with freedom and happiness (Keats 61). God did not create the world for people to wish for death but instead…

    • 522 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Keats and His Legacy

    • 584 Words
    • 3 Pages

    Keats' own life was cut short at a young age (1795-1821) when he fell ill with tuberculosis, just as his mother and brother had. Most of his poems reflect his almost melancholy outlook on life and his longing for a legacy to be left behind after his death. "Ode to a Grecian Urn" shows a theme of a legacy, a legacy which is almost envied by the speaker in the poem. "When I Have Fears that I May Cease To Be" is another work of Keats' which shows a fear of death and concern for what is left behind.…

    • 584 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    John Keats Research Paper

    • 2109 Words
    • 9 Pages

    The oldest of four children, he “was born to keepers of a London livery stable” that sadly, both died during his younger years (Holderlin 559). He had, what many would identify as, “little to no advantages” in life, advantages that would help bring out his poetic ingeniousness, and all of these disadvantages started with him having to overcome these early tragic deaths (559-560). At the age of eight, Keats’ father was killed in a horse accident. Only a few years later, his mother was killed as well, however, the details surrounding her death are not as clear, but many assume that it was from complications of Tuberculosis (560). Following the death of his mother, Keats grandmother “appointed two London merchants, Richard Abbey and John Rowland Sandell as guardians” (561). Abbey took a majority of the responsibility. Abbey withdrew Keats from the school at which he was attending, Enfield, and started his training with an “apothecary-surgeon” (Clarke 1). Although this is quite different than the path that one would expect from the writer of Bright Star, Keats went on to gain his certificate in 1816 and would soon discover his true love for writing was waiting just around the corner…

    • 2109 Words
    • 9 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    Homer And John Keats

    • 635 Words
    • 3 Pages

    First, he shows that in his poem, “Fears,” his main problems in life are the ones he won’t get to experience before he dies. Secondly, in his poem, “Homer,” he elucidates the importance of the everlasting beauty of Homer’s creations. Lastly, in Keats’ poem “Urn,” he helps clarify the reason why the urn will last longer than any civilization, any nation, and any kingdom because of its eternal beauty. John Keats, being a Romantic poet, always writes with the emphasis of nature, and the importance of metaphysical…

    • 635 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    John Keats Accomplishments

    • 1327 Words
    • 6 Pages

    When knowing about his inevitable death, Keats sits down can articulate his fears of dying so young. One of his greatest fears not being able to fully express himself and show or write down everything he thinks, “When I have fears that I may cease to be, before my pen has gleaned my teeming brain." (Ln. 1-2) This poem is so powerful because many people can relate to this text. Everyone has fears that they will die before passing away. This is all in our nature of trying to accomplish our very best. Unfortunately, for Keats this fear has become reality and he is truly feeling a true pain, a mental realization that he won't be able to accomplish what he wants. He has to accept the fact that he can't achieve what he wants before he dies. This is the most painful because all hope is gone and hope is the single largest driver in all human actions, either the hope to achieve something, hope to gain pleasure, or hope to avoid pain. The Goldschmeding Foundation explored how people use hope as an incentive and their conclusions were, "Hope is aware of the tension between reality and the ideal the people envision. This makes it a motivating force for development that distinguishes itself from optimism." John…

    • 1327 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Better Essays