To a Skylark" vs "Ode to a Nightingale

"To a Skylark" vs "Ode to a Nightingale" Essay From many years ago to today, there are people in this world with different feelings about life and the aspects that make it what it is. Percy Bysshe Shelley and John Keats demonstrate this in their poems “To a Skylark” and “Ode to a Nightingale”. Both poems are focused directly on birds that represent feeling, strong views on life, and senses of immortality. With some opposing views and some similar views on life, the two poets explore deep into the meaning of life. The topic, life, has so many aspects and feelings that make it what it is. The two poems in focus both are centered around beautiful birds that are in some ways opposite, and in some ways very similar. One thing that these two birds have in common is that they both represent feelings. The Skylark from “To a Skylark”, demonstrates feelings of happiness and joy. You can clearly see this when the speaker says, “Like a rose embowered/ In its own green leaves,/ By warm winds deflowered,/ Till the scent it gives/ Makes faint with too much sweet those heavy­winged thieves!” In this quote, you can see that the speaker notices the importance of joy .Shelley expresses feelings of sympathy toward the bird for being immortal, when he writes, “Teach us , sprite or bird,/ what sweet thoughts are thine:/ I have never heard/ Praise of love or wine.” The speaker likes that the bird is so happy and asks if it can teach humans to be just as happy. The other bird, the Nightingale from “Ode to a Nightingale”, shows very different feelings. This bird the speaker emphasises that he feels numb from the amount of happiness pouring out of the bird. This is shown in the quote, “My heart aches, and drowsy numbness pains/ My sense, as though of hemlock I had drunk,/ Or emptied some dull opiate the the

drains/ One minute past, and Lethe­wards had sunk,/ ‘Tis not through envy of thy happy lot,/ But being too happy in thine happiness.” The many feelings in these poems are very