In the poem ‘Ode to a Nightingale’ Keats raises the concerns that beauty and love must die and the inevitability of old age and it’s associated ills.
‘Where Beauty cannot keep her lustrous eyes, Or new love pine at them beyond to-morrow’, expresses his views about beauty fading and love being short.
‘Where youth grows pale, and spectre-thin, and dies;’ and ‘Here, where men sit and hear each other groan’ shows Keats’ feelings about the onset of old age and the illness and disease initiates. Keats also shows his delight and comfort in the song of the nightingale. He expresses that the song of the nightingale has been around for centuries and has been heard ‘In ancient days by emperor and clown’ and does not die. ‘Thou was not born for death, immortal bird’. Keats finds comfort in this and it composes him.
‘Ode on a Grecian Urn’ shows Keats love of beauty and nature. ‘A flowery tale more sweetly that our rhyme’. Keats cannot describe the natural scene on the urn. He also expresses that ‘Beauty is truth’, the beauty on the urn will remain forever.
‘Thy song, nor ever can those trees be bare;
Bold Lover, never, never canst thou kiss’
The beauty will never change for the figures on the urn, and they will never be able to participate in life’s experiences and indulges.
The setting of Keats’ poems was important to him, as they presented the atmosphere and feeling of the poem.
‘To Autumn’ presents a rich, ripe, fertile atmosphere which is portrayed through a number of natural settings. The ‘half reaped furrow’ and ‘Drowsed with the fumes of poppies’, suggest a sleepy, lazy atmosphere, full of sunshine and sweet smelling flowers. The image of the orchard depicts an atmosphere of ripe fruit and fertility. The cider-press produces images of crushed apples and an atmosphere of mushy, pulpy, and sweet smelling fruits.
The setting of ‘Ode to a Nightingale’ presents a tranquil forest, with ‘verdurous glooms’ and ‘winding mossy ways’. The forest is green and dark with most filled pathways, giving a cool, calm, and tranquil atmosphere. ‘The grass, thicket, and the fruit tree wild’, produces images of ripeness and ‘soft incense hangs upon the boughs’ entices the senses, giving an atmosphere of sweet smells and calmness.
The location of the urn in ‘Ode on a Grecian Urn’ is unknown, but the settings on the urn tell a story about an event in history. ‘Sylvan historian’, a slice of history presenting an ambience of honour and valour. ‘Pipes and timbrels’, ‘mad pursuit’ and ‘wild ecstasy’ present the image of a festival, giving an atmosphere of happiness, gaiety and lust. Keats then displays the realisation that the figures on the urn are still and silent, for eternity. ‘Cold Pastoral!’ shows the depiction of a rural scene and the absence of life. The urn is simply a pictorial representation of the events.
Keats uses poetic devices to reinforce his ideas and main concerns. In ‘To Autumn’, Keats uses onomatopoeia to recreate insights and sounds. The words ‘oozings’ and ‘twitter’ produce the images of the freshly pressed apples being collected by the press operator and the birds, flying and gathering in the skies. The season of autumn is also personified by Keats, referring to it as ‘him’ and being a ‘close bosom-friend of the maturing sun’ and ‘conspiring with him’.
Keats also uses sensuous imagery; ‘season of mists and mellow fruitfulness’ and ‘hair soft lifted by the winnowing wind’. This allures and provokes the senses and allows the reader to recreate the images in their mind and experience the events that Keats is describing.
In ‘Ode to a Nightingale’ Keats uses alliteration, ‘beaded bubbles’ and ‘fade far’ to make his writing flow and roll of the tongue. Keats also uses personification by talking to the bird and personifying spring to be ‘mid-May’s eldest child’. He also uses sensuous images such as ‘verdurous glooms’, ‘musk rose’, and the ‘murmurous haunt of files’ to entice the imagination of the reader. Keats also makes reference to Roman mythology, Bacchus the god of wine, and biblical images, and Ruth, an exile in the Old Testament.
In ‘Ode on a Grecian Urn’ Keats personifies the urn as ‘Thou still unravished bride of quietness’, an untouched, virginal beauty. He also uses antequated language to make the reader take him earnestly and listen to his concerns.
By using theme, language and atmosphere, it can be seen that Keats’ three poems, ‘To Autumn’, ‘Ode to a Nightingale’ and ‘Ode on a Grecian Urn’ elucidate his main concerns, his love of nature and the notion that beauty, vigour and youth must die.
