William Wordsworth's 'To the Cuckoo' and John Keats' 'Ode to a nightingale' are comparable in many different aspects.

“O Cuckoo! shall I call thee bird,

Or but a wondering Voice”.

Keats also points out the nightingale’s singing capacity, creating audible and not only visual imagery,

“Singest of summer in full-throated ease.”

        The way the two poets perceive and react to their subjects is where the two poets vary greatly. It is relevant that in ‘Tintern Abbey’, Wordsworth says the following:

“Of eye and ear, both what they half create,

And what perceive”

Both poets do follow this idea. They use imagination to expand on what they see and do so in different directions. The fact that Wordsworth does not see the Cuckoo means he can invent and expand greatly.

        Both poets are clearly partial to the birds, but show different attitudes towards them. Wordsworth longs for the bird, he needs the bird and is fond of it. Keats insists he is not jealous,

“Tis not through envy of thy happy lot,

But being too happy in thy happiness”

However, he certainly shows contempt towards the bird and expresses an unhappy longing which borders on envy.

        In essence, the bird is part of Wordsworth. It is part of his past. He is yearning for his past so he longs for the cuckoo. The cuckoo is the symbol for his past. It is something he has left, something that has not changed.

“The same whom in my schoolboy days,

I listen’d to”

Although it would not be the same cuckoo, it does not matter, it still reminds Wordsworth of his childhood. Wordsworth’s poem is drenched with nostalgia. His longing is for the past, for his childhood days. Keats contrasts himself and the nightingale. He longs for the nightingale in a wishful way. He wants to be the nightingale. To Keats the nightingale is his future and not his past.

        Wordsworth’s longing is pleasurable. He enjoys reminiscing in his reverie. He is a man “a state of vivid sensation”. This may also be said of Keats, but his sensation is intense and aggressive. Whereas Wordsworth seems in a state of high, Keats seems sober in his writing. This is ironic, as it is despite his references to an “opiate”, “a draught of vintage” and “hemlock”. Wordsworth is relaxed and sedated, illustrated by,

“While I am lying on the grass”

Wordsworth follows his idea of “emotion recollected in tranquillity”, he both feels these emotions and writes about them in a tranquil state. His emotion is Romantic and pleasant. Keats does also write from a tranquil place, a garden, but his emotion is recollected though chaos and disorder. Although he does give some tranquil imagery,

“Fade far away, dissolve, and quite forget”

, this is of the nightingale not himself.

        Keats is miserable and distressed. He wants an escape from life. He is not content with his world,

“where men sit and hear each other groan;

… Where youth grows pale, and spectre-thin, and dies;

Where but to think is to be full of sorrow.”

Keats is disenchanted and writes very depressingly. He says, “My heart aches”, the extent of his misery illustrated by,

“I have been half in love with easeful Death,”

and when he says he feels “as though of hemlock I had drunk”. He also suggests death with his use of “embalméd darkness”. He continues to refer to death and seems very close to it. Keats has seen his mother and brother suffer through life and die, he wants to escape this suffering. Keats longs for death, the end, and Wordsworth longs for childhood, the beginning. Whereas Wordsworth is an idealist, Keats is a pessimist and a fatalist, he has lost his love for life.

        Keats’ escape is represented by the nightingale. He sees the nightingale as innocent and not exposed to the cruelty of life. The nightingale is free to do whatever it wants. It is happy and lives in bliss. It is portrayed as majestic and powerful. The nightingale is Keat’s dream. He rejects the idea of escaping through a drug, such as wine, and settles on poetry as his temporary escape,

“Not charioted by Bacchus and his pards,

But on the viewless wings of Poesy,”

Because of their different directions, the two poems have contrasting endings. Wordsworth has found his heaven on earth, “an unsubstantial, fairy place,” and concludes that earth is a fitting Eden for the cuckoo and himself. Keats concludes that he cannot find heaven on earth and chooses death instead. He says goodbye to the world and the nightingale, “Adieu!” and departs, leaving his problems “buried deep/ In the next valley-glades.” He has realised he cannot find happiness on earth and is not so easily satisfied as Wordsworth. This difference in ending shows how two poems that started with similar ideas have deviated into opposite tales.

        Both poets use pastoral imagery, something characteristic of the Romantic poets. In ‘To the Cuckoo’, the scene of “hill to hill”, “through woods and on the green”. Keats dreams less of nature, but his final scene is

“Over the still stream,

Up the hill-side…

In the next valley glades”

        

        A fundemental difference is that Wordsworth desires to remember his “visionary hours”, whilst Keats wants only to forget. His only way of continuing is by forgetting the past. He puts his grief from his mother’s death behind him. The reference to “Lethe” shows how he wants to wash away his memories in the river of forgetfulness.

        The seasons each poet has chosen to set their poem in are different. Wordsworth has opted for Spring, identifying the Cuckoo as “darling of the Spring!” Spring represents the fresh and unspoilt nature. It represents blossoming and warming. Keats sets his poem in Summer, the height of the year. Keats’ summer is somewhat stale and uncomfortable, as if it is dying into Autumn. This is reflected in the mood of Keats’ poem.

        Romantic poetry generally attempted to break away from the mould of neo-Classicism, that is to not try to recreate Classical imagery and structure. Wordsworth obeys this theorem perfectly, with not one Classical reference. Keats however frequently makes references to Classical and Biblical mythology. “Lethe”, the river of forgetfulness, “Hippocrene”, the fountain at which Muses were born, “Bacchus”, God of Wine and “Ruth”, a biblical character, are all used by Keats.

        Structurally, the two poems are also comparable. Both poets use iambic pentameter, which does not make any allusions in itself. However, Keats deviates from a rigid metre and in the eighth line of each stanza uses trimeter. Wordsworth uses more modern four-line stanzas and Keats uses longer, more explicit ten-line stanzas. Wordsworth’s rhyme scheme is the simple ABAB in each stanza. The effect of this is to give an echo of the ‘Cu-Ckoo’ sound the bird makes. The monotonous and rigid structure of the poem adds to this. Keats uses ABABCDECDE, which may reflects the more varied melodious song of the Nightingale.

        Another interesting aspect to analyse when comparing two poems such as these is quality of poetry. Although we can compare style and theme, the quality must always be considered as it adds to or detracts from any motif in poetry. In the case of these two poems, I feel that ‘Ode to a Nightingale’ is a poem of superior quality to ‘To the Cuckoo’.

Keats’s poem is better in many ways. Wordsworth’s content is overstated. He uses the same motifs and imagery throughout this poem and many of his others, for example ‘Tintern Abbey’. What he says is obvious and straightforward; there is no use of equivocation and little hidden meaning. Keats is more realistic and more relevant. He discusses issues instead of wandering aimlessly. He has much more direction and development than Wordsworth. In such a short and simple poem, Wordsworth needed to be as deep-meaning as possible and explore his subject matter as much as he could. Keats’ structure too is far more impressive than Wordsworth’s. Wordsworth is too simple in his language, structure and rhyme. His poem is neither fired up nor passionate. His poem comes across as vague and verbose, using tawdry expressions and clichés such as

“Still long’d for, never seen!”

He does not display his intellect and the result is he does not write to his capacity. Keats carries on for eighty lines in comparison to Wordsworth’s thirty-two, but not once does he lose his drive or allow a lapse in quality. He exhibits his ability to rhyme and narrate. He displays contextual knowledge of Europe and Classical mythology and uses it effectively to create imagery and effect. As I feel that one poem is better than the other, this contributes to any comparison, and makes direct comparison more difficult if the poems are on different levels. In a better poem, the meaning and desired effect is received effortlessly by the reader and the reader is much more appreciative of the author’s style and themes.