As well as that people were good and innocent by nature, and corrupted by the sciences. Romantics opposed the beliefs that the revolution established in Western Europe, as they were in favor of free expression of the imagination and the liberation of the emotions; they believed in the individual rather than society, in imagination rather than logic, and in nature instead of the artificial. These characteristics of Romanticism were embodied in literature by various artists, one of them being John Keats. In Keats’ “Ode to a Nightingale,” romanticism is present through three major romantic elements: nature, imagination, and individuality.
Keats’ was an English Poet, who died at the young age of 26. It is said that “Ode to a Nightingale” was written while Keats sat down under a plum tree, where a nightingale had nested. Even prior to reading the poem, Keats embodies the nature, and uses it as form of inspiration to write this poem. For Romantics, “nature” meant many things. Often it was presented as an artwork, constructed by imagination, and illustrated through language. Other times nature was presented as a healing power, or a source of subject and image. Nature, in romanticism, can also be a scapegoat for those who wanted to escape artificial constructs of civilization and language. In an “Ode to a Nightingale,” the nightingale’s happiness causes the poet to “singest of summer in full throated ease” (10). Prior, the nightingale is referred to as “Dryad” (7). In Greek Mythology, Dryads are female spirits of nature (nymphs) who are in charge of forests. The mythological creature reference establishes a mood that lies somewhere between reality and dreaming. Therefore, supporting the characteristics of nature, in which the poet successfully uses to escape reality. To furthermore support this thesis, in the second stanza the poet describes his desire to drink from the fountain to escape his problems through poetry. In stanza 7, the nightingale is the voice of nature. In Romanticism the cycle of Nature changes. It is suggested that the bird is “immortal,” and it shares that characteristic with nature. The nightingale is immortal, as it is in harmony with its habits, unlike man, who were in competition with his.
A second characteristic seen in literature works throughout the Romanticism Era was imagination. The Romantics tended to define and present the imagination as creating power. Imagination is the primary function of creating art. Also it is the ability that helps humans to establish reality. As William Wordsworth suggested, we not only perceive the world around us, we create it as well. In the ode Keats rejects wine for poetry, in order to identify his existence with that happiness of the nightingale. However, the poet soon finds himself back with his troubled-some life. In the last stanza, Keats says, “fancy cannot cheat so well/ As she is fam’d to do.” Keats admits to attempting to use imagination to also escape reality, but reality is stronger. The speaker, however, was willing to embrace imagination, but only for internal pleasures. In the nightingales’ song, he finds a form of “outward” expression that translates the work of the imagination into the outside world. The speaker’s language is used to suppress the sense of sight in favor of other senses. The author tries to imagine the light of the moon, “but there is no light,” for he knows he is in the meadow, surrounded by flowers, yet he cannot see the flowers.
Finally, Keats’ and other Romantics used literature to find the person’s individuality. The Romantics emphasized the importance of the individual, the unique, and even the “eccentric.” During the Romanticism Era, the romantics viewed the individual rather than the society. In “Ode to a Nightingale,” the poet begins to grow a desire to die, while listening to the nightingale sing. As he speaks to the bird:
Still wouldst though sing, and I have ears in vain –
To thy high requiem become a sod.
However, the poet realizes that the problem with dying would be that, he would stop listening to the nightingale. The nightingale represents who the individual wants to be. At this time, he wants peace and serenity in his life, however, because it is only imagination, he is led back to reality—the reality of having no freedom of self-expression. In the last stanza, the question “Was it a vision, or a waking dream?” represents that the poet is waking up from a trance.
In conclusion, Romanticism is the movement in history that flourished as a result of the Age of Reason. Artists and creative individuals were not happy with the principles of the Enlightenment and revolted against it. Romanticism was embodied in the visual arts, education, music, and in literature. In John Keats’ “Ode to a Nightingale,” three important romanticism characteristics were used in order to be significant towards romanticism—nature, imagination, and individualism. To represent nature, we see the poet relating to the happiness of the nightingale, and escaping reality for a second. Keats uses imagination, in order to lead the protagonist of the poem somewhere to escape reality as well. And finally, during the Romanticism Era, many were trying to find themselves in the middle of this new way of living.
by
kathlen_m (student)
