That thou, light-winged Dryad of the trees,
In some melodious plot…
Singest of summer in full throated ease
( Stanza I lines 7-10)
This part of the first stanza explains why “the heart aches” it moves freely suggesting that the poet has just been able to release his feelings as he accepts the music that comes with the nightingale. Keats focuses on how human life is short and the problems of human lives “ Where youth grows pale, and spectre- thin and dies” emphasizing how life just ends for humans. Keats personifies beauty and longs from escape from all the problems of mortal life and the “ numbness pains” that is caused by the harsh reality.
Keats longs from escape and escapes through ‘flight of fancy’ using the “viewless wings of Poesy” rather than alcohol or drugs. The description of drinking and of the world associated with wine idealized. “With beaded bubbles winking at the brim” the use of alliteration and assonance emphasizes the scenario he creates as well as the ambiance, linking to the perfect world image he has created with the nightingale. The image of the bubbles in concrete: in contrast to the preceding imagery in the stanza, which explores the desire to “fade away”, showing his rejection of the alcohol and potions. The flight of fancy brings the poet into a world of imagination to find the truth. Keats escapes with the nightingale to a world of happiness, the world is ideal and perfect. “ Away! Away! For I will fly to thee” He turns to fantasy world where truth and beauty are almost within reach, escaping to the environment of the bird and at the same time seeks beauty and obtains some form of truth at this level. “ That I might… leave this world unseen, and with thee fade away into the forest dim” The desire to ‘fade’ and ‘ dissolve’ and ‘forget’ these verbs indicates his realization of reality and his desire to escape and “ fade away” is now a desire to fanatically indulge. The repetition of “ fade” also stresses the state of the poet’s mind and his desperation. There are two forms of escape portrayed in the poem; the second form of escape is through suicide. Keats personifies death and realizes that if he dies then he can’t hear the song “ Now more then ever seems rich to die” and appreciates that the nightingale is immortal and the song will last forever. He comprehends that if he dies, the he will be taken away for the eternal world of the nightingale and the perfect world.
The symbol and immorality of the bird and the morality of humans are juxtaposed together, thus emphasizing the difference between the real and ideal world Keats is portraying. It is ironical as Keats uses the same word to describe both the nightingale and the death, the bird sings will “ full-throated ease” and death is also described as “easeful” “ Thou wast not born for death, immortal bird!” this oxymoron seems to be contrasting and emphasizing the bird’s joyful and endless singing to the morality of humans. “ the bird represents the continuing presence of joy in life” () The bird symbolizes the ideal beauty and world that can not die, this is contrasted with the real world and morality of humans.
Keats uses vast amounts of imagery to portray the ideal world he is in, discovering beauty in nature, his imagination and death. The use of synaesthesia “ I cannot see what flowers are at my feet” creates a sense of the opiated world and makes it seem more real and believable, showing his confusion. The appeal to the sense also depicts the beauty of the world that is created and the world choice creates an accurate image of the world, and shows the mood of the poem drawing the reader more deeply into the world he is creating.
Where beauty cannot keep her lustrous eyes
Or new love pine them beyond tomorrow”
(Lines 29-30)
Emphasizing how everything in real life is short lived focusing of the morality of life. The poet is reaching for “ liberty and beauty” and that is why he escapes into the ideal world. Keats moves into the enchanted night as he listens to the song. The ideal world is also depicted as being magical “ haply the queen- more is on her throne. Cluster’d round by all her starry fays” The world is depicted as being so perfect that it juxtaposes the contrasting concepts of the real world and the problems and short-lived nature of human life. The natural imagery gives the reader of notion is being in this imagery world because of the diction used in the poem. “ Fast fading violets cover’d up in leaves:” The alliteration emphasizes and illustrates the beauty in the ideal world. The diction used is romantic and light and gives the feeling of a calm world with words such as “ sweet” and “fruit”. Keats is unable to sustain the ideal world in his imagination because the human mind does not enable to uphold the world he has created through the nightingale.
Keats cannot sustain the ideal world and is forced to come back into reality and leave the beauty of the eternal nightingale, he realizes that even if the song of the nightingale is eternal and he isn’t.
Still wouldst thou sing, and I have ears in vain
To thy requiem become a sod.
( lines 59-60)
The poem is no longer just about the suffering and escape into the beauty of the nightingale but has a deeper meaning in that Keats accepts that he has to be alive to hear the nightingale, which is the symbol of great beauty. He acknowledges that humans are mortal and they have to accept any misery and pain that comes into his life. The last stanza ends the journey and brings Keats back to the present. The tone used to describe coming back into reality is depressed and accusing as he blames the nightingale of being “ a deceiving elf” and bringing him back to reality but later realizes that his imagination itself, didn’t allow him to sustain the perfect world he created. The word “ Forlom” brings him back to reality as it ends the ideal world but appears again in the eighth stanza, in the real world. This highlights how he is not sure which is real the world of his imagination that he was in or the world he is in now. “ Was it a vision, or a waking dream?… do I wake or sleep”. Keats is unsure whether the world of the nightingale is real because although he seems to understand that it can not be real, it feels real to him. The poem ends with a question mar, which is significant because on a wider level the poem deals with complications and questions of life which emphasize the theme of illusion vs. reality which is portrayed throughout the poem.
John Keats in the “ Ode to a nightingale” uses a ‘flight of fancy’ as a means of escaping reality into a world of beauty and nature. This beauty and world is illustrated through the rich imagery used. This is a common technique used by poets from the romantic period, as these poets often go into an “opiated world” and come back facing reality and learning from their experience. The way John Keats approaches going in the ideal world is very effective in the use of diction, imagery, alliteration, juxtaposition and synaesthasia. Keats evokes the problems with human life and his long to escape into a world of beauty but when he comes back to reality he learns from his experience that humans are mortal and need to be alive and accept pain to hear the nightingale’s “ sweet “ and everlasting song. The poem goes through Keats journey and stresses on the fact that Keats in unable to maintain the perfect world he has created because the human mind and his imagination will not allow it, thus forcing the reader to accept the reality and the harshness of life.
