"In many of his poems Keats starts out from the familiar and everyday but quickly takes off into different territory" - In light of this comment, explore Keats' poetic methods in "Ode to a Nightingale".

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“In many of his poems Keats starts out from the familiar and everyday but quickly takes off into different territory.”

In light of this comment, explore Keats’ poetic methods in “Ode to a Nightingale”

On examination of Keats’ “Ode to a Nightingale” it is possible to advocate the potential contention of the hypothesis.  For, whilst it may be argued that the poem terminates in the “familiar” and “everyday”, the first few lines intimate nothing of the like; rather Keats alludes to a sense of inebriation, evoked by the transcendental beauty of the bird’s song.  By line four the destination is indubitably reached as Keats describes himself as having sunk “Lethe-wards”.  The use of the classical allusion is commonly identified as something of a Keatsian leitmotif.  The appeal lies in the gain of a subtle facet in implication.  Here, for example, “Lethe-wards” refers to the river of the lower world from which the shades drank in order to forget the past.  There are two possible lines of interpretation, first; in illustrating a slip from conscious thought, second; in conveying the penetration of another world, its foundation lying in myth.  This particular form of imagery remains prevalent throughout the poem, indeed within the subject matter itself: According to legend; Philomena, following her rape and torture, was transformed into a nightingale.  Thus, the creature is traditionally associated with love and suffering, a theme Keats proceeds to expand upon significantly as the ode progresses.  

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The function of the classical allusion is very much paralleled by that of the literary allusion, for example lines 43-49 appear to echo Shakespeare’s “A Midsummer Night’s Dream”:

“I know a bank where the wild thyme blows,

Where oxlips and the nodding violet grows,

Quite over-canopied with luscious woodbine,

With sweet musk-roses and with eglantine...” 

Thus, Keats delicately depicts a perfect summer evening, whilst the tacit association to fairies imparts an alternative slant on his reverie.  However, allusions remain but one of an inestimable number of intricate devices employed.  The use of the metaphor and personification are particularly ...

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