Critical Analysis of "Ode to a Nightingale" by John Keats

Ode to a Nightingale
One must be armed with a little knowledge of Greek mythology before taking on Keats;
Hyperion, for example, is filled with allusions to Milton's Paradise Lost. After reading
and re-reading Ode on a Grecian Urn I decided that it would be best to only comment on
Ode to a Nightingale (because I'm baffled with Keats). I found him very hard to
understand. You can't just sit down and read Keats like a Grimm's fairy tale. Keats must
be read with great scrutiny; otherwise, you'll miss his point. I only pray that my readings
and poor mind will give some sort of justice to Keats's monumental work: "Ode to a
Nightingale."
The poem begins with Keats's, with his complaint about humanity. He is filled with
"heartaches and a drowsy numbness pains" and a feeling of forgetfulness as if "hemlock I
had drunk." Life has brought him to a state of forgetfulness and is bewildered to find a
"light-winged Dryad [Nightingale] of the trees" that is "being too happy in thine
happiness" and singing "of summer in full throated ease." Keats would love to join the
song of the Nightingale but has no way except through death, but even death is painful.
Keats doesn't want any more pain that life has to offer so he talks about a "vintage [wine]
that hath been Cool'd a long age. . . With beaded bubbles winking at the brim" and he
hopes that he "might drink, and leave the world unseen, And with thee fade away into the
forest dim." With the wine Keats hopes to "Fade far away. . . [from] The weariness, the
fever, and the fret" of life. Man's drink is his only escape from this life but then he writes
that he doesn't want to join nature and "fly to" the Nightingale "charioted by" wine but of
poetic imagination. Because too much wine would bring pain in the morning and would
only stop pain for a while. Once the drug has run its final course he would be in more
pain then before. If only this world could fade away so that he could join the world of
nature where he could be "too happy in thine happiness." He wants to leave this world:
"That I might drink, and leave the world unseen," he wants to "Fade far away, dissolve,
and quite forget" everything. He's tired of the pains that human nature has brought: "The
weariness, the fever, and the fret . . . hear[ing] each other groan . . . full of sorrow" Keats
hits human nature in the heart by taking away everything dear to it and focusing on the
pains and heartaches. This poem makes you want to take a shower and go to bed.
He then writes about how he is "half in love with easeful Death" because it "seems it
rich to die, to cease upon the midnight with no pain, While thou are pouring forth thy
soul abroad In such ecstasy! Still wouldst thou sing, and I have ears in vainTo thy high
requiem become a sod." He says the feathered Dryad "was not born for death, immortal
Bird!" and wonders if the whole experience with the bird was a vision, dream or real.
"Was it a vision, or a waking dream? Fled is that music: Do I wake or sleep." O.K. I've
had enough, I can't handle it anymore. I think I'll end it all right now. Bang! (ouch... I
missed) Now I'm in more pain than before, dang it!
John Keats poems Ode to a Nightingale and Ode on a Grecian Urn exist for the
purpose of describing a moment in life, such as a brief song of a nightingale and scene
depicted on an urn; within each moment there exists a multitude of emotions, and

changing from one to another indefinably. Keats Ode on a Grecian Urn deals with the
perplexing and indefinable relationship between life and art. Paradoxically, it is the life of
the urn that would normally associate with stillness, melancholy and bereavement that is
shown to be representative of life. In Ode to a Nightingale a visionary happiness is
communing with the nightingale as its song is contrasted with the dead weight of human
grief and sicknesses, and the transience of youth and beauty. The odes are similar in many
ways as in both Keats depicts the symbols of immortality and escapism, and grief to joy.
However, the symbol of nightingale is a reality dealing with the nature and the urn is a
fantasy, a piece of art. Both require different senses for admiring. By comparing the
elements of poems, it is evident that all aspects relate directly to the human spirit and
emotions.
The nightingale and urn are symbols of immortality, a symbol of continuity of nature and
art respectively. In the Ode to a Nightingale Keats contrasts the birds immortality with
the mortality of human beings as he states Here where men sit and hear each other
groan, where Palsy shakes a few, sad, last gray hairs, where youth grows pale, and
specter-thin, and dies,(III, 25) but the nightingale, entertaining generations after
generations has become an immortal species, so much so that the sound that poet has
heard was heard in ancient days by emperor and clown, by Ruth (a virtuous Moabite
widow who according to Old Testament Book of Ruth, left her own country to
accompany her mother-in-law Naomi, back to Naomis native land), where she was
amidst the corn, remembering her home town; and also by fairies. The urn in the Ode on
a Grecian Urn is a large sculpted vessel with Greek figures is an unravished bride(I,
1), an immortal perfect object unmarked by the passage of time. As a Sylvan
historian(I, 3), it provides a record of a distant culture. Although, the urn exists in the
real world, which is mutable or subject to changes, yet the life its depicting is
unchanging.
Next, the poet has beautifully fused pain with imaginary relief or the unconscious joyous
things of nature and art. To escape from pain of reality, he begins to move into the world
of imagination. When he hears the nightingale, he yearns for fine wine from south
France, not to get drunk but to achieve a state of mind, which will give him the pleasure
of the company of the beautiful nightingale, that I might drink, and leave the world
unseen, And with thee fade away into the forest dim:(II, 19-20) However, the poet
realizes that he does not require wine for being with the bird, so chooses the route of
flying to her through his poetry. Away! Away! for I will fly to thee, Not charioted by
Bacchus and his pards, But on the viewless wings of Poesy..And haply the
Queen-Moon is on her throne, Clusterd around by all her starry Fays(IV, 36,37). In
Ode on a Grecian Urn, the poet experiences the life depicted on the urn and
ambiguously comments that the urn dost tease us out of thought/As doth eternity(V,
45). By teasing him out of thought (V stanza) urn draws him from the real world to an
ideal, fantasy world. In lines What mad pursuit? What struggle to escape? What pipes
and timbrels? What wild ecstasy?,(I, 5,6,7,8) poet is caught up in excitement, activities
and from a keen observer becomes a participant in the life on the urn. He gets
emotionally involved in the apparent activities going on including the religious sacrifice
of the cow, Who are these coming to the sacrifice? To what green altar, O mysterious

priest, Leadst thou heifer lowing at the skies, And all her silken flanks with garlands
drest?(IV, 31,32,33,34) Thus, in both the odes, Keats tried to free himself from the
painful world by identifying with the nightingale, representing nature, or the urn,
representing art.
The inner pain and grief engulfing the poet is revealed in a very subtle manner in both the
odes of discussion. Even when the speaker is in the imaginative world with the
nightingale, he is thinking of death in embalmed darkness. Gradually the feeling of
being embalmed becomes a wish for death. He also realizes that death means he could no
longer hear the bird song and will be non-existent. Suddenly the beautiful bird song
seems to him more like requiem(VI, 60), a song of death. As the reality is painful, poet
realizes that, fancy(VIII, 73), has cheated him. The bird is not a symbol anymore but an
actual bird that poet had heard in the beginning. The nightingale flies away and its song
seems a plaintive anthem(VIII, 75), very faint. Its voice is buried deep(VIII, 77)
refers to its physical distance. As the music goes from his life, the poet wonders whether
his end is close. In Ode on a Grecian Urn the poet realizes as the figures are frozen,
they will never change. Keats emphasizes the feeling of permanence by repeating the
words never, never.(II, 17) The repetition implies that man will never be able to kiss the
maiden because his position will never change, and the space between both of them will
never decrease. Poet also realizes when he is no more in this world, the urn would still be
there and it will say, Beauty is Truth and truth beauty. (V, 49).
In the Ode to Nightingale and Ode on a Grecian Urn the symbols contrast. The
nightingale is a living creature and a part of nature. In contrast the urn is stationary and a
manmade object. Although both symbols signify immortality, and continuity, the symbols
contrast in that the nightingale is reality, and the life on the urn is a fantasy with the
portrayal of frozen images depicting dynamic life. Both symbols require different senses
for admiring. The sense of hearing allows Keats to hear the nightingales enchanting
music. By listening to the nightingale Keats other senses are mesmerized. In contrast
Keats sense of sight allows him to become captivated with the urn. By observing the urn,
Keats other senses are awakened.
John Keats presented in his poetry many issues, such as nature, existence and the soul.
All of these aspects relate directly to the human spirit. The spiritual nature of Keats
poetry concerns itself with exploring human emotions and understanding nature. He
wrote the Ode to a Nightingale and the Ode on a Grecian Urn at a difficult time in his
life. As a result there are many similarities and few differences. Together both the
similarities and differences, illustrate the human spirit, and a multitude of emotions.