“Ode to a Nightingale” – By John Keats

 “Ode to a Nightingale” is Keats most famous famous work. An ode is a traditional Greek form of poetry that celebrates what the poem is dedicated too. Ode to a Nightingale was a part of the collection of 1819 Odes. Ode to a Nightingale is a Horation ode named after, the Roman poet Horace. Horation ode’s have a consistent stanza length and meter. The poem has eight stanza of ten lines.

The speaker is an older man struggling with reality and time. He uses his poetry and Imagination to escape from his life. He bears a resemblance to Keats with his obsession with death. But Keats was a young man at the time, and not the poems speaker.

The poem is set both in and out of the woods. In the beginning the speaker is sitting outside the forest and the birds song ‘draws’ him into the middle of forest. He goes back in time to others who heard the song. Then to the woods. Just as quickly as he slips into the dream. He is called back to reality and the woods become idylie. But inaccessible as the nightingale flies away.

The song of the nightingale is important as it symbolizes ideals and perfection that Keats finds lacking in society. Keats describes the song as timeless, especially in his description of the nightingale continuing to sing after his ( the narrator’s) death.

Keats uses a multitude of figurative language to convey his tone throughout this poem. The speaker describes his numbness and heartache hearing the song of the nightingale somewhere in the forest. He toys with the idea of the oblivion that alcohol could lead him to. He speaks softly to death, embracing the idea of painless death and the escape from humanity. Alas with the departure of the nightingale, the speaker cannot distinguish between reality or a dream. The nightingale is important as it symbolizes immortality and freedom. Throughout the poem, Keats describes this idea of the nightingale being free and timeless, emphasizing his own desire to be free of society and humanity.

So, we can say that throughout his poem, Keats makes allusions to figures of Greek and Roman mythology. This is important in that it demonstrates the timelessness that Keats thinks of when imagining the song of the nightingale.