lecture notes

1. John Keats
Ode to a Nightingale

2. 30/03/17 2
My heart aches, and a drowsy numbness pains
My sense, as though of hemlock I had drunk,
Or emptied some dull opiate to the drains
One minute past, and Lethe-wards had sunk:
1st
person speaker
-heart hurts as if poisoned by Hemlock
-feels numb, an "ache" in his heart
•powerful drug or painkiller ("opiate") causes him to fall into a
senseless stupor.
•The classical ref. "Lethe" - a river in Hades (the Underworld) the drink
of forgetfulness

3. 30/03/17 3
'Tis not through envy of thy happy lot,
But being too happy in thine happiness,—
That thou, light-winged Dryad of the trees,
In some melodious plot
Of beechen green, and shadows numberless,
Singest of summer in full-throated ease. St .1
1st
person speaker
•Direct address to the nightingale  poet’s envy of the bird's
happiness is the simplicity, the purity of the bird's happiness
•Like a pastoral nymph singing in the treespastoral nymph singing in the trees, bird makes his
surroundings "melodious,"  the forest is enlivened by its
chirpping  it sings "full throated"
•and “ease”  easily (peacefully)  without worries

4. 30/03/17 4
O, for a draught of vintage! that hath been
Cool'd a long age in the deep-delved earth,
Tasting of Flora and the country green,
Dance, and Provencal song, and sunburnt mirth!
O for a beaker full of the warm South,
Full of the true, the blushful Hippocrene,
With beaded bubbles winking at the brim,
And purple-stained mouth;
1st
person speaker
•Tone changes  poet longs for a drop of “forgetfulness”, wine or some other spirit
•Perhaps to return to the past splendor of chivalric ideals (Provencal song) or
classical legend (the “Dance” of the nymph Flora or the revels of Hypocrene –
under the influence of drink from a fountain on Mount Helicon sacred to the Muses
and believed to be a source of poetic inspiration)
•Something that will inspire his thought  so as to fill his thought like bubbles
rising from a glass ( wine – “vintage”)

5. 30/03/17 5
That I might drink, and leave the world unseen,
And with thee fade away into the forest dim: St.2
Fade far away, dissolve, and quite forget
What thou among the leaves hast never known,
1st
person speaker
•Clear intentions  final 2 lines of st 2  To drink the magical wine
•A drop of Hypocrene  to abandon the "world unseen"
•"fade" into the Natural setting of this evening alone with the nightingale.
•A reality which is innate to the nightingale  apart from human reality
•St.2 and st. 3 are connected by a clever anaphora which hardly seems to
be there and yet adds continuity and musicality to the somber tone of St. 3
•The nightingale has had none of the cares and suffering of living in human
society

6. 30/03/17 6
The weariness, the fever, and the fret
Here, where men sit and hear each other groan;
Where palsy shakes a few, sad, last gray hairs,
Where youth grows pale, and spectre-thin, and dies;
Where but to think is to be full of sorrow
And leaden-eyed despairs,
Where Beauty cannot keep her lustrous eyes,
Or new Love pine at them beyond to-morrow. St.3
1st
person speaker
•A reality  of "weary" people, sickness ("fever"), and worry ("fret").
•Society reduced to a "groan" pain and sorrow  while the nightingale
chants its lighthearted song______________________
•The nightingale has had none of the cares and suffering of living in human
society
•Humankind is subject to illness & decay  it causes young and beautiful
people to become "pale," and die
•Love itself must cede to the «consumption» of our frailty as humans
•Neither Beauty nor Love are capable of surviving the human condition

7. 30/03/17 7
Away! away! for I will fly to thee,
Not charioted by Bacchus and his pards,
But on the viewless wings of Poesy,
Though the dull brain perplexes and retards:
Already with thee! tender is the night,
And haply the Queen-Moon is on her throne,
Cluster'd around by all her starry Fays;
But here there is no light,
Save what from heaven is with the breezes blown
Through verdurous glooms and winding mossy ways. St.4
• St.2 and st. 4 – connected by another anaphora “away” (contributing to the spiraling
effect of the poet’s themes and underlines continuity and musicality in the poem
• The reality the poet strives for is one in which the nightingale is a refuge
• Like the bird, the “Bard” chants his song on “viewless wings” (poetry)
• He mentally delves into the imaginary world of the nightingale where there is no light,
though the dark is "tender," moonlight visible in the sky – despite the verdurous glooms
& mossy ways
• The night is tender for it is perfumed and promising, the dark allure of an illusory world

8. 30/03/17 8
I cannot see what flowers are at my feet,
Nor what soft incense hangs upon the boughs,
But, in embalmed darkness, guess each sweet
Wherewith the seasonable month endows
The grass, the thicket, and the fruit-tree wild;
White hawthorn, and the pastoral eglantine;
Fast fading violets cover'd up in leaves;
And mid-May's eldest child,
The coming musk-rose, full of dewy wine,
The murmurous haunt of flies on summer eves. St.5
• Tone changes  poet’s desire for “forgetfulness”, wine or some other spirit, comes in
fragrances – scents we seem to perceive as we read
• The speaker cannot see what produces the pleasant smell nor does he know what "soft
incense" is in the trees around him  a “darkness” "embalmed,"
• The speaker relates what he hears and the experience of being alone in a dark forest.
• With his mind’s eye he sees violets, summer flowers, the musk rose, the dew of which is
intoxicating, like the wine – there is the sound of flies on a summer evening  the
experience of late spring, early summer with striking detail

9. 30/03/17 9
Darkling I listen; and, for many a time
I have been half in love with easeful Death,
Call'd him soft names in many a mused rhyme,
To take into the air my quiet breath;
Now more than ever seems it rich to die,
To cease upon the midnight with no pain,
While thou art pouring forth thy soul abroad
In such an ecstasy!
Still wouldst thou sing, and I have ears in vain—
To thy high requiem become a sod. St.6
• Tone changes again  meditative: poet’s desire for “forgetfulness”, is now associated to
the experience of being in the dark  related to the idea of death by the poet
• Death might liberate him of all his worldly cares
• The speaker confesses how he has, at times, called upon death to overcome him
• While in the world of the nightingale  it would be a mystical moment for him to die
thus  while listening to the nightingale – psychically immersed in the Natural scene
• Yet, he realizes how his death would not change the nightingale it would continue
with its melody & he would not be able to enjoy the beauty of its song

10. 30/03/17 10
Thou was’t not born for death, immortal Bird!
No hungry generations tread thee down;
The voice I hear this passing night was heard
In ancient days by emperor and clown:
Perhaps the self-same song that found a path
Through the sad heart of Ruth, when, sick for home,
She stood in tears amid the alien corn;
The same that oft-times hath
Charm'd magic casements, opening on the foam
Of perilous seas, in faery lands forlorn. St.7
• The nightingale's melody is immortal  future generations – a realistic view of the cycle of life
• Poets meditates on the melody, going far back through history – Imperial Rome, the middle East
(Persian reference), Old Testament (Keats imagines Ruth hidden in the cornfield, hearing the
nightingale's song)
• The speaker goes on a mystical, magical fantasy voyage wherein he imagines a series of scenes
wherein the nightingale, with its melody, might have awakened the heart of different creatures, both
human and from a fantastic, faerie world
• Alone, the nightingale has flown over lands far and wide – «forlorn» the unknown, the
«undiscovered country»

11. 30/03/17 11
Forlorn! the very word is like a bell
To toll me back from thee to my sole self!
Adieu! the fancy cannot cheat so well
As she is fam'd to do, deceiving elf.
Adieu! adieu! thy plaintive anthem fades
Past the near meadows, over the still stream,
Up the hill-side; and now 'tis buried deep
In the next valley-glades:
Was it a vision, or a waking dream?
Fled is that music:—Do I wake or sleep? St.8
• St.7 and st. 8 united by the anaphora Forlorn and the strong repetition that follows 
Adieu
• Poet’s meditation and exploration of the nightingale's realm ends  "forlorn" is how
Keats returns to reality  alone, to the knell of a deadly strike  as the nightingale flies
freely over the hills and vales and only the echo of its melody can be heard
• The speaker returns to his “sole self”  confesses that his imagination, "fancy“, cannot
"cheat" the nightingale's world
• Thus, imagination is a "deceiving elf,"  "fancy" able to create new worlds
• Speaker cannot escape the human condition and finally doubts even the mystical quality
of the moment he has just experienced  Do I wake or sleep?