Welcome back to White Rose of Avalon my Darlings. Today’s post is an analysis of the poem Ode to a Nightingale by John Keats! I accessed the text of the poem on poetryfoundation.org. The bold text after each stanza is my thoughts on the stanza. Without further ado, let’s examine this lovely poem!
Ode to a Nightingale
BY JOHN KEATS
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:
‘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.
~This first stanza helps to put us in the mindset of the narrator, who is feeling a rush of heartache and pain. There is a reference to drinking hemlock, which is a poisonous plant and would cause hallucinations if not worse. There is also the reference of being too happy in someone else’s happiness, and a sense of communion with the Tree Faeries, since Dryads are mentioned! We also get the first concrete hint that the poem takes place in Summer, making it the ideal time to analyze this work.
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 Provençal 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;
That I might drink, and leave the world unseen,
And with thee fade away into the forest dim:
~This second stanza lets the reader in on the fact that the narrator is currently in the process of getting drunk on wine, hence the reference to the vintage and the exploration of the tasting of flora and country greens (these likely being notes of taste found in his wine). The purple-stained mouth comment assures us that he has been drinking of this delicious, and intoxicating beverage for quite some time! Given he still speaks of the forest, we can surmise that he is either drinking in the forest or bringing up the image of a forest in his imagination.
Fade far away, dissolve, and quite forget
What thou among the leaves hast never known,
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.
~This third stanza shows the depth of despair the narrator is in at this time. He is feeling regrets, and weariness, also speaking about fevers and frets, which alludes to his possibly being ill, which would make sense given we know that John Keats died of Consumption at only twenty-five years old!
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.
~In this fourth stanza the narrator has begun talking about flying away in a way that seems to be referencing flying to heaven, or the Otherworld, for he is not drinking because he wants to have fun, but instead because he wants to ease his fears about his imminent mortality! There is also the mention of starry Fays near the throne of the Queen-Moon, which really makes this sound like he believes he may go to the Celtic Otherworld!
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.
~In this fifth stanza the narrator begins to describe in detail all that he sees in the beautiful and bountiful forest around him, confirming that the poem is taking place in mid-May, just going into Summer, if not fully Summer yet, the transition point when the forest is truly awash with color and fresh life. This is a great balance point to his anxiety over his own mortality!
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.
~In this sixth stanza we have the confirmation that the narrator is contemplating Death and his own mortality, but now we know that he has been possibly wishing for Death, or at least for an ‘easeful Death’ which would come to him without pain!
Thou wast 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.
~In this seventh stanza, the narrator finally addresses the bird for whom the poem is titled. He tells the Nightingale that she was not born for Death, as she is an immortal bird. In this poem, the narrator uses the Nightingale as a psychopomp and Faery Bird who can come and go from the Otherworld. She is the messenger whom he can speak to and possibly gain insights about his own mortality!
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?
~In this final stanza we see that the narrator is truly still very forlorn, as he admits, stating that the word is like a bell, in other words, it has helped him awaken to his waking mind from the meditative state he had been in. He is bidding farewell to the bird, and even calling her a deceiving Elf, which lends to my estimation that she is a Faery Bird and messenger, but possibly she had also been a Faery who took the form of the Nightingale to speak with the narrator. The poem ends with the narrator questioning if the interaction and experiences had taken place at all! This is definitely the outcome of many a Faery encounter!
~I hope you have enjoyed this analysis of the lovely poem Ode to a Nightingale by John Keats. Do you have some further interpretations about the meaning of this poem? Let me know your thoughts in the comments below!
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