Oblivious Happiness

In Stanza I of "Ode to a Nightingale" there is a separation between the speaker and the bird. The colon at the end of the fourth line sets it apart from the rest of the stanza. The first four lines are set a part from the rest as well with a sense of obvious melancholy. The speaker’s heart aches and there is a drowsy numbness that pains his senses. The speaker seems to be set apart from the bird in a way that allows for analysis or interpretation of the bird. This can be seen through the use of the word “thy” in line 5, the speaker is talking to the bird as he observes the bird’s “happy lot”. The phrase “melodious plot” in line 8 brings up an image of a gravesite. This is a place where oblivious happiness could cause the sort of sadness that the speaker is experiencing. The bird is unable to note the sadness that the speaker seems to be consumed with. It seems as though the bird is too happy. Drinking from the river Lethe in Hades causes a sort of oblivion, there’s a reference to this river in line 4. For the speaker the oblivion has sunk, and he is fully aware of a sadness that the bird seems unconscious of.