Stanza Five of Ode to A Nightingale

Keats seems to be able to relate to the Nightingale because they are going through the same seasons of life. You get a sense of Spring turning to Summer. Yet for all of the Spring imagry, he can still only focus on his own sense of mortality. He wishes he could enjoy it more, but just can't seem to shake off the darkness.

The Nightingale

In "Ode to a Nightingale", the nightingale represents Keats' mortality. He loves it, because although it is mortality, it's song is immortal, which is exactly what he wants to become through song and story. But at the same time, he hates the nightingale, as it means that he will surely die, and there is no way of telling when or how, and if he will become immortal through song and poetry or not.

Poetic form and eco-criticism

Here are the books I mentioned yesterday in class:

For eco-critical discussions on Romantic literature, see Jonathan Bate, Song of the Earth (Harvard, 2002) and James McKusick, Green Writing: Romanticism and Ecology (Palgrave, 2000).

For an in-depth discussion of how Romantic poets use form and genre, see Stuart Curran, Poetic Form and British Romanticism (Oxford, 1986). Another important treatment of form appears in Susan Wolfson's Formal Charges (Stanford, 1999).

Curran's argument has many facets, but his approach to defining formal innovation is useful. He argues that genres and forms have a "logic" that arises from the history of their use and the reader's expectations. So, when we recognize the form of a Shakespearean sonnet, it carries withit certain expectations (for example, that it might monumentalize the beloved object in various ways, but it is often playing with the trope of the Petrarchan sonnet, as in "My mistresses eyes are nothing like the sun"). Curran argues that poetry of the Romantic period takes up conventional genres while transforming them and redeploying them to address the political, social, and literary climate of the late 18th and early 19th century. Romantic poets often use conventional, recognizable forms--we were discussing terza rima yesterday--while also disrupting reader's expectations about the themes and concepts associated with that form. Shelley's "Ode to the West Wind" uses terza rima, which would have immediately suggested Dante's Divine Comedy, but Shelley's poem is neither epic nor addressed to religious themes. While he invokes Dante's work (the leaves in the opening section suggest Dante's hell), he doesn't follow it's lead--and in fact, his focus on material nature (wind, leaves, storm) runs directly counter to Dante's use of allegory to plot the soul's journey toward the afterlife. Shelley's indirect political and environmental message in the poem thus pushes up against the thematic logic of the form he has chosen--and this should, as we discussed in class, be disconcerting and make use feel uneasy.

To Autumn

I enjoyed this poem for its bold and powerful imagery of nature, which is a well-known attribute of Keats' works. I also liked the sense of the conspiratorial tone between the sun and Autumn in the first stanza; seeing as though they are both responsible for the bounty of fruit and crops for the harvest. This setting is portrayed by the swelling growth of fruits and vines under the intense sunlight, moving into the spring and summer.

Between the conspiring first stanza and the harmonious singing in the last I noticed that time had gotten away from me. It starts with the brightening sun and the full ripening of fruit, and then suddenly birds, lambs and crickets are singing and moving to the sunset of a dying day. The construction of the poem sucks you in with all the poetic landscape and imagery to where it almost seemed as though the sun had been slowly descending the entire time. Also, Autumns careless and relaxed persona in stanza two makes it feel like the day is slowly stretching forward but not toward an ending; as if time itself was expanding.

Side note - what is with the random cider press? Throughout the entire poem it is painted a vibrant setting of color, fragrance, and music of the seasons and of the harvest - then right in the middle, at the end of stanza three, there is a cider press, which Autumn appears to be watching ever so closely. Why? To me it just seemed like a random addition; like if someone had a screw in a box of plant and flower seeds.

Last Stanza Ode to a Nightingale

By the last stanza he is 'coming down' from his vision.  He discusses the word forlorn tolling him back to his true self, a play on the imagery of a funeral bell in a small town, a symbol of lament for death.  The "plaintive anthem" is fading; his connection to the bird is winding down.  There is significance that the anthem is fading into nature: 

Past the near meadows, over the still stream,

Up the hill-side; and now 'tis buried deep

 In the next valley-glades:

Perhaps nature could be thought of as the source for the anthem, and in that case it is returning to the source in the same way Keats will eventually return to the source when he is buried in the earth.  Or if there is a distinction between the anthem and nature, the anthem is succumbing to nature, and this interpretation gives nature a sense of power.

It ends with

Was it a vision, or a waking dream?

  Fled is that music: - Do I wake or sleep?

At this point Keats is contemplating the meaning of what he's just experienced.  Maybe he is contemplating the meaning/importance of what he's just experienced, or maybe even if he should indulge in such fancies later on..."Do I wake or sleep" is in the present tense; one could argue that he is deciding how to view consciousness from this point forward having experienced 'the music.'

The last stanza wraps up his experience, and shows him starting to wonder how to interpret this vision.

Seasonal transitions

Although both Keats’s “autumn” and Shelly’s “Ode to the West Wind” contain both seasonal changes they have different interpretations of autumn. Keats interpretation contains more of a dying love most likely a forbidden love that is flourishing “ close bosom-friend of the maturing sun” but has to end due to natural circumstances-, hence the autumn “death” and hook or scythe reference. He could also be referring to his physical condition, the fact that he had developed tuberculosis that very year of 1820 and would be dying very soon “summer has o’er-brimmm’d their clammy cells” this sudden realization that once he was very healthy and lively but as the summer ends and the fall approaches he too is falling apart and dying along with nature. For Shelly I think the most probable reason for which he wrote Ode to the West wind was because of his dear friend Keats’s illness “ whose unseen presences the dead leaves are driven”.                

"La Belle Dame sans Merci"

I found it interesting, and a little confusing, that "La Belle Dame sans Merci" means "The Beautiful Lady without Pity" since in stanzas 5, 7 and 9 she appeared to be sweet, caring, and nurturing to the knight; almost as if she was taking care of him by providing him with food, a sense of divine purity, love and company.

Then once she puts the knight to sleep, he has this very distressing dream of death befalling kings, princes and warriors - which is why, in the last stanza, he conveys this being his reason for staying where he is. Personally, stanzas 9-12 make it seem that the knight was able to dream because of the faery-like lady - a warning in the form of his dream - so if the lady is to be without pity, why does it appear as if she is warning the knight of the death that could come? Or was she simply showing the knight the sureness of his future, and that there was no escaping it, no matter how long he stayed on that cold hill side?

To further my interest and confusion of her being known as  "The Beautiful Lady without Pity;" why is it that she was crying, and sincerely portraying the emotion of sorrow in stanza 8 if she truly has no pity? In my opinion, those with no pity would not shed a tear in such situations, or even have a remorseful thought on the matter.

On Ozymandias and Stanza 2 Of Keats' Ode To A Nightingale

Ozymandias by Percy Shelley has a bleakness to it that I don't recall seeing in earlier Gothic poetry. There's a sense of the futility of effort that runs throughout the poem, from the desert setting to the words of the ancient King himself. The idea that Ozymandias thinks that his works will outlast the works of all who came after him and be greater still, juxtaposed by the ruinous state of the statue leaves the reader with the feeling that there is no real point in creating anything grand; time itself will sweep away all things.

In Keats Ode to a Nightingale, the second stanza, through its imagery conveys the speakers' want for opium; I say want deliberately for the speaker expressely notes in the first stanza that he has not taken any sort of poison or drug to dull or amplify his senses. The speaker brings to mind the fountain of the Muses (the source of poetic inspiration) and couples this with reference to the goddess of flowers. Opium, being a flower, and being at this time consumed primarily in the form of Laudnaum, a solution of opium, is then an easily noted conclusion. Yet, it seems as though the speaker wants this so that he can feel some sort of connection with the Nightingale. It is an enhancing substance for the speaker, not a dulling one, but the speaker also refrains from taking any sort of opium. Perhaps through this, the speaker gains a significant connection to the natural world the Nightingale inhabits because he is in his natural and non-intoxicated state.

Stanza 2 ode to Nightingale

In stanza 2 Keats tries to display a long lost desire to see a moment of happiness within his consciousness with the drug f opium. The clue that the author desires opium towards the end of the stanza where he mentions a liquid that opens the world he enjoys, in which he wishes to escape the reality of the present moment. Also it appears that the stanza describes of a more natural approach to what happiness is for Keats when he describes the desire for the country side of the world. However, I believe Keats misunderstood seeing the beauty of the world through opium is not the answer. Perhaps opium opened a new world for the people who used them who wished to see an entirely different world from the one they lived in. The time of Keats wasn’t any better than ours apparently.

Stanza 6 of Ode to a Nightingale

In stanza 6 of "Ode to a Nightingale", Keats speaks of his thoughts about death as the Nightingale sings above and emphasizes that "Now more than ever seems it rich to die" (55) provoking a calm nature towards accepting death.  The Nightingale song is so soothing to him in the darkness that he imagines "To cease upon the midnight with no pain" (56).  However doing so he would not be able to hear the bird sing anymore and would "have ears in vain" (59).

1. Keats positions the narrator as harmonious creature in this stanza and almost delusional as it ponders existence, using words to describe death as 'easeful' and having 'soft names'.

2. Keats feels very connected to the Nightingale, he seems it "rich to die", almost as if he is memorized.

3. The narrator wants to quietly and peaceful slip off into breathlessness (death) while enjoying the song, however he comes to some realization.

Feel free to add on

-Luke

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. 

Green Eyed for the Nightingale

In the first stanza of "Ode to a Nightingale," Keats establishes a strange, almost childish mood. He talks about his "drowsy numbness," which seems to either be caused by drugs, his own emotions, or both. However, the childish attitude shows through in his jealousy for the nightingale. He says that it is not envy that drives him, but rather, he just cannot understand how the nightingale can be so happy. This rejection of jealousy serves more to prove Keats' jealousy, rather than defy it, because he does seem to envy the nightingale's happiness. The nightingale sings about summer, something it misses, with the same happiness as if it were summer then. There should be a feeling of longing from the nightingale, a feeling Keats cannot rid himself of, and this is driving him mad. Keats wants to be as happy as this nightingale, who rather than feeling intense longing after a loss, feels happy just thinking about what was lost.

Stanza 7 of Ode to a Nightingale

In stanza 7 of Ode to a Nightingale, Keats displays his longing to be remembered after his death. This longing is displayed through his description of the nightingale and its song.  The nightingale is an "immortal bird," not merely "born for death." No "hungry generations" can silence the nightingale.  Unlike the nightingale, Keats was quite aware of his own mortality. This poem was written a mere two years before his death, and his health was already failing.  Reflecting on that mortality, and hearing the nightingale's song, Keats ruminates that "this voice i hear this passing night" was the same song heard by emperors, clowns, and even biblical figures such as Ruth. The song is an equalizer and a uniter. The song was present in the two main pillars of western civilization, namely the Roman Empire and the Bible.  The nightingale and its song soar above mortality and time. Keats longs for his words to do the same. While humanity is united by its hearing of the song, Keats is divided from the bird by his mortality. But the Nightingale is more than simple longing. Indeed, while most of stanza 7 has an external focus, the last three lines have a distinctly internal focus. The song that echoes through history also inspires the poet and transcends the material world. It has "charm'd magic casement, opening on the foam." The song unlocks magical realms of inspiration to Keats. It transports him to "faery lands forlorn." In this way, Keats is, in a way, united with the bird. What it unlocks and and inspires in him is the ability to reach outside of mortality, into the realm of creativity and creation. The "nightingale-as-muse" connects the song to the poet, and the poet to eternity.

Stanza 5 in "Ode to a Nightingale"

Stanza 5

Keates shows a relationship through the poet speaking through the bird and expressing his love of Spring. Both the poet and the bird are dealing with the progression of time and change. Keats is expressing some change in his life and the poem is experiencing that through the changing of seasons. The bird and the poet are connected because the poet is seeing everything through the bird's eyes. The bird experiences everything so vividly and vibrantly and Keats envies the bird's passion for Spring and the colors and aromas it brings. The poet sees Spring in a different way through the bird. It makes him long to experience nature like a bird can and envious of the bird's connection to nature. He longs for the connection the bird experiences because of his own disconnection and health issues. Keats has not been able to experience nature in the way he hopes.

Big picture

We as human beings are one small part in the big picture of nature and the world. Keats understood how fragile nature and life are because of his own understanding of mortality. Nature provokes this realization because it shows how quickly things can perish and yet how resilient nature can be at the same time.

Keats and La Belle Dame

I just read some background biography on Keats (Wikipedia) and wow, if you read the time periods in parallel with the context of the poem, you can see many similarities.  Supposedly Keats had a relationship with a fellow poet Isabella Jones in the winter 1818-19 where he "frequented her room often".  She was a successful, attractive, and well-known poet and may have looked upon her for motivation and material for some of his works. 

Around spring 1819, Keats begin seeing Fanny Brawne regularly since she and her widow mother moved in next to him.  He desired to marry her but his lack of financial gains and reputation prevented him from achieving his own standards and slowly sunk into depression and eventually disease (tuberculosis).  He wrote this to her 13. Oct. 1819...
"My love has made me selfish. I cannot exist without you – I am forgetful of every thing but seeing you again – my Life seems to stop there – I see no further. You have absorb'd me. I have a sensation at the present moment as though I was dissolving – I should be exquisitely miserable without the hope of soon seeing you ... I have been astonished that Men could die Martyrs for religion – I have shudder'd at it – I shudder no more – I could be martyr'd for my Religion – Love is my religion – I could die for that – I could die for you."

My intuition tells me that La Belle Dame sans Merci is a trope to Keats life because of the similarities of distress and darkness.  Keats died 2 years later so his age was, in a way, old like the Knight.  Just an interesting thing saw that you guys might like.  Check out the full story http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Keats

-Luke

 

Stanza 3 of Keats “Ode to a Nightingale”; Death and Disjunction

This particular stanza very clearly depicts a disjunction between the nightingale (nature and life) and the speaker, presumably Keats himself. In fact, the bird isn’t physically present at all in this stanza- it has ‘faded’ away at the end of the previous stanza, into “the forest dim” (line 20). Keats expresses his desire to fade away with the bird before going into detail as to why he is separate from and yet longs for this connection to the bird, and why it isn’t present within this part of the poem. The only physicality present in this stanza is mortality and death, as represented in “the weariness”, “the fever”, and “palsy shakes”- all of which reflect Keats own personal experience with death, both as a former medical student as well as his experience with death of his family members. Here, in this reality, “Beauty” and “Love” become irrelevant and temporary, superseded instead by only sorrow and despairs. In fact, Keats clearly states that “to think is to be full of despair” (line 27), indicating that what he longs for is the nightingale’s ignorance of death and mortality. He desires to “quite forget/What thou among the leaves has never known” (lines 21-22). Merely existing, and thinking about existence, is what Keats dreads and sees as something sorrowful. To “fade far away, dissolve” (line 21) is essentially Keats call to Death as a reprieve from the sorrows, pains, and losses of life. The bird, in its absence from this stanza, reflects Keats distance from life and a desire to live. 

Questions for "Ode to a Nightingale"

Below you will find the questions I posed in class today for the group work on Keats' "Ode to a Nightingale." If you are assigned to post for this week, you can use the group discussion as a jumping off point for your post. If we get posts from each group, this week's blog post will amount to an eco-critical reading of the whole poem. (If no one in your group was assigned to post this week, I will give extra credit to anyone who posts.) You can also apply the "big picture" questions to Keats' "To Autumn" or Shelley's "Ode to the West Wind."

The big questions:

How does the poem suggest we understand the relationship between human beings and the natural world? What does external nature help us understand about the conditions of our existence, and more specifically, our mortality? How and why does nature provoke this realization?

You can approach this question by analyzing individual stanzas of "Ode to a Nightingale": 

1. What relationship does Keats posit between the bird and the poet in this section of the poem? (be specific: which words are important? Why?)

2. Does Keats feel connected to or divided from the bird? Why?

3. What does the poet want from the bird or see in the bird in this stanza? What does it make him long for, imagine, or realize? 

Why French?

I find it interesting that Keats's poem "La Belle Dame sans Merci" is an English poem, yet the title is in French. Instead of making the title be "The Beautiful Woman without Pity" he decides to use the title from Alain Chartier's poem, "La Belle Dame sans Merci."  It's an allusion to Chartier's work. His poem features elements of  medieval romance such as knights, fairies, fair ladies and so on. Instantly by reading the title, as a reader we are aware that this poem will include at least some of these medieval romantic characteristics. Not only is Keats calling up these chivalric notions, he is also making it apparent that the knight is going to die. This may suggest that the chivalric ways are dead or dying out.

Side note, but did anyone else think that it was funny that Keats's brother, George had a wife named Georgiana?