Ode to a Nightingale was a rather enjoyable and imaginative reading. The poem's melancholic beginning almost led me to think the poem would end up as another somber story, however, I was pleasantly surprised. Keats introduces the nightingale as "being too happy," which wholly opposes his pervasively aching heart. Stanza two adds to Keats' desire to suppress his depressive state by stating how much he wishes to drink wine to numb his troubles away. He admires the bird for his carefree life, "among the leaves," comparing it to the human experience, "where men sit and hear each other groan...where youth grows pale and spectre-thin, and dies." Altogether these first three stanzas represent the speaker's awakening, his realization of life's troubles in comparison to the life of a bird who can soar the skies and sing all day. The birds song is the epitome of happiness in the poem.
Shortly after, the speaker finds peace in poetry. He states, "Away! for I will fly to thee...on the viewless wings of poesy." In other words, he too can escape his troubles through words and rhyme. I found this to be the most significant stanza in the poem. It is where Keats transitions into a more elegiac state and realizes that the power to be happy abides in him. The trope to be free as a bird is showcased in Keats comparison of writing and flying. One who loves poetry and can recall the relief that comes from expressive writing, not even specifically poetry but creative expression as a whole, can not deny that the comparison between the two is more than just.
Further into the poem in stanza six, Keats goes on to discuss the concept of death. He states that he has, "been half in love with death." Yet, "now more than ever seems it rich to die/ to cease upon the midnight with no pain." His admiration for the Nightingale's timeless song of happiness, and realization of his own happiness through the inspiration that the Nightingale provides, grants him the serenity to be at peace with death. This is beautiful.
In the end, when the bird stops singing, Keats wakes up. He questions whether or not it was all a dream. His happiness was almost a sort of high that came from the Nightingales song. Unlike the wine that he craved in the beginning, the music that came from the little bird numbed his pain and helped him realize his own ability to sing a song of happiness through the act of writing poetry.
The poem seems to present many options both to the speaker and the reader. "Escapism" doesn't seem quite the term. It's somewhere between the fantasy, the pastoral, and the spiritual an option exists. Not to mention death seems to be a cousin to every interpretation that can possibly be made.
ReplyDeleteThe questioning at the end is key. This is what separates the poem from an opiate-filled fantasy to a true sojourn. The question of Keats is what allows the poem its full depth: "Do I wake or sleep?" "Only that day dawns to which we are awake. There is more day to dawn. The sun is but a morning star."
I'm not entirely sure that Keats finds the power to be happy is in himself: what happens when he goes to the nightingale on the wings of poesy? He ends up in a place where there is no light, and he can't see the flowers at his feet, but is in a kind of "embalmed darkness"--almost as if he is buried alive. The images in the 5th stanza don't suggest that poetry has made him happy--rather, it has entombed him in dense sensory experience.
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