Ode to a Nightingale: Immortal Song, Mortal Poet

In Keats’ “Ode to a Nightingale” the image of the bird is a symbol for the poet himself. The poem is formal in its structure, composed of ten line stanzas written in Iambic pentameter, with the exception of the eighth line in each stanza. The formal structure of the poem creates a predictable patter, which contrasts dramatic shifts in tone in each stanza. In the first stanza, the tone is despondent and depressed. However, it seems that the speaker maintains an appreciation for life and the world around him despite this depression. He mentions that his “numbness” is not by virtue of feeling “envy” for the bird’s happiness, but rather by virtue of feeling ecstatic for the bird. The reference to “leathe-wards,” a river in Hades, which erases memories, suggests that the speaker feels his pain will fade from memory, and so should not be dwelled on. In the second stanza, there is a shift from acceptance of this despondence to a desire for escape. The speaker expresses desire for “a draught of vintage” to bring back feelings of “Dance, Provençal song, and sunburnt mirth.” The speaker compares wine to the water in Hippocrene, which in Greek Mythology is the fountain of poetic inspiration. In the next stanzas, the speaker grieves the inevitable loss of these joys through forgetfulness or through death. The speaker seems to envy the Nightingale for its immunity to loosing such joys- its beauty is in its song, which can neither be forgotten, nor will it ever die. The song of the nightingale is echoed and repeated in the songs of all other nightingales. The poet’s song, the poem, like the wine and the bird’s song, has the ability to resurrect joys and to live forever through iteration.