Escapism into the ideal by means of imagination is distinctly evident in Keats Ode to a Nightingale,

written in May 1819. The progression of the poem, inspired by the death of his Brother of
Tuberculosis presents a deep meditation of mortality and the transience of life -a common feature of
Romanticism. Keats personal contemplations, enriches the speaker who wishes to flee their state of
drowsy numbness synonymous to a life lacking sensory experience. Initially the persona resorts to
alcohol, enticed by the appeal of beaded bubble winking at the brim that allows the persona to
fade away into the forest dim. The stressed rhyme of brim dim resonate a lethargic tone which
assists the idea seeking temporary reprieve from reality through mythological allusions to the god of
wine charioted by Bacchus. Ultimately Keats affirms that the ideal induced by substance or an
immersion in sublime nature is deceptive in that it cannot sustain an imaginative intensity as the
fancy cannot cheat so well the reality. However the nightingales eternal song Thou wast not born
for death is invested with immortality that creates a sense of enduring strength to the passage of
time No hungry generations tread thee down. Though the song exists as a seemingly divine force,
the persona still sees it necessary to persuade the bird to fly away, away with the repetition
imitating an urgency to protect it from the contrasting suffering of mortal existence Where youth
grows pale, and spectre-thin, and dies. The song is seemingly airborne functioning as a vessel of the
personas artistic vision pouring forth thy soul abroad/ in such ecstasy! in contrast to the depiction
of the earthly realm, enshrouded by embalmed darkness. Though Keats comes to the resolution
that the ideal cannot truly evade mortality, the enduring song of the bird counteracts the images of
flux in the changing seasons fast fading violets and climaxes with the rhetorical question Do I
wake or sleep -the enigmatic suggestion that reality may have been transcended.