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.