CHAPTER NO.

ONE INTRODUCTION

Introduction to the Study: The research at hand is related to the genre of poetry. In

poetry it is concerned with one of the poetic masterpieces of the celebrated English poet

of Romantic era i.e. John Keats. John Keats is one of the poets of younger generation of

romantic period of English literature. He died in the prime of his life. Ode to a

Nightingale is the focal point of research. Normally Keats’s poetry has no such elements

as far as his own life is concerned. But in the Ode at hand we will venture to find

elements which depict the tragic aspects of Keats’s life.

The researcher in this poem just finds out those affective aspects in the Ode at hand. Ode

to a Nightingale is also full of other elements i.e. beauty immortality, Platonism and

figure of speech but here the researcher explain the tragic point which depicts the life

mean personal life of john Keats. Although his all poems is a source of pain for Keats

because his personal life is disturb and unhappy so the odes that he written is imagination

of his painful life. The poem at hand the researcher would venture to show or to appear

those dilemmas and difficulties which the researcher can show with the help of these

tragic elements that is consider by Keats.

Ode to a Nightingale is a lyric poem. It is believed that ‘Ode to a Nightingale’ was

composed in the spring of 1819 when Keats was visiting a dear friend Charles Brown. A

Nightingale had built a nest near the house and Keats was simply memorized by its

melodious voice. Keats felt a tranquil and continual joy in her song; and one morning he

took his chair from the breakfast table to the grass-plot under a plum-tree, where he sat

for two or three hours. It was then Keats wrote this poem in appreciation of the
Nightingale’s melodious voice and touched upon a lot of deep humanistic values through

this lyrical poem.

Literature is more or less the source of depiction/reflection of human life but here our

main concern is to search for the elements which depict Keats’s own life in his Ode to a

Nightingale. So the main concern of the researcher would be to try to bring about those

gloomy and tragic aspects of Keats’s life which are depicted in the Ode to a Nightingale.

The proposed research work is aimed at the analysis of his acclaimed lyric poem Ode to a

Nightingale.

1.2 Significance of the Proposed Study:

If one wants to appreciate the poetry of a poet he must have to know about the general

life of that particular poet only then the reader will be able to enjoy the poetry of that

particular poet. So keeping in view this fact, it is necessary that we should be able to

explore the personal aspects of a poet incorporated in the poetry of a particular poet, so

by this yardstick it is quite reasonable that we must have to fathom the personal aspects

of a poet in his works.

So the venture in this respect has a major significance to know about the tragic

side/aspect of Keats’s life in his celebrated Ode to a Nightingale. It is also to prove the

fact that poetry is a source of catharsis for the expression of melancholic feelings of the

poet.
1.3 Objective of the research:

In this proposed study the researcher has tried:

1. To explore the tragic elements in general (sorrow, death, melancholy, disease etc.)

2. To explore figures of speech furthering the tragic element.

3. To explore the personal tragic elements depicts the actual life of John Keats.

4. To explore the element of escapism consequent upon tragedy in life.

1.4 Research Questions:

1. We are the general tragic elements?

2. What figures of speech have been utilized for vivifying the tragic elements?

3. What are the personal tragic elements depicting the actual life of John Keats?
 CHAPTER NO.TWO LITERATURE REVIEW

In Levis’s (1962) opinion, the “Ode moves outwards and upwards” and this movement is

“towards life” and “downwards towards extinction: (p.315). In my opinion, this

movement “towards life” is the poet’s ability to create, and the movement “towards

extinction” is a movement toward the fulfillment of the poet’s mission of composition.

Harding (1974), who believes that the background of the use of the word “sadder” is

significant because this word has been used with “the connotations of its older meaning”

that implies seriousness and steadfastness (p.57) and has nothing to do with “sadness” as

we understand it today, that is, as the opposite of “happiness.”

Paul de man says (1983), Keats’ love for anything, including the Nightingale, “brings

about the death of what is being loved” (p.238) in the sense that this love is then fulfilled

and consummated.

Macksey’s says (1984), “an immutable eternity of absolute being” (p.874). Keats’s real

demise and catastrophe is being unable, from time to time, to unite with the Nightingale,

that is, to cease being a creative poet.

McGuinnes (1995) called “brilliant” Keatsian contradictions” (p.41). The poet tries to

grasp what cannot be grasped by others. He is different from other generations from all

walks of life, who are represented by the “emperor and clown” (1.64), and heard the song

of the Nightingale.

In Caruth’s (2001), opinion the Nightingale’s singing is a “creative act” directed

“towards life’s immediacy” (p.58) in nature, which Doerner thinks (2013) “possessed

physical and mental healing powers” for the Romantics.

Grosholz (2001) says, this “moment of eclipse is often the moment of greatest insight.”

The third type of death is related to the poet’s success in composing his poem and

fulfilling his mission. This is clear in keats’ description of death: “chall’d him soft names

in many a mused rhyme”(1.53). thus, this death is not in the bad sense, but it is rather the

poet’s excitement as a result of achieving his goals. Logically, how can it be “rich to die”

(.55\0 if it were ordinary death?

Goldweber (2002), Keats’ escapes “from unhappy realities is well known”, and he has a

“lifelong concern” about resorting to “dreams and illusion.”

Khan Jalaluddin (2002), observes that the permanence of nature and short lastingness of

human life has been criticized in details by many critics but the figures of speech through

which the themes in the poem Ode to a Nightingale has been described are not criticized

and analyzed in detail so he has ventured to do the needful.

Koelzer (2006) termed the “world of transience, decay, and difference”. In this phase, the

poet is not purely free like the Nightingale because he cannot completely shed the

weariness, fever and groans of life:

Rana, Sujata (2011): Says that Nightingale is Keats poetry stands for a kind of poet has

the high level of the activity, so just like a Nightingale the poets also yearns to have a

fight into the ideal world of nature away from the trouble society of human beings. So he

says that Nightingale is a symbol of high poetic creativity.

Han (2012) says: “Keats seeks to help his readers to experience sensually the concept of

immortality” through “not mere verbal representation of a visual art work” but by “the

embodiment of immortality”, such as the Nightingale, which can “be sensually enjoyed”.
Havird’s opinion (2013), “a psychological threshold” in which “a state of displacement,

etymologically the state of standing outside oneself” occurs (p.94).The poet is now ready

to be similar to the Nightingale and to sing his song.

Raj, Mary (2014) has explored Ode to a Nightingale to show that John Keats was not on

the a celebrated poet but also a man of spirits as well, He is of the view, upon the close

perusal of the Ode to a Nightingale that Keats has a very tough life but he has still

enjoyed his life and he has remained a good person as well as a brilliant poet at a very

young age. He has also been placed on a high position among his romantic

contemporaries and he has found a permanent niche in the gallery of English poets,

though he was awarded this high esteem posthumously.

Berlin says (2014), that “there is some canker, there is a worm in the bud somewhere”

threatening its life (p.124). However, victory is achieved either through creativity or, at

least, after death in becoming part of nature.

 CHAPTER NO. THREE RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

3.1 Population:

In general there is a lot of poets, essay writers and prose writers. But here the main

concern of the researchers is to a specific romantic poet John Keats. The researcher

works on his specific Ode that is “Ode to a Nightingale”. Keats’s poetry is full of sorrows

and sufferings. In this poem the researcher desired to appear the dilemmas that confused

John Keats. Further the researcher wants just to find tragic elements in that particular ode

i.e. Ode to Nightingale.

3.2 Delimitation:

John Keats has a lot of poems and odes. But here the researcher is concerned to one of his

Odes i.e. Ode to a Nightingale. Ode to a Nightingale has a lot of aspects but the

researcher here analyzed just the aspect of the tragic elements.

3.4 Nature of Research:

The supposed research is qualitative in nature. As this research is about the appreciation

of a piece of poetry, so semantic analysis would be undertaken of the text of the poem.

This study is an applied one because the research is about a particular piece of literature

which is to be analyzed.

3.5 Data Type and Resource:

As the proposed research would be qualitative in nature, so the collected date will also be

of qualitative in nature. On one hand the researcher would try to have a semantic analysis
of the text so the data would an appreciative one i.e qualitative, on the other hand the

tragic tones would be explored so the collected data would be qualitative in nature.

3.6 Date Collection Tool:

As the focus of study is a poem by John Keats so we have to peruse the text of the poem.

Close reading i.e. scanning would be used as a method for collecting data. Qualitative as

well as quantitative analysis would be done through the close strategy.

3.7 Research instrument:

The researcher has perused the text of the poem. The researcher used the close reading

method as an instrument and scanned the whole text of the poem to search the tragic and

the gloomy elements permeating the text the researcher analyzed the ode line by line to

elicit tragic shades from the text.

 REFERENCES

Levis, Frank Raymond. (1962). “Keats.” English critical texts. Edited by D.J. Enright and

Ernst de Chickera London : oxford university press 21.macksey, Richard.(1984). “Keats

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Harding, Anthony John. (1974). Coleridge and the idea of love: aspects of relationship in

Coleridge’s thought and writing. London: Cambridge up.

De man, Paul. (1983). “the dead-end of formalist criticism.” Blindness and insight: essays

in the rhetoric of contemporary critism. Minneapolis: university of Minnesota press.

Mcgunness, Frank. (1995). “keats and death: timor mortis conturbat me (office of the

dead). Literature and the supernatural: essays for the maynooth bicenternary. Ed. Brian

cosgrove, blackrock, Ireland: Columba.

Kennedy, Thomas (1998). “Platonism in keats’s ‘ode on a Grecian urn.” Philological

quarterly. Vol.75. issue: 1. Page number:85+. University of lowa. Available at

https://www.questia.com/read/1G1-18681690/platonism-in-keats-s-ode-on-a-grecian-urn.

Caruth, Cathy. (2001). “parting words: trauma, silence and survival.” Acts of narrative,

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