Ode on Solitude by Alexander Pope

Ode on Solitude Analysis
Stanza One
Happy the man, whose wish and care
A few paternal acres bound,
Content to breathe his native air,
In his own ground.
This first verse of Ode on Solitude begins
the analogy that will carry through the poem, seen
through the life of an anonymous man who is
described as being an ideal for happiness. His
deepest desires, the narrator notes, extends a few
acres of his own land, where he is content to live and
work. The inclusion of the word “parental” suggests
that the land belongs to this man by inheritance, and
therefore belongs solely to him. “Content to breathe
his native air” could also be a commentary on being
happy with what a person has, rather than constantly
wishing for more (although this might not have been
quite as significant an idea in 1700 when the poem
was written, as it may be interpreted today).
The verse structure and rhyming pattern is
established here; three lines of eight syllables each,
followed by one line of four syllables, rhyming in an
ABAB pattern. This persists up until the final two
stanzas, at which point the final line lengthens to five
syllables.
 

Stanza Two
Whose heards with milk, whose fields with bread,
Whose flocks supply him with attire,
Whose trees in summer yield him shade,
In winter fire.
This verse simply means that the man is self-
sufficient. His land, now shown to be a farm,
provides for all of his needs — his herds provide him
with milk, he is able to bake his own bread. In the
summer, his trees provide ample shade, and in the
winter the wood from those same trees can be lit to
keep him warm. He has no need of anything beyond
his own land.
While this verse reads strangely, as “bread” and
“shade” do not rhyme, it is important to remember
that Ode on Solitude was written over three hundred
years ago. During this period in Britain, “bread” was
pronounced with a longer vowel sound. While word
pronunciation is a difficult thing to estimate and
predict throughout different eras of history, it makes
sense to believe that at one point, “bread” and
“shade” could be used as rhymes for one another.
 

Stanza Three
Blest! who can unconcern’dly find
Hours, days, and years slide soft away,
In health of body, peace of mind,
Quiet by day,
The narrator considered this farmer blessed! Time
almost doesn’t have meaning for this man; his world
provides for all of his needs. Hours go by, days go
by, years go by, and everything remains the same.
The health the man is in at the beginning of this
cycle is the health he remains in when it is finished.
Peace of mind is normal for him — what is there to
trouble him? It seems as though, in a world of peace
and quiet, there is absolutely nothing that could
disrupt the life of this farmer, and the narrator sees
that as a high blessing.
 

Stanza Four
Sound sleep by night; study and ease
Together mix’d; sweet recreation,
And innocence, which most does please,
With meditation.
This verse sees the start of the final lines being five
syllables long and continues the sentiment of the
verse before it. The idea of innocence is introduced
here, and is a fair way to describe a man who lives
his life in isolation; he is innocent, which means he
himself probably doesn’t appreciate the kind of life
he leads in the same way the narrator, author, or
reader does. It’s a strange idea and casts the
character of the farmer in a different light. He could,
in fact, be viewed as a naïve and ignorant individual,
one who simply doesn’t know enough about the
world, or he could be viewed as living the ideal life.
 

Stanza Five
Thus let me live, unseen, unknown;
Thus unlamented let me dye;
Steal from the world, and not a stone
Tell where I lye.
The narrator of the poem clearly agrees with the
latter of the above sentiments — here he wishes for
escapism and begs for an unseen life, one where he
may live in solitude until his dying days, which will
come and go, unnoticed, unremarked, and
unadorned, perfect life of solitude and peace.
 
Historical Context
Because of the very mature concepts expressed
by Ode on Solitude, particularly the bit about wishing
to die alone, many might be surprised to learn
that Alexander Pope wrote Ode on Solitude in 1700, at
the age of twelve. At the time, Pope had just moved
to a small estate by a forest, in a small village far
from the main British towns. His family had been
forced to live there because of their Catholic faith,
and it could be here, in the village now known as
Popeswood (named after Pope himself) that the
young child found his ideals in solitude, undoubtedly
being inspired by his new natural landscape,
particularly the Windsor Forest.
It was also at this time that Pope’s formal education
ended, another unfortunate result of being Catholic
at the time. However, instead of giving up on
learning altogether, Pope attempted to educate
himself, drawing on classical literature, paying
particular attention to well-known poets of the era.
With all of this background, it is altogether
unsurprising that one of Pope’s earliest works would
be a very mature poem about solitude. Abandoned
largely by the world, it makes sense to think that
solace in solitude was an everyday occurrence for
the young Alexander Pope. When discussing earlier
whether an entirely isolated farmer was a man to be
looked down upon for his naïvety or respected for
his independence, the perspective of Pope is clear —
he envies the man. Understanding that Pope was
essentially forced out of mainstream society
because of his religious beliefs might lead one to
believe that Pope would have viewed total exclusion
from that mainstream society as the best thing that
could happen to a person.
It is difficult to enter the mindset of the twelve-year-
old Alexander Pope. When he writes, “let me live,
unseen, unknown,” is almost sad to think that this is
not at all what happened — Pope did not live a life of
seclusion but rather was a respected poet during his
time, and remains so today. Whether or not he
changed his views on solitude is difficult to say.
What is clear is that his Ode on Solitude was just the
start of what would eventually become a literary
career of classical fame and definite ingenuity for
the now-famous Alexander Pope.
Ode on
Solitude summary

-      Alexander Pope

“Ode on Solitude” is a poem written by

Alexander Pope. In this poem, Pope expresses
his desire to lead a quiet and secluded life, with
minimal assets.
The poet prefers to have just a few acres of
land. He would not like to go anywhere out of
his native region. He would like to breathe the
air of his ancestral place. He wants to have a
comfortable and self-sufficient life. He would
get milk from the herds, food from the fields,
wool for clothing from the sheep. He prefers to
be under the shadow of trees during summer,
and use the wood to make fire during the
winter. All that required is good health, peace
of mind and quietness.  He would spend his
days in study and leisure; and live a life of a
innocence and thought.The final note is that
the poet would like to live an oblivious life, with
no necessity to be mourned or missed once he
passes away.

Introduction
Kubla Khan" is considered to be one of the
greatest poems by the English Romantic poet
Samuel Taylor Coleridge, who said he wrote the
strange and hallucinatory poem shortly after
waking up from an opium-influenced dream in
1797. In the first part of the poem, the speaker
envisions the landscape surrounding the Mongol
ruler and Chinese emperor Kubla Khan’s
summer palace, called "Xanadu," describing it
as a place of beauty, pleasure, and violence. The
speaker suggests that these qualities are all
deeply intertwined and, in the final stanza,
announces a desire to build a "pleasure palace"
of the speaker's own through song. The poem is
one of Coleridge's most famous, and has been
interpreted in many different ways. Overall,
though, it's possible to think of it as speaking to
the creative ambitions of poetry itself—as well
as to its limitations.

Kubla Khan Analysis

Or, a vision in a dream. A Fragment.
In Xanadu did Kubla Khan
A stately pleasure-dome decree:
Where Alph, the sacred river, ran
Through caverns measureless to man
Down to a sunless sea.
So twice five miles of fertile ground
With walls and towers were girdled
round;
And there were gardens bright with
sinuous rills,
Where blossomed many an incense-
bearing tree;
And here were forests ancient as the hills,
Enfolding sunny spots of greenery.
In these lines from the poem Kubla Khan,
the poet Samuel Tayler Coleridge narrates
how Kubla Khan ordered a stately pleasure
house to be built and what was subsequently
done to get it built. Kubla Khan ordered the
erection of a magnificent pleasure palace on
the banks of the sacred river ‘Alph’ which
flowed underground for a long distance
through unfathomable caves into a sea
where the rays of the sun could no penetrate.
Accordingly, for this purpose, a plot of
fertile land covering ten miles was enclosed
with walls and towers all around. On one
side of this land, there were gardens full of
aromatic trees where sweet-smelling flowers
bloomed. There were meandering streams
flowing through these gardens making the
place exceedingly beautiful. On the other
side of the land were thick primeval forests
as old as the hills within which there were
plots of grassy land warmed by the rays of
the sun.
Thus, Coleridge creates a vaguely but
suggestive romantic palace. “In reading it “,
Swinburne observes about these artistic
touches, “we are       wrapped into that
paradise where music and color and perfume
are one; where you hear the hues and see the
harmonies of heaven.”
But oh! that deep romantic chasm which
slanted
Down the green hill athwart a cedarn
cover!
A savage place! as holy and enchanted
As e’er beneath a waning moon was
haunted
By woman wailing for her demon-lover!
And from this chasm, with ceaseless
turmoil seething,
As if this earth in fast thick pants were
breathing,
A mighty fountain momently was forced:
Amid whose swift half-intermitted burst
Huge fragments vaulted like rebounding
hail,
Or chaffy grain beneath the thresher’s
flail:
And mid these dancing rocks at once and
ever
It flung up momently the sacred river.
Five miles meandering with a mazy
motion
Through wood and dale the sacred river
ran,
Then reached the caverns measureless to
man,
And sank in tumult to a lifeless ocean;
And ’mid this tumult Kubla heard from
far
Ancestral voices prophesying war!
These are the most famous lines of
Coleridge’s poem Kubla Khan and have
been highly appreciated for the effortless
adaptation of the sound and rhythm to the
various parts of the descriptions. While
describing the beautiful grounds, the poet
seems to have been attracted by the most
remarkable mysterious chasm which
stretched across the hill covered with cedar
trees. It simply defied all descriptions and
was a highly romantic place and wore a
mysterious aspect. It seemed an enchanted
place haunted by demons and fairies and
frequented by a disappointed lady-love
weeping for her demon-lover under the light
of the fading moon.
The vagueness and mystery of this place
suggested witchcraft and its practice as they
are associated with such surroundings. From
this chasm, a fountain gushed forth every
moment so violently that the trembling earth
round about appeared like a man breathing
hard while dying. It momentarily threw up
huge fragments of rock which tossed up and
then fell to the ground in all directions like
hailstones from the sky or like chaff flying
about when crushed with a flail.
From this chasm also sprang up the sacred
river, Alph which flowed with a zig-zag
course for five miles through forest and
valley and then fell into the calm and
tranquil ocean through the unfathomable
caverns. As it fell into the ocean, it created a
great roaring sound. In the midst of this
uproarious noise, Kubla Khan heard the
voices of his ancestors prophesying that the
time was near when he should indulge in
ambitious wars. In the pleasure-house,
Kubla Khan became addicted to luxury so
his ancestors urged him to shake off his
lethargic and luxurious life and be ready to
the life of adventures and wars.
The shadow of the dome of pleasure
Floated midway on the waves;
Where was heard the mingled measure
From the fountain and the caves.
It was a miracle of rare device,
A sunny pleasure-dome with caves of ice!
A damsel with a dulcimer
In a vision once I saw:
It was an Abyssinian maid
And on her dulcimer she played,
Singing of Mount Abora.
These lines further describe the charms of
displayed by the pleasure palace of the
emperor at Zanadu. The pleasure-house of
Kubla Khan was a very romantic and
beautiful palace. The poet here says that the
reflection of the pleasure-dome fell between
the fountains mingling with the echoing
sound coming out of the caves created for
the onlooker an illusion of really rhythmical
music. The palace was the construction of
rare design and a wonderful triumph of
architecture as it combined in itself a
summer and a winter palace. The top of the
building was warm because it was open to
the sun while the low-lying chambers were
kept cool by ice which never melted.
In the next lines, Coleridge introduces a
beautiful girl brought from a distant country,
to complete the picture of the romantic
atmosphere. He says that once in his dream
he saw a girl who was brought from
Abyssinia. She was singing of her native
land Abyssinia and Mount Abora. The poet
means to suggest that her song showed
homesickness. She had been brought from
her country to a distant land China and
wanted to return home and to play freely and
happily once more with other girls of her
country.
Could I revive within me
Her symphony and song,
To such a deep delight ’twould win me,
That with music loud and long,
I would build that dome in air,
That sunny dome! those caves of ice!
And all who heard should see them there,
And all should cry, Beware! Beware!
His flashing eyes, his floating hair!
Weave a circle round him thrice,
And close your eyes with holy dread
For he on honey-dew hath fed,
And drunk the milk of Paradise.
These lines conclude the unfinished poem.
When the poet saw an Abyssinian girl
singing a melodious song and producing an
exquisite melody on her dulcimer in the
pleasure palace of Kubla Khan, his
imagination was seized by the great power
of music. In these lines, he says that if he
could recall or learn the ravishing music of
the Abyssinian girl, he would build the
beautiful palace of Kubla Khan in air. He
would be filled with his swelling notes.
Helped by his quickened imagination he
would be able to reconstruct the whole
scene. The long practice of this divinely
inspired music will enable him to reproduce
the whole palace in the air as beautiful and
ethereal as the palace of Kubla Khan
together with its sunny dome and caves of
ice.
His inspired imagination would create “a
willing suspension of disbelief” and the
readers would feel that the entire beauty of
the palace has been captured for them. They
would be struck with awe created by his
flashing eyes, steaming hair and lips.
His frenzied condition would frighten them
so much that they would guard themselves
against coming into close contact with him.
In order to save themselves from being
infected by his magical charm, they would
confine him within a magical circle three
times.
The poet has tasted the manna and nectar of
divine poetic inspiration and has developed
a catching influence of music in his looks. In
order to save themselves from the effect of
his charm, they would shut their eyes.

Summary
The unnamed speaker of the poem tells of how a
man named Kubla Khan traveled to the land of
Xanadu. In Xanadu, Kubla found a fascinating
pleasure-dome that was “a miracle of rare device”
because the dome was made of caves of ice and
located in a sunny area. The speaker describes the
contrasting composition of Xanadu. While there are
gardens blossoming with incense-bearing trees and
“sunny spots of greenery,” across the “deep romantic
chasm” in Xanadu there are “caverns measureless to
man” and a fountain from which “huge fragments
vaulted like rebounding hail.” Amid this hostile
atmosphere of Nature, Kubla also hears “ancestral
voices prophesying war.” However, Kubla finds
relief from this tumultuous atmosphere through his
discovery of the miraculous sunny pleasure-dome
made of ice.
In the last stanza of the poem, the narrator longs to
revive a song about Mount Abora that he once heard
a woman play on a dulcimer. The speaker believes
that the song would transport him to a dream world
in which he could “build that dome in air” and in
which he can drink “the milk of Paradise.

Ode on a Grecian Urn

Notes on Ode on a Grecian Urn by John Keats
In this ode, Keats studies a marble Greek urn and contemplates
the story, history and secrets that lie behind its carved pictures.
Throughout the poem, he constantly juxtaposes the immortality
of art with the mortality of man. His feelings seem confused, as
he is torn between jealousy and bitterness that the urn will live
forever and be remembered when he is long dead and forgotten,
and pity for this inanimate object that has no experience of life,
despite its endurance through the ages.
“Thou still unravished bride of quietness,
Thou foster-child of silence and slow time”
From the start, Keats addresses the urn directly, using the
pronoun 'thou', and continues throughout to personify it.
The word 'still' in the first line is key to the poem, as it is
polysemic: it could mean 'yet', reflecting the sense of
anticipation present in the poem, or 'motionless', because the urn
does not move.
Keats contrasts the urn's peaceful quality, ('quietness' and
'silence and slow time'), with undertones of violence, suggested
with 'unravished bride' and 'foster-child'.
He uses words with long vowel sounds, such as 'silence' and
'slow' to keep the pace slow.
“A flowery tale more sweetly than our rhyme:
What leaf-fringed legend haunts about thy shape
Of deities or mortals, or of both?”
With 'flowery tale' and 'leaf-fringed legend', Keats uses natural
imagery, a central feature of Romantic poetry. It links the urn to
nature's transcendence.
He contrasts 'sweetly' with 'haunts', which highlights the two
juxtaposing sides of the urn.
On line 7, he introduces the contrast of mortality and
immortality, with 'deities or mortals'.
“What men or gods are these? What maidens
loth?
What mad pursuit? What struggle to escape?
What pipes and timbrels? What wild ecstasy?”
With the last three lines, Keats increases the pace with quick-fire
questions, which reveal his longing to know the urn's secrets. Do
the questions need to be answered?
'Men or gods' continues the juxtaposition of the mortality with
the immortal.
“Heard melodies are sweet, but those unheard
Are sweeter; therefore, ye soft pipes, play on;
Not to the sensual ear, but, more endeared,
Pipe to the spirit ditties of no tone”
Keats uses describes the scene on the urn, in which musicians
are pictured, yet their music is unheard. Because he cannot hear
the music, in his imagination it is perfect.
He again addresses the inhumanness of the urn – it has no
senses, so the pipes cannot play to 'the sensual ear'.
He employs very deliberate assonance with 'ear'/'endeared',
'spirit'/'ditties' and 'no'/'tone', which makes the language very
obviously poetic and lyrical – perhaps to show that the poem is
art, like the urn.
“Bold lover, never, never canst thou kiss,
Though winning near the goal – yet, do not
grieve:
She cannot fade, though thou hast not thy bliss,
For ever wilt thou love, and she be fair!”
There seems to be a sense of wasted or unfulfilled life, as the
'bold lover' will never reach his goal, though he is so near to it,
because he remains in the same moment in time forever. The
repetition of 'never' aids this thought.
Keats presents the idea that the urn is caught in an eternity of
bliss and love.
“For ever piping songs for ever new;
More happy love! more happy, happy love!
For ever warm and still to be enjoy'd,
For ever panting and for ever young;
All breathing human passion far above,
That leaves a heart high-sorrowful and cloy'd,
A burning forehead, and a parching tongue.”
The repetition of 'for ever' shows the urn's immortality, whilst
the duplication of 'happy' suggests that all is not happy.
Like in the first stanza, the word 'still' is key, acting again
polysemically.
'Panting' and 'breathing' represent life's breath, and reminds the
reader that the urn is not alive. Keats again contrasts human
mortality with 'for ever young' immortality. 'Far above' is linked
with the gods.
He ends the stanza with the idea that love causes illness: 'a
burning forehead, and a parching tongue'. The last two lines are
a further reminder of man's mortality and inevitable death.
“Who are these coming to the sacrifice?
To what green alter, O mysterious priest,
Lead'st thou that heifer lowing at the skies?”
Keats describes the next picture on the urn, and introduces a new
enigma, which will never be answered, as expressed by the
adjective 'mysterious'.
There is a semantic field of religious language and imagery
throughout the fourth stanza, starting with 'sacrifice' and 'priest'.
Like in the first stanza, the unpleasant image of the 'heifer
lowing at the skies' reveals an undertone of violence.
“…Emptied of this folk, this pious morn?
And, little town, thy streets for evermore
Will silent be; and not a soul to tell
Why thou art desolate, can e'er return.”
The word 'empty' could also be seen as key to the poem, as it
seems to describe Keats' feelings about the urn; despite its
beauty, mystery and many stories, it is without life and therefore
empty, and therefoe “for evermore will silent be”.
Where in Stanza 2, the urn was presented as being in an eternity
of love and bliss, here it has changed to being eternally
'desolate'. This shows Keats' shifting feelings about the urn. It
also represents the two paradoxical sides of the urn: in one way
its immortality is a positive and joyful thing, but on the other, it
is full of desolation, isolation and emptiness. This also has a
more literal meaning, as the urn can be physically turned round
by the observer, to see the various scenes.
“Thou, silent form, dost tease us out of thought
As doth eternity: Cold Pastoral!
When old age shall this generation waste,
Thou shalt remain, in midst of other woe
Than ours, a friend to man, to whom thou say'st,
'Beauty is truth, truth beauty, - that is all
Ye know on earth, and all ye need to know'.”
In the final stanza, Keats seems to be pointing an accusing
finger at the urn, labelling it a 'silent form', which teases
the reader/observer. 'Eternity' could be a link to death.
His exclamation 'Cold Pastoral!' could be seen as one of
anger or frustration, and ultimately a rejection of the urn
and its lifeless immortality.
'A friend to man' links with the earlier poem Sleep and
Poetry, in which Keats writes that poetry should be “a
friend, to soothe the cares and lift the thoughts of man”.
He continues his juxtaposition of the mortality of man,
demonstrated by 'old age', 'waste' and 'woe', with art's
immortality: 'thou shalt remain'.
Keats offers an ambiguous conclusion with the final two
lines. Depending on where the quotation marks are
placed, it could all be the urn's message, with Keats taking
a step back, or it could be his own thoughts. Is he being
ironic, as he has learnt, and become less naïve, since he
wrote Endymion (“A thing of beauty is a joy for ever”)?

Introduction The Solitary

Reaper 
The Solitary Reaper by William Wordsworth is a
romantic ballad poem that is set in the rural area.
According to Must See Scotland, Wordsworth got
inspiration to write the poem from a village in Scotland
which he visited along with his sister in 1803. Below is
the picture of that place.

The Trossachs - essence of Highland scenery - MUST

SEE SCOTLAND MUST SEE SCOTLANDT he
Trossachs run west towards Loch Lomond, which is not
the loch in this view. This is Loch Arklet
The poem has been divided into four stanzas having 8
lines each and it follows a rhyme scheme of
ABABCCDD.

Stanza 1
The poet says that one day while traveling, he sees
a lass (girl) far away on highland i.e. hilly area who
was alone there. She is reaping the crops and
singing songs by herself.
The poet asks the passersby to stop there and listen
to her or gently pass i.e. go away silently without
disturbing her. The solitary reaper is cutting and
binding the grains and also singing a melancholy
strain (sad song).
The poet asks the passersby to listen to her as her
song is so melodious and sad that the whole Vale
profound (deep valley) is echoing with it.

Stanza 2
In the second stanza, the poet compares the voice of
the solitary reaper with that of the nightingale. Note
that in Romantic Poetry the sound of the nightingale
is described as very melodious and welcoming.
Before going forward let us try understanding the
concept of Arabian Sands mentioned in this stanza.
In Arab, the are deserts in which it takes months for
people to cross them. Many times they forget the
way or die because of the extreme heat of thirst.
In such a desert, if weary bands i.e. tired travelers
who may be taking rest under shady haunt (i.e.
shade of desert tree) happen to hear the
nightingale’s chaunting (chanting), it will be the
most joyful voice for them because they will come
to know that it is the end of the dread desert.
The poet says that the voice of solitary reaper is
more melodious and sweeter than that of
nightingale’s voice mentioned above. Just think
what brilliant example the poet has given!
Now the poet compares the singing of solitary reaper
with the voice of Cuckoo-bird. According to the
poet, the voice of solitary reaper was so melodious
that he never heard it from the Cuckoo-bird in
spring-time which breaks the silence of the seas
among the farthest Hebrides (a group of 500 islands
in Scotland).
Again here the poet is using the brilliant image. Just
imagine how delighting the voice of nightingale
would be in a dead silent sea after long winter.
Again according the poet, the voice of solitary
reaper is better even that sound of Cuckoo.

Stanza 3
In this stanza, the poet is expressing his
unfamiliarity with the language of the song sung by
the solitary reaper. He wonders if there is anyone
who will be able to tell him what she is singing.
He guesses that it might be plaintive numbers i.e.
sad and mournful song in her own language (that of
Scotland) which are about unhappy past or
lost things or some battle which might have taken
place long ago.
The poet again guesses that the song can also be
about humble lay i.e. of ordinary nature and day to
day matters. It can be some natural
sorrow or loss or pain which might have taken place
in her life recently or she might be fearing for facing
it again.

Stanza 4
In the final stanza, the poet says that whatever may
be the theme of the song sung by the maiden (that
solitary reaper), she sang so sweetly and profoundly
that the poet wished it would never end.
The poet repeats the beginning scene. According to
him, he saw her singing at her work (reaping the
crops) and while she was bending her sickle over the
crops.
He listened to her silently and without making any
movement. However, when he started traveling up
the hill, he could not hear her and the music was
inscribed in his heart.
Line by Line Summary of On His
Blindness by John Milton
About the poet:
John Milton was born in London on 9th December 1608.
After university, he spent six years in his father’s country
home in Buckinghamshire following a rigorous course of
independent study including both classical and modern
works to prepare for a career as a poet. In addition, Milton
was proficient in Latin, Greek, Hebrew, French, Spanish,
Italian, Old English, and Dutch.
During his period of private study, Milton composed a
number of poems, including “On the Morning of Christ’s
Nativity,” “On Shakespeare,” the companion poems
“L’Allegro” and “Il Penseroso,” and the pastoral elegy
“Lycidas.”
During the English Civil War, Milton championed the
cause of the Puritans and Oliver Cromwell and wrote a
series of pamphlets advocating radical political topics
including the morality of divorce, the freedom of the
press, populism, and sanctioned regicide. Milton also
served as secretary for foreign languages in Cromwell’s
government.
After the Restoration of Charles II to the throne in 1660,
Milton was arrested as a defender of the Commonwealth,
fined, and then released. He lived the rest of his life in
seclusion in the country, completing the blank-verse epic
poem Paradise Lost in 1667, as well as its sequel Paradise
Regained and the tragedy Samson Agonistes both in
1671.
Milton died on 8th November 1674.
About On His Blindness:
“On His Blindness” is one of the best known of
the sonnets of John Milton. The poem may have been
written as early as 1652, although most scholars believe it
was composed sometime between June and October 1655,
when Milton’s blindness was essentially complete.
However, what we do know for sure is that it was first
published in 1673.
The Setting of On His Blindness:
This poem is set entirely within the poet’s mind. He
expresses his doubts to himself and also finds his
consolation within himself. He is afraid that going blind
will prevent him from composing great poetry, but he also
learns that we must accept God’s will without questioning
his intention.

Summary of On His Blindness:

This poem is a sonnet. A sonnet consists of fourteen lines
divided into an eight-line unit known as an octave, and a
six-line unit known as a sestet. The octave and sestet can
together form a single stanza (which is the case in “On
His Blindness”), or appear as two separate stanzas. Since
the fourteen lines of this sonnet are not divided into
stanzas, they are divided into meaningful segments for the
purposes of this summary in order to make the poem
easier to follow and understand. This poem is written in
the first person, hence we can assume that the speaker of
the poem is the poet himself.
Lines 1 – 2:
When I consider how my light is spent
Ere half my days in this dark world and wide,
In these lines, the poet says that the light has left his eyes
even before half his life is over, that is, just when he is
about to reach his middle age.
Lines 3 – 6:
And that one talent which is death to hide
Lodg’d with me useless, though my soul more bent
To serve therewith my Maker, and present
My true account, lest he returning chide,

In these lines, the poet says that God has given him the
talent of poetic composition, and if he is not able to
produce something worthwhile using that talent, then he
deserves to die. However, his talent has been rendered
useless by the loss of his eyesight. Even so, he wishes to
serve God by using his talent. He wants to be able to tell
the true story of his life in his poetry, and that is perhaps
why he is writing this sonnet on his blindness. He is
writing this poet so that God does not become angry at
him and think that he is wasting the talent that has been
given to him.
Lines 7 -11:
“Doth God exact day-labour, light denied?”
I fondly ask. But Patience, to prevent
That murmur, soon replies: “God doth not need
Either man’s work or his own gifts: who best
Bear his mild yoke, they serve him best. His state
In these lines, the poet is prompted to directly ask God a
question. He asks God whether he would be cruel enough
to expect something productive from a blind man as the
price for providing him with the talent that has helped him
earn his bread and butter thus far. However, the poet is a
patient man by nature, and this component of patience in
his personality stops him from posing the above-
mentioned question to God. His patience tells him that
God does not ask for anything from a man. He does not
ask for his gifts to be returned, nor does He expect every
man to make use of those gifts. The ones who want to
serve God in the best way possible only accept the hand
they have been dealt gracefully and without any
bitterness.
Lines 12 – 14:
Is kingly; thousands at his bidding speed
And post o’er land and ocean without rest:
They also serve who only stand and wait.”
In these lines, the element of patience within the poet
proffers him some advice to deal with the supposedly
harsh ordeal of his going blind. His patience tells him that
God is akin to a king who has many kingdoms under his
dominion and countless subjects to do as he asks. There
are similarly thousand of men on earth who follow God’s
every instruction to the letter, and who hurry over lands
and seas without a moment of rest in the fulfillment of the
duties allotted to them. However, these are not the only
people who serve God. There are also others who merely
stand and wait for God to decide how their lives will go.
Their only service to God is to accept whatever trial God
puts on their path and to deal with such trials with
courage and resilience. These people also serve God to
the best of their ability, and God loves everyone equally.

“Ozymandias”
Summary “Ozymandias”
Summary
The speaker recalls having met a traveler “from an antique
land,” who told him a story about the ruins of a statue in the
desert of his native country. Two vast legs of stone stand
without a body, and near them a massive, crumbling stone head
lies “half sunk” in the sand. The traveler told the speaker that the
frown and “sneer of cold command” on the statue’s face indicate
that the sculptor understood well the emotions (or "passions") of
the statue’s subject. The memory of those emotions survives
"stamped" on the lifeless statue, even though both the sculptor
and his subject are both now dead. On the pedestal of the statue
appear the words, “My name is Ozymandias, king of kings: /
Look on my works, ye Mighty, and despair!” But around the
decaying ruin of the statue, nothing remains, only the “lone and
level sands,” which stretch out around it.

Stanza 1 (Lines 1-5)

“I met a traveller…………………….sneer of cold
command,”
The first stanza begins with the poet mentioning that
he meets a traveler from an antique land. As
mentioned above, Ozymandias is the Greek name for
the Egyptian Pharaoh Ramesses II. Here antique
land refers to old Egypt.
The traveler tells the poet about an old and broken
sculpture. According to him, there were two big
(vast) legs of stone standing in the desert without the
upper body (trunkless).
Near the legs, was a broken head or face (visage) of
the sculpture which was half-buried in the sand.
The traveler now describes the appearance of the
face. It had a frown and wrinkled lips on its face
indicating displeasure and anger respectively.
The sneer of cold command is the next expression
of the sculpture described in the poem. Sneer
meaning disgust and cold command describing the
harsh commands given by the ruler.
Thus, collectively sneer of cold command refers to
the uncaring attitude, ego, harshness and haughtiness
of the ruler. According to all the above expressions,
he is thought to be very revengeful, boastful and full
of ego who considers himself to be the superior of
all.
Stanza 2 (Lines 6-8)
“Tell that its sculptor…………………….heart
that fed;”
According to the poet, the expressions of
Ozymandias have been engraved so perfectly and
nicely by the sculptor on the lifeless stones that they
portray his nature.
The skills in his hands helped him portray the
expressions and his heart inspired him to carve out
those expressions perfectly on the face of the
sculpture.
Ozymandias Stanza-Wise Summary
Stanza 3 (Lines 9-11)
“And on the pedestal…………………….and
despair!”
These words were engraved on the pedestal (bottom)
of the sculpture – My name is Ozymandias, King
of Kings: Look on my works (achievements in war
and expanding his empire), ye Mighty (the Mighty),
and despair (fear from me)!
The words on the pedestal represent Ozymandias’s
nature very vividly. He was a powerful ruler and
proud of his might. He made all others bow before
him.

Stanza 4 (Lines 12-14)

“Nothing beside
remains…………………….stretch far away.”
This stanza tells that there is nothing left now, that
is, Ozymandias is no more, his ego is one, his might
is gone and his empire is not there. What remains
now is the colossal wreck i.e. the broken sculpture
of Ozymandias.
Only the broken, destroyed and ruined sculpture
stands alone in the never-ending sand spread all over
the desert.
“I wandered lonely as a cloud”
Summary “I wandered lonely
as a cloud”
Summary
The speaker says that, wandering like a cloud
floating above hills and valleys, he encountered a
field of daffodils beside a lake. The dancing,
fluttering flowers stretched endlessly along the
shore, and though the waves of the lake danced
beside the flowers, the daffodils outdid the water in
glee. The speaker says that a poet could not help but
be happy in such a joyful company of flowers. He
says that he stared and stared, but did not realize
what wealth the scene would bring him. For now,
whenever he feels “vacant” or “pensive,” the
memory flashes upon “that inward eye / That is the
bliss of solitude,” and his heart fills with pleasure,
“and dances with the daffodils.”

Daffodils: Explanation of the poem

Now we are in for a line-by line analysis of the poem that
begins here.
Stanza 1
I wandered lonely as a cloud —
That floats on high o’er vales and hills,
When all at once I saw a crowd,
A host, of golden daffodils;
Beside the lake, beneath the trees,
Fluttering and dancing in the breeze.
The poet was travelling aimlessly just like a cloud over
the hills and valleys of the mountainous Lake District in
England. At that time, suddenly he came across a large
number of golden daffodils beside the lake and under the
trees. The flowers were ‘fluttering and dancing’ in the
breeze.
The poet directly compares himself to a cloud, as he was
wandering without aim, just like the clouds. This is an
example of simile (Simile is a figure of speech where two
things are compared using ‘as’ or ‘like’. Read more about
figures of speech). He also uses the expressions like
‘crowd’ and ‘host’ to mean that he saw a large area
covered with a whole lot of daffodils. In the last line, the
poet personifies the flowers by saying that they were
fluttering (like birds or butterflies) and dancing (like
human beings). There is also an indication that it was a
breezy day. So we get an overall idea of the landscape
which includes the valleys and hills, the lake, the trees,
the flowers beneath them and the breezy atmosphere.
Stanza 2
Continuous as the stars that shine
And twinkle on the Milky Way,
They stretched in never-ending line
Along the margin of a bay:
Ten thousand saw I at a glance,
Tossing their heads in sprightly dance.
Here is another Simile. The flowers are compared to the
stars. They stretched in a continuous line just like the stars
in a galaxy like the Milky Way. Moreover, the daffodils
were shining (as they were golden in colour) and
twinkling (as they were fluttering in the breeze) as the
stars. This comparison with the stars may have a greater
implication in indicating that the flowers are heavenly as
the stars.
The flowers were visible as far as the poet could see along
the shore-line of a bay. That is why he uses the phrase
“never-ending line”. Here ‘continuous’ and ‘never-
ending’ may also suggest that the flowers left an
everlasting impact on him.
Wordsworth exaggerates the number of flowers by saying
“Ten thousand saw I at a glance”. That indicates that the
poet has never seen so many daffodils at once. So he is
just overjoyed. This type of exaggeration is
called hyperbole (exaggerated statements or claims not
meant to be taken literally).
The poet also says that the daffodils were tossing their
heads as if they were dancing in happiness. Actually the
poet was amazed at the beauty of the flowers. So, he
found everything around him joyful. All these references
of dancing and tossing heads are parts of
his personification of the flowers.
Stanza 3
The waves beside them danced, but they
Out-did the sparkling waves in glee:
A Poet could not but be gay,
In such a jocund company:
I gazed—and gazed—but little thought
What wealth the show to me had brought:
The waves in the bay were dancing and looking gleeful at
the atmosphere. But the flowers outshone the lively waves
in their happiness. Having such cheerful companion like
the daffodils, a poet like Wordsworth cannot help being
happy. So he was gazing constantly at the flowers and
enjoying their beauty. The word ‘gazed’ is used twice to
indicate how moved or charmed the poet was. So he
gazed at them for a long time, forgetting his surroundings.
At that time, he did not think much about the ‘wealth’ that
the flowers had brought to him. The poet realized that
later, may be, after a few days. This ‘wealth’ is the
happiness and the pleasant memory that he enjoyed for a
long time since the day.
Stanza 4
For oft, when on my couch I lie
In vacant or in pensive mood,
They flash upon that inward eye
Which is the bliss of solitude;
And then my heart with pleasure fills,
And dances with the daffodils.
By starting this stanza with ‘For’, the poet continues his
reasoning for saying that the flowers had brought him
‘wealth’. He clarifies why the sight of the flowers was so
important in his life. Whenever he lies on his bed in a
vacant or thoughtful mood, the daffodils flash upon his
inner-eye, i.e., his imagination. The daffodils have
become an everlasting memory for the poet, whenever he
is lonely. So, he calls it ‘a bliss of solitude’, a blessing of
staying alone.
And whenever he sees the flowers in his imagination, his
heart fills with pleasure and his mind dances with the
dancing daffodils.
This shows the poet’s intense feelings. The poet has been
able to depict the landscape and express his mind so
vividly in so simple language and form, that really draws
one’s attention. And that is why this poem has been one
of the most read and mentioned subjective poems in the
history of English literature

Summary: Sonnet 73
In this poem, the speaker invokes a series of
metaphors to characterize the nature of what he
perceives to be his old age. In the first quatrain, he
tells the beloved that his age is like a “time of year,”
late autumn, when the leaves have almost
completely fallen from the trees, and the weather has
grown cold, and the birds have left their branches. In
the second quatrain, he then says that his age is like
late twilight, “As after sunset fadeth in the west,”
and the remaining light is slowly extinguished in the
darkness, which the speaker likens to “Death’s
second self.” In the third quatrain, the speaker
compares himself to the glowing remnants of a fire,
which lies “on the ashes of his youth”—that is, on
the ashes of the logs that once enabled it to burn—
and which will soon be consumed “by that which it
was nourished by”—that is, it will be extinguished
as it sinks into the ashes, which its own burning
created. In the couplet, the speaker tells the young
man that he must perceive these things, and that his
love must be strengthened by the knowledge that he
will soon be parted from the speaker when the
speaker, like the fire, is extinguished by time.

Sonnet 73: That time of year thou mayst in me

behold Analysis
First Stanza
That time of year thou mayst in me behold
When yellow leaves, or none, or few, do hang
Upon those boughs which shake against the
cold,
Bare ruin’d choirs, where late the sweet birds
sang.
In the first stanza, the lyrical voice constructs
a metaphor in order to characterize the nature of old age.
Throughout these first lines, the lyrical voice relates old
age to a particular “time of the year”. First, old age is
portrayed as autumn, where “yellow leaves, or none, or
few, do hang”. The lyrical voice suggests that aging is
similar to the moment of the year when the leaves have
almost completely fallen, the weather is cold, and the
birds left their branches. This metaphor emphasizes the
harshness and emptiness of old age. This can be read,
especially, when the lyrical voice says that “boughs […]
shake against the cold” and “Bare ruin’d choirs”. Sonnet
73 portrays the lyrical voice’s anxieties towards aging,
and, in this particular stanza, the lyrical voice seems to be
implying that autumn is the particular time of the year
when death occurs. Moreover, the lyrical voice compares
his aging process to nature, and, particularly, to autumn.
 

Second Stanza
In me thou seest the twilight of such day
As after sunset fadeth in the west,
Which by and by black night doth take away,
Death’s second self, that seals up all in rest.
In the second stanza, the lyrical voice compares the
process of aging to the twilight. As the lyrical voice feels
troubled about aging, he/she uses another metaphor to
describe how he/she feels towards old age. The lyrical
voice says that old age is similar to the twilight, as it can
be seen in him/her (“In me thou seest the twilight of such
day”). Then, a particular scenario is described, where the
sun fades (“As after sunset fadeth in the west”) and night
approaches (“Which by and by black night doth take
away”). This metaphor emphasizes the gradual fading of
youth, as the twilight shifts to night “by and by”. Notice
that, in the final line, death is directly related to this
particular time of the day (“Death’s second self”) and it is
described as the one that brings eternal rest (“seals up all
in the rest”). As in the first stanza, these lines portray
aging as the end of a cycle. In the previous stanza, this
cycle is represented by the different natural seasons, and
in this stanza the cycle is represented by the moments of
the day.
 

Third Stanza
In me thou see’st the glowing of such fire
That on the ashes of his youth doth lie,
As the death-bed whereon it must expire
Consumed with that which it was nourish’d
by.
 

Fourth Stanza
In the third stanza, the lyrical voice compares him/herself
to ashes. The lyrical voice mentions that there are remains
of fire in him/her (“In me thou see’st the glowing of such
fire/That on the ashes of his youth doth lie”).  This fire
represents youth, and, according to the lyrical voice, it
will soon be consumed. Again, this metaphor shows the
lyrical voice’s troubled thoughts about aging. Notice the
lyrical voice’s emphasis on the consummation of this fire:
“As the death-bed wereon it must expire/Consumed with
that which it was nourish’d by”.
This thou perceivest, which makes thy
love more strong,
To love that well which thou must leave
ere long.
In the final couplet, the lyrical voice defines a purpose.
The lyrical voice notices that his/her love for his/her
significant other grows stronger, as he/she ages, and
despite of the old age. The couplet addresses this young
unnamed man from the Fair Youth sequence (“thou”).
The lyrical voice tells this young man to strengthen his
love and to understand everything that he/she has said
throughout the stanzas (“This thou perceives, which
makes thy love more strong”). The possibility of dying,
the old age, emphasizes the need to love even more than
before (“To love that well”), taking into account that he or
the loved one could soon part from the world.
 

About William Shakespeare

William Shakespeare was baptized in 1564 and died in
1616. He was an English poet, playwright, and actor. He
is known as the greatest writer of the English language
and as the most exceptional dramatist of all times.
Moreover, William Shakespeare is often referred as
England’s National Poet, and his works include 38 plays,
154 sonnets, 2 long poems, and other texts and
collaborations. Between 1585 and 1592, William
Shakespeare started a successful career in London as an
actor and writer. Also, he was a part-owner of a company
called Lord Chamberlain’s Men. During those years,
Shakespeare wrote most of his famous work. His first
plays were mostly comedies, but his later works were
tragedies, including Hamlet, Othello, King Lear,
and Macbeth, as his most remarkable plays. William
Shakespeare wrote tragedies until 1608, and, after that, he
wrote tragicomedies and collaborations with other writers.
In 1613, when he was 49 years of age, William
Shakespeare retired to Stratford. He died three years later
in 1616.
Most of his plays were published during his lifetime.
However, they were printed in a variety of qualities and
with several variations. Nevertheless, in 1623, John
Heminges and Henry Condell, who were Shakespeare’s
friends and colleagues, published a more precise text
known as the First Folio. The First Folio is a collected
edition of Shakespeare’s dramatic works that includes
most of the plays recognized as written by Shakespeare. It
has a preface with a poem written by Ben Jonson.
Summary and Analysis "Ode to
a Nightingale"
Summary
Keats is in a state of uncomfortable drowsiness.
Envy of the imagined happiness of the nightingale is
not responsible for his condition; rather, it is a
reaction to the happiness he has experienced through
sharing in the happiness of the nightingale. The
bird's happiness is conveyed in its singing.
Keats longs for a draught of wine which would take
him out of himself and allow him to join his
existence with that of the bird. The wine would put
him in a state in which he would no longer be
himself, aware that life is full of pain, that the young
die, the old suffer, and that just to think about life
brings sorrow and despair. But wine is not needed to
enable him to escape. His imagination will serve just
as well. As soon as he realizes this, he is, in spirit,
lifted up above the trees and can see the moon and
the stars even though where he is physically there is
only a glimmering of light. He cannot see what
flowers are growing around him, but from their odor
and from his knowledge of what flowers should be
in bloom at the time he can guess.
In the darkness he listens to the nightingale. Now, he
feels, it would be a rich experience to die, "to cease
upon the midnight with no pain" while the bird
would continue to sing ecstatically. Many a time, he
confesses, he has been "half in love with easeful
Death." The nightingale is free from the human fate
of having to die. The song of the nightingale that he
is listening to was heard in ancient times by emperor
and peasant. Perhaps even Ruth (whose story is told
in the Old Testament) heard it.
"Forlorn," the last word of the preceding stanza,
brings Keats in the concluding stanza back to
consciousness of what he is and where he is. He
cannot escape even with the help of the imagination.
The singing of the bird grows fainter and dies away.
The experience he has had seems so strange and
confusing that he is not sure whether it was a vision
or a daydream. He is even uncertain whether he is
asleep or awake.
 The Writing of "Ode to a Nightingale"
      Charles Brown, a friend with whom Keats was living
when he composed this poem, wrote,
In the spring of 1819 a nightingale had built her nest near
my house. 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. When he came into the
house, I perceived he had some scraps of paper in his
hand, and these he was quietly thrusting behind the books.
On inquiry, I found those scraps, four or five in number,
contained his poetic feeling on the song of our
nightingale.

Analysis: "Ode to a Nightingale"

      A major concern in "Ode to a Nightingale" is Keats's
perception of the conflicted nature of human life, i.e., the
interconnection or mixture of pain/joy, intensity of
feeling/numbness or lack of feeling, life/death,
mortal/immortal, the actual/the ideal, and
separation/connection.
      In this ode, Keats focuses on
immediate, concrete sensations and emotions, from which
the reader can draw a conclusion or abstraction. Does the
experience which Keats describes change the dreamer?
As reader, you must follow the dreamer's development or
his lack of development from his initial response to the
nightingale to his final statement about
the experience.
Stanza I.
1.
My heart aches, and a
drowsy numbness pains
  My sense, as though of hemlock I had
drunk,
Or emptied some dull opiate to the drains
  One minute past, and Lethe-wards had
sunk:
'Tis not through envy of thy happy lot,
  But being too happy in thine happiness,—
    That thou, light-winged Dryad of the
trees,
          In some melodious plot
  Of beechen green, and shadows
numberless,
    Singest of summer in full-throated ease
      The poet falls into a reverie while listening to an
actual nightingale sing. He feels joy and pain, an
ambivalent response. As you read, pick out which words
express his pleasure and which ones express his pain and
which words express his intense feeling and which his
numbed feeling. Consider whether pleasure can be so
intense that, paradoxically, it either numbs us or causes
pain.
      What qualities does the poet ascribe to the
nightingale? In the beginning the bird is presented as a
real bird, but as the poem progresses, the bird becomes
a symbol. As you read the poem, think about what the
bird comes to symbolize. The bird may symbolize more
than one thing.  Possible meanings include
 pure or unmixed joy,
 the artist, with the bird's voice being self expression
or the song being poetry,
 the music (beauties) of nature
 the ideal.
Think of the quality or qualities attributed to the
nightingale in deciding on the bird's symbolic meaning.
.
Stanza II.
2.
O, for a draught of vintage! that hath been
  Cool'd a long age in the deep-delved
earth,
Tasting of Flora and the country green,
  Dance, and Provencal song, and sunburnt
mirth!
O for a beaker full of the warm South,
  Full of the true, the blushful Hippocrene,
    With beaded bubbles winking at the
brim,
          And purple-stained mouth;
  That I might drink, and leave the world
unseen,
    And with thee fade away into the forest
dim:

      Wanting to escape from the pain of a joy-pain reality,

the poet begins to move into a world of imagination or
fantasy. He calls for wine. His purpose is clearly not to
get drunk. Rather he associates wine with some quality or
state he is seeking. Think about the effects alcohol has;
which one or ones is the poet seeking? Since his goal is to
join the bird, what quality or qualities of the bird does he
want to experience? How might alcohol enable him to
achieve that desire?
      The description of drinking and of the world
associated with wine is idealized. What is the effect of the
images associating the wine with summer, country
pleasure, and romantic Provence? The word "vintage"
refers to a fine or prime wine; why does he use this word?
(Would the effect differ if the poet-dreamer imagined
drinking a rotgut wine?) Why does Keats describe the
country as "green"? Would the effect be different if the
countryside were brown or yellowed? The activities in
line 4 follow one another naturally: dance is associated
with song; together they produce pleasure ("mirth"),
which is sunburnt because the country dances are held
outdoors. "Sunburnt mirth" is an excellent example
of synaesthesia in Keats' imagery, since Flora, the green
countryside, etc. are being experienced by Keats through
drinking wine in his imagination.
      The image of the "beaded bubbles winking at the
brim" is much admired. Does it capture the action of
sparkling wine? What sounds are repeated? What is the
effect of this alliteration? Do any of the sounds duplicate
the bubbles breaking? Say the words and notice the action
of your lips.
      This image of the bubbles is concrete; in contrast, the
preceding imagery in the stanza is abstract. Can you see
the difference?
      Does the wine resemble the nightingale in being
associated with summer, song, and happpiness?
Stanza III.
3.
Fade far away, dissolve, and quite forget
  What thou among the leaves hast never
known,
The weariness, the fever, and the fret
  Here, where men sit and hear each other
groan;
Where palsy shakes a few, sad, last gray
hairs,
  Where youth grows pale, and spectre-thin,
and dies;
    Where but to think is to be full of sorrow
          And leaden-eyed despairs,
  Where Beauty cannot keep her lustrous
eyes,
    Or new Love pine at them beyond to-
morrow.

      His awareness of the real world pulls him back from
the imagined world of drink-joy. Does he still perceive
the real world as a world of joy-pain? Does thinking of
the human condition intensify, diminish, or have no effect
on the poet's desire to escape the world?
      The poet uses the word "fade" in the last line of stanza
II and in the first line of this stanza to tie the stanzas
together and to move easily into his next thought. What is
the effect of the words "fade" and "dissolve"? why "far
away"?
      What is the relationship of the bird to the world the
poet describes? See line 2. Characterize the real world
which the poet describes. By implication, what kind of
world does the nightingale live in? (Is it the same as or
different from the poet's?)
      Lead is a heavy metal; why is despair "leaden-eyed"
(line 8)?
Stanza IV.
4.
Away! away! for I will fly to thee,
  Not charioted by Bacchus and his pards,
But on the viewless wings of Poesy,
  Though the dull brain perplexes and
retards:
Already with thee! tender is the night,
  And haply the Queen-Moon is on her throne,
    Cluster'd around by all her starry Fays;
          But here there is no light,
  Save what from heaven is with the breezes
blown
    Through verdurous glooms and winding
mossy ways.
      The poet suddenly cries out "Away! away! for I will
fly to thee." He turns to fantasy again; he rejects wine in
line 2, and in line 3 he announces he is going to use "the
viewless wings of Poesy" to join a fantasy bird. In
choosing Poesy, is he calling on analytical or scientific
reasoning, on poetry and imagination, on passion, on
sensuality, or on some something else?
      He contrasts this mode of experience (poetry) to the
"dull brain" that "perplexes and retards" (line 4); what
way of approaching life does this line reject? What kinds
of activities is the brain often associated with, in contrast
to the heart, which is associated with emotion?
      In line 5, he succeeds or seems to succeed in joining
the bird. The imagined world described in the rest of the
stanza is dark; what qualities are associated with this
darkness, e.g., is it frightening, safe, attractive, empty,
fulfilling, sensuous, alive?
Stanza V.
5.
I cannot see what flowers are at my feet,
  Nor what soft incense hangs upon the
boughs,
But, in embalmed darkness, guess each sweet
  Wherewith the seasonable month endows
The grass, the thicket, and the fruit-tree wild;
  White hawthorn, and the pastoral eglantine;
    Fast fading violets cover'd up in leaves;
          And mid-May's eldest child,
  The coming musk-rose, full of dewy wine,
    The murmurous haunt of flies on summer
eves.

      Because the poet cannot see in the darkness, he must

rely on his other senses. What senses does he rely on? Are
his experience and his sensations intense? for himself
only or for the reader also?
      Even in this refuge, death is present; what words hint
of death? Do these hints help to prepare for stanza VI?
Was death anticipated in stanza I by the vague
suggestions in the words "Lethe," "hemlock," "drowsy
numbness," "poisonous," and "shadowy darkness"?
      The season is spring (the musk rose, which is a mid-
May flower, has not yet bloomed). Nevertheless, Keats
speaks of summer: in stanza one he introduces the
nightingale singing "of summer," and in this stanza he
refers to the murmur of flies "on summer eves." In the
progression of the seasons, what changes occur between
spring and summer? how do they differ (as, for instance,
autumn brings fulfillment, harvest, and the beginning of
decay which becomes death in winter)? Why might Keats
leap to thoughts of the summer to come?
Stanza VI.
6.
Darkling I listen; and, for many a time
  I have been half in love with easeful Death,
Call'd him soft names in many a mused
rhyme,
  To take into the air my quiet breath;
Now more than ever seems it rich to die,
  To cease upon the midnight with no pain,
    While thou art pouring forth thy soul
abroad
          In such an ecstasy!
  Still wouldst thou sing, and I have ears in
vain—
    To thy high requiem become a sod.

      In Stanza VI, the poet begins to distance himself from

the nightingale, which he joined in imagination in stanzas
IV and V.
      Keats yearns to die, a state which he imagines as only
joyful, as pain-free, and to merge with the bird's song.
The nightingale is characterized as wholly blissful--"full-
throated ease" in stanza I and "pouring forth thy soul
abroad / In such an ecstasy!" (lines 7-8).
      The mixed nature of reality and its transience are
suggested by the contrasting phrases "fast-fading violets"
and "the coming musk-rose."
      In the last two lines, the poet no longer identifies with
the bird. He realizes what death means for him; death is
not release from pain; rather it means non-existence, the
inability to feel the bird's ecstasy. Is there any suggestion
of the bird's dying or experiencing anything but bliss?
Note the contrast between the bird's singing and the poet's
hearing that song; what are the emotional effects of or
associations with "high requiem" and "sod"? Why does
Keats now hear the bird's song as a requiem? (He heard
the bird's song very differently earlier in the poem.) 
Might the word "still" have more than one meaning here?
      Is there any irony in Keats's using the same word to
describe both the nightingale and death--the bird sings
with "full-throated ease" at the end of stanza I and death is
"easeful" (line 2 of this stanza)?
.
Stanza VII.
7.
Thou wast not born for death, immortal Bird!
  No hungry generations tread thee down;
The voice I hear this passing night was heard
  In ancient days by emperor and clown:
Perhaps the self-same song that found a path
  Through the sad heart of Ruth, when, sick
for home,
    She stood in tears amid the alien corn;
          The same that oft-times hath
  Charm'd magic casements, opening on the
foam
    Of perilous seas, in faery lands forlorn

      Keats moves from his awareness of his own mortality

in the preceding stanza to the perception of the bird's
immortality. On a literal level, his perception is wrong;
this bird will die. Some readers, including very perceptive
ones, see his chracterization of the bird as immortal as a
flaw. Before you make this judgment, consider alternate
interpretations. Interpreting the line literally may be a
misreading, because the bird has clearly become a symbol
for the poet.
 Is he saying that the bird he is now hearing is
immortal? or is he saying something else, like "the
bird is a symbol of the continuity of nature" or like
"the bird represents the continuing presence of joy in
life"? In such a reading, the poet contrasts the bird's
immortality (and continuing joyful song) with the
condition of human beings, "hungry generations."
 Does the bird symbolize ideal beauty, which is
immortal? Or is the bird the visionary or imaginative
realm which inspires poets? Or does the bird's song
symbolize poetry and has the passion of the
song/poem carried the listening poet away?
 Has the actual bird been transformed into a myth?
  Does this one bird represent the species, which by
continuing generation after generation does achieve a
kind of immortality as a species?
 Is the nightingale not born for death in the sense that,
unlike us human beings, it doesn't know it's going to
die? An implication of this reading is that the bird is
integrated into nature or is part of natural processes
whereas we are separated from nature. The resulting
ability to observe nature gives us the ability to
appreciate the beauty of nature, however transitory
it--and we--may be.
The poet contrasts the bird's singing and immunity from
death and suffering with human beings, "hungry
generations." What is he saying about the human
experience with "hungry"? If you think in terms of the
passage of time, what is the effect of "generations"?
      The stanza begins in the poet's present (note the
present tense verbs tread and hear in lines 2 and 3). Keats
then makes three references to the bird's singing in the
past; the first reference to emperor and clown is general
and presumably in a historical past; the other two are
specific, one from the Old Testament, the other from fairy
tales. The past becomes more remote, ending with a non-
human past and place ("faery lands"), in which no human
being is present. Is Keats trying to limit the meaning of
the bird's song with these images or to extend its
meaning? What ideas or aspects of human life do these
references represent?
      The mixed nature of reality manifests itself in his
imagining the nightingale's joyous song being heard by in
the past in the series of three images. Is the reference to
the emperor and clown positive or neutral? The story of
Ruth is unhappy (what words indicate her pain?). In the
third image, the "charm'd magic casements" of fairy are
"forlorn" and the seas are "perilous." "Forlorn" and
"perilous" would not ordinarily be associated with
magic/enchantment. These words hint at the pain the poet
recognized in the beginning of the poem and is trying to
escape. Does bringing up the idea of pain prepare us or
help to prepare us for the final stanza?
VII
.
Stanza VIII.
8.
Forlorn! the very word is like a bell
  To toil me back from thee to my sole self!
Adieu! the fancy cannot cheat so well
  As she is fam'd to do, deceiving elf.
Adieu! adieu! thy plaintive anthem fades
  Past the near meadows, over the still
stream,
    Up the hill-side; and now 'tis buried deep
          In the next valley-glades:
  Was it a vision, or a waking dream?
    Fled is that music:—Do I wake or sleep?

      The poet repeats the word "forlorn" from the end of
stanza VII; who or what is now forlorn? Is the poet
identified with or separate from the nightingale?
      In lines 2 and 3, the poet says that "fancy"
(imagination) has cheated him, as has the "elf" (bird).
What allusion in the preceding stanza does the word "elf"
suggest? What delusion is the poet awakening from?
      The bird has ceased to be a symbol and is again the
actual bird the poet heard in stanza I. The poet, like the
nightingale, has returned to the real world. The bird flies
away to another spot to sing. The bird's song becomes a
"plaintive anthem" and fainter. Is the change in the bird,
in the poet, or in both? Is Keats's description of the bird's
voice as "buried deep" a reference only to its physical
distance, or does the phrase have an additional meaning?
It is the last of the death images running through the
poem.
      With the last two lines, the poet wonders whether he
has had a true insight or experience (vision) or whether he
has been daydreaming. Is he questioning the validity of
the experience the poem describes, or is he expressing the
inability to maintain an intense, true vision? Of course,
the imaginative experience is by its nature transient or
brief. Is his experience a false vision, or is it a true, if
transitory experience of and insight into the nature of
reality?
      Has the dreamer in this poem changed as a result of
his visionary experience? For instance, has his life been
improved in any way? has he been damaged in any way?
(The effect of the dream on the dreamer is a thread that
runs throgh Keats's poems. The life of the dreamer in "La
Belle Dame sans Merci" has been destroyed, and there is
a question about the impact of dreaming on Madeline in
"The Eve of St. Agnes.) What does the tone of the ending
seem to you, e.g., happy, excited, hopeful, depressed, sad,
despairing, resigned, accepting