Ode to a Nightingale

by John Keats

Introduction
Last Updated on June 8, 2022, by eNotes Editorial. Word Count: 1184

So you’re going to teach John Keats’s “Ode to a Nightingale.” Whether it’s your
first or hundredth time, this classic poem has been a mainstay of English
classrooms for generations. While it has its challenging spots—deeply
figurative language, a direct confrontation with death—teaching this text to
your class will be rewarding for you and your students. Studying “Ode to a
Nightingale” will give them unique insight into the form of the ode, the styles
and concerns of John Keats, and important themes surrounding death,
oblivion, and beauty. This guide highlights some of the most salient aspects of
the text before you begin teaching.

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Facts at a Glance

Publication Date: 1819

Recommended Grade Levels: 11 and up
Approximate Word Count: 600
Author: John Keats
Country of Origin: England
Genre: Lyric Poetry
Literary Period: English Romanticism
Conflict: Person vs. Death, Person vs. Self
Narration: First-Person
Setting: Hampstead Heath, London, England
Structure or Dominant Literary Devices: English Ode, Iambic
Pentameter
Tone: Anguished, Effusive, Imaginative

Structure of the Text

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The Keatsian Ode: An ode is a lyric poem that offers a sustained meditation
on a particular subject. The ode originated in ancient Greece and Rome, where
it was notably practiced by such poets as Pindar (522–443 BCE) and Horace
(65–8 BCE). English poets began to experiment with the form of the ode
during the Renaissance, but the English ode came to fruition two centuries
later in John Keats’s hands. Just as Shakespeare gave the English sonnet its
definitive shape, so did Keats define the English ode.

The Keatsian Ode, as it is often called, consists of ten-line stanzas with an

ABABCDECDE rhyme scheme, which largely consist of iambic pentameter.
Keats’s odes typically contain five stanzas, as in “Ode on a Grecian Urn,” but
some contain as few as three. At eight stanzas, “Ode to a Nightingale” is
Keats’s longest ode. Keatsian odes contain a sonnet-like musicality. Indeed,
each stanza is the equivalent of a Petrarchan sonnet—but with one opening
quatrain, rather than two. However, whereas a fourteen-line sonnet is marked
by great concision and intensity, an ode can unfold patiently, developing its
themes over the course of 30, 50, or 80 lines. Whereas a sonnet contains a
single turn, or volta, an ode can contain numerous turns of theme and tone.

Significant Allusions

Greco-Roman Allusions: Since the Renaissance, the two most potent

sources of allusion for English poets have been the Bible and Greco-Roman
mythology. From the start, John Keats leaned toward the latter camp, drawing
his allusions chiefly from Greek lore. For instance, Keats’s earliest known
poems include “Ode to Apollo” and “Hymn to Apollo.” Across his writings, his
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allusions range from the best-known gods and heroes to obscurer figures and
locales, such as the “blushful Hippocrene” that appears in the second stanza of
“Ode to a Nightingale.”

It is likely that the vibrant world of Greek myth appealed to Keats’s

imaginative and sensuous sensibility. As in many of his poems, “Ode to a
Nightingale” is so densely laced with Greek allusions—Lethe, Flora, Dryads,
and Bacchus, to name a few—that the world of Greek myth comes to give the
poem its background and texture, in addition to providing a shorthand for
layered meanings. By contrast, the penitential and moral concerns that mark
the biblical myths never struck quite as powerful a chord for Keats, although
the episode of Ruth and her “sad heart” appears briefly in “Ode to a
Nightingale.”

Texts that Go Well with “Ode to a Nightingale”

“Because I could not stop for Death,” by Emily Dickinson, is a ballad that
was first published in 1890 and most likely composed in 1863. Like Keats in
“Ode to a Nightingale,” Dickinson employs metaphor and personification to
address the most difficult of subjects. Whereas Keats tends towards breathless
expansion, however, Dickinson tends towards cool concision. Dickinson’s
portrayal of Death as a gentleman in a carriage is unforgettable, as are the
poem’s mysterious final lines: “Since then — ‘tis Centuries — and yet / Feels
shorter than the Day / I first surmised the Horses’ Heads / Were toward
Eternity —”

Homework Help
:
Please explain the significance of the phrase "...emblamed
darkness" in Keats's "Ode to a Nightingale."

Latest answer posted September 17, 2013, 4:30 pm (UTC)

1 educator answer

“Bright Star” is one of the final poems John Keats ever wrote and is
considered his last sonnet. He most likely wrote it during his voyage to Italy in
the winter of 1820, just months before his death. The poem takes the North
Star as its central image. The poem’s speaker expresses his desire for the
same steadfastness as the unmoving star. In its expression of the smallness
and fragility of human life, this poem is a fitting piece to pair with “Ode to a
Nightingale.”

“Ode: Intimations of Immortality,” (1804) by William Wordsworth, is one

of the signature poems of English Romanticism and stands alongside “Ode to a
Nightingale” as a landmark ode. Whereas Keats nominally addresses his poem
to a bird, Wordsworth inconspicuously sets his sights on more metaphysical
matters. Wordsworth recalls the golden times of childhood, “when meadow,
grove, and stream, / The earth, and every common sight, / To me did seem /
Apparelled in celestial light.” The ode both praises the enchanted experience of
childhood and grieves the inevitable fall from that paradise. Like Keats’s “Ode
to a Nightingale,” Wordsworth’s ode explores human limitations, addressing
the facts of suffering and mortality. Ultimately, Wordsworth’s speaker finds
solace and redemption in the treasure trove of memory.

“The Nightingale,” by Samuel Taylor Coleridge, was first published in Lyrical

Ballads in 1798. This light-hearted, discursive poem offers a new frame
through which to understand the nightingale. In the opening lines, Coleridge
draws on a quote by John Milton to establish the consensus opinion of
nightingales: “‘Most musical, most melancholy bird!’” Coleridge then refutes
Milton’s claim: “A melancholy bird! Oh! idle thought! / In nature there is
nothing melancholy.” For readers of Keats’s “Ode to a Nightingale,” Coleridge’s
poem can be enjoyed as a whimsical companion piece by another of the
central Romantic poets.

“To Autumn,” by John Keats, is one of the six beloved odes Keats composed
in 1819. After composing the first five in the spring of that year, Keats
produced “To Autumn” in late September. After descending to the depths of
existential inquiry plumbed in “Ode to a Nightingale,” readers may find that
“To Autumn” serves as a calming balm to the soul. In some of the richest,
most sensuous language Keats ever put on the page, he evokes the “Season
of mists and mellow fruitfulness!” This generous ode is a love letter to the
unsung season of ample harvests and “stubble-plains with rosy hue.”
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“When I Have Fears,” by John Keats, is an 1818 sonnet that explores the
same thematic territory as “Ode to a Nightingale.” Both poems confront death,
but they diverge in many ways. “When I Have Fears” is a sonnet and thus
arrives at its conclusive note quickly, whereas “Nightingale” meanders and
lands on an ambiguous note. “When I Have Fears” is indelible for its final
shedding of idealism:

Then on the shore

Of the wide world I stand alone, and think
Till Love and Fame to nothingness do sink.

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