Ode to a Nightingale (Masterplots II: Poetry, Revised Edition)
At a glance:
- Author: John Keats
- First Published: 1819
- Type of Work: Ode
- Genres: Poetry, Lyric poetry, Ode
- Subjects: Immortality, Poetry or poets, Emotions, Death or dying, Birds, Mortality, Happiness, Joy or sorrow, Spring
The Poem
“Ode to a Nightingale” is a poem in eight numbered stanzas; as the title suggests, it takes the form of a direct address to a nightingale. The speaker, evidently the poet John Keats himself, hears a nightingale singing. This beautiful but melancholy sound, which has inspired legends since the time of ancient Greece, fills him with complex and conflicting emotions. It makes him happy because he can empathize with the bird’s zest for living and procreating at the height of the spring season; at the same time, it makes him sad because he is alone and has been...
[The entire page is 1423 words long]
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