Ode to Nightingale: Summary and Analysis of the poem

Ode to a Nightingale' is one of John Keats' great odes, written in May 1819, when the poet was just 23 years old. The poem is dominated by thoughts of death, underpinned by meditations on immortality and on the finite nature of joy.

 It was first published in 1819, in a journal called Annals of the Fine Arts, and subsequently in Keats's third and final publication, Lamia, Isabella, The Eve of St Agnes, and Other Poems (1820)

The poem focuses on a speaker standing in a dark forest, listening to the beguiling and beautiful song of the nightingale bird. This provokes a deep and meandering meditation by the speaker on time, death, beauty, nature, and human suffering  (something the speaker would very much like to escape!)

The poet begins by saying that his heart is in anguish and his body feels numb and exhausted. He says that he feels as if he has drunk poison from the hemlock plant or consumed a kind of opiate drug and fallen into Lethe (a river in Greek mythology, it makes one forget everything). He addresses the Nightingale and says that he is not jealous of her happiness. He clarifies that the reason why he feels this way is that the nightingale is singing so beautifully and freely. He says that the nightingale is like a Dryad (a mythical tree spirit) singing summer songs with all her strengths amidst lush greens and shadows.

In the next stanza, the poet wishes if he could consume some vintage wine which has been kept beneath the earth for years, the kind of wine which tastes like countryside flowers. The poet says if he could drink that wine, he would be transported to the warmer southern lands, which are filled with water from the mythical Hippocrene spring that is known to bring inspiration for poets. The poet says that there would be bubbles playing on the glass’s surface and in his mouth. The poet says he could drink, become oblivion to the world and escape into the dark forest with the Nightingale

In the next stanza, the poet addresses the Nightingale and says he desires to disappear to be able to forget what she never had to experience. He says to the Nightingale that she has not been touched by sickness, excruciating pain and worries that are a part of the human world. The poet says that as humans, ageing, fading of youth and its ultimate death and being diseased is the unavoidable truth. Humans listen to each other’s stories of pain. He says that just thinking means suffering and feeling sad. He says neither love nor beauty remains constant here.

In the next stanza, the poet says that he will fly afar from the human world and reach the Nightingale. He says he doesn’t need a ride from Bacchus (the god of wine), he can use the wings of poetry although human consciousness would try to confuse him and hamper his speed. The poet addresses the Nightingale and says he is already with her in  his imagination. He says that while the night is soft and soothing, the queen of the sky, the moon is resting on her throne with her stars surrounding it.

In the next stanza, he says that where he is right now, it’s dark and only a streak of light is entering through the heavily grown but dark trees and paths which are covered by moss. He says he can neither see the flowers in the forest nor does he identify the scented plants which are hanging on the trees.

In the next stanza, the poet says that darkness surrounds him and he is trying to imagine what’s growing in the adjoining space. He says that spring season is ongoing and so the forests feature lush grass, shrubs and fruit-bearing trees. He says hawthorns, sweet briars are there and so are the purple violets concealed under a layer of leaves on the forest soil. He says the posh-scent-ed musk-rose is going to appear soon and will be surrounded by a huge number of flies in the evenings of summer season.

The poet says that he feels more in despair as he hears the Nightingale song. He says he has romanticized and personified death in poems while partly bearing the desire to die himself. He says this moment seems to be the perfect time to die and put an end to human sorrows while listening to the song. He asks the Nightingale to sing from her soul as once he is dead, she’d still go on singing but it would be wasted on his ears.

In the next stanza, the poet tells the Nightingale that she is not born to die like mortals; that she is immortal. He says she doesn’t have a new generation lined up and that the song he hears right now, he has heard it during the era of emperors several years ago. He guesses the song hasn’t changed since Biblical times, when Ruth (the woman who lived with her mother-in-law after she was widowed)stood in the corn fields. He says this same song was used when ships were on dangerous seas and the windows were to be opened, this song used to play from the forlorn lands where the fairies used to live.

The last stanza has the poet grieving about how the word “forlorn” makes him feel that he is alone. He bids adieu( Goodbye) to the Nightingale. He says that his imagination can’t just deceive him into believing that he can fly with the Nightingale. He says the sound of the song is fading as the Nightingale flies past the meadows, over the valley and high on the hills. He says that the Nightingale is now in the next valley. He asks if the whole experience was an illusion or was it real. He asks if he is asleep or awake.

Major Themes: Death, immortality, mortality and poetic imaginations are some of the major themes of this ode. Keats says that death is an unavoidable phenomenon. He paints it in both negative and positive ways.