Poetry Analysis of John Keats’ Ode to a Nightingale

This essay provides a brief analysis of John Keats’ poem 'Ode to a Nightingale', exploring its themes, symbols, and literary devices. The poem reveals the poet's imaginative power and explores the concept of negative capability. The setting, literary devices, and the speaker's identity are also discussed.

Running Head : POETRY ANALYSIS
Poetry Analysis
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1POETRY ANALYSIS
Topic – Poetry Analysis of John Keats’ Ode to a Nightingale
John Keats’ poem “ Ode to a Nightingale “ is one of the most popular odes in the
English Literature. The poem is known for revealing the topmost imaginative power of the poet.
It has been assumed by the scholars and the readers too that the poet has been inspired by the
song of a nightingale heard in the gardens( Dibble ). The song of the nightingale drove the poet
in rapture and in the state of transcendence, he composed the poem. The purpose of the essay is
to analyze the poem briefly focusing on the themes, the situation, symbols, the literary devices
used in the poem and its subject matter.
The man theme of the poem is the negative capability and its power to support the
speaker in the transcendence of grief. The negative capability is a terms that is coined by John
Keats himself. It demonstrates the idea of how a poet can easily negate his/her feelings and write
completely from the perspective of the subject. The subthemes in the poem are the version of
reality, happiness, mortality, transience and man and natural world.
The setting of the poem is probably the garden of the Spaniards Inn, Hampstead,
London. The poem depicts the situation he was in when his brother Tom died. With a heart full
of sorrow, he composed the poem which is a clear record of his dejection and pessimism. The
beginning lines of the poem “My heart aches, and a drowsy numbness pains/ My sense, as
though of hemlock I had drunk “strongly depict the emotional status of the poet( Keats ) . The
song of the Nightingale dives deep into the heart of the poet and pulls a cover of “dizzy
numbness “over the night. The setting is the symbol of tragedy in human life and the pessimism
too. It symbolizes the regrets, the sorrow, gloom, darkness and shattered hopes in every human
life.

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There are various literary devices used in the poem that conveys the emotions, the beliefs
and the ideas. Keats has used the literary devices in this poem to make it more appealing and
unique( Ulmer). The poem has used alliteration, simile, imagery, metaphor, personification and
few others. Taken for example, in the line “That thou, light-winged Dryad of the trees”, there is
repetition of the consonants. Hence, it is an application of alliteration. Similarly, the line
“Forlorn! the very word is like a bell.”, the pot has compared forlorn to a bell. It is a clear use of
simile.
The title of the poem tells about the form of the poem. It clarifies that it is an “ ode “ that
is different from any other poem. The subject of the ode has also been clarified in the title and
the subject is the Nightingale. Throughout the entire poem, the poet addresses the nightingale
like a person. Hence, the title is appropriate to its theme and topic.
The metrical analysis of the poem suggests that there are eight stanzas in the poem
having ten lines in each stanza. The rhyme scheme of the poem is ABABCDECDE with the
iambic pentameter. The end rhyme has been used by the poet to make the stanza melodious such
as “pains “, “ drains “, “sunk” , “ drunk”. The metrical devices are useful in the poem in making
the tone somber and grave. The tone is not celebrating; rather it signifies melancholy state of the
poet, the subdued sorrow and the unspoken tragedy of every human existence( Keats ).
As far as the identity of the speaker is concerned in the poem, it is kind of implicit and
does not clarify that the person is John Keats and none other. Nevertheless, it depicts an opium
driven person who is not in his complete senses. It is the story of a person who is aware of the
crude reality of the physical world and it disrupts his joy( Yang). The more he thinks about the
human condition, the more the desire to escape the world intensifies within him. He wants to
stay in the rapture of both the song and hemlock. Throughout the course of the poem, the poet

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moves into the world of imagination and associates wine with his own condition. The poem
finally ends with bidding Adieu to the bird which cannot deceive the reality for so long.

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Reference
Dibble, Jeremy. "Hamilton Harty's Ode to a Nightingale: a confluence of Wagner and
Elgar." Journal of the Society of Musicology in Ireland. 11.2015-16 (2016): 57-81.
Keats, John. Keats:'Ode to a Nightingale'and Other Poems. Michael O'Mara Books, 2016.
Ulmer, William A. "Tragic Consolation in" Ode to a Nightingale"." Studies in Romanticism 55.4
(2016): 449.
Yang, Carol L. "A Passage from Adam's Dream to the Cessation of Desire: A Buddhist Reading
of John Keats's" Ode to a Nightingale"." Journal of Narrative Theory 48.2 (2018): 137-
163.