JOHN KEATS Leaving Certificate Poetry Born in 1795

JOHN KEATS Leaving Certificate Poetry

Born in 1795 in London, the eldest of 5. When Keats was eight years old his father was killed in a riding accident. When he was fifteen his mother died of tuberculosis, leaving him and his sister and brothers in the care of his grandmother. • Keats was not university educated. He left school at fifteen and began an apprenticeship under a surgeon. However, his interest in poetry was strong and he ultimately missed his surgical exams to be present when his first book of poetry was being published. Keats met and fell in love with a young woman called Frances Brawne. He wanted to marry her but his financial situation was difficult, particularly since his younger brother George borrowed money from him so frequently. His protective instincts towards his siblings would never disappear. • On 3 February 1820 Keats began to cough blood. His health soon grew worse and it soon became clear that he suffering from tuberculosis. His friends suggested he take a trip to Italy to recover his health, however he did not recover. Keats died in Rome at the age of twenty-five. JOHN KE BIOGRAP

JOHN KEATS: BIOGRAPHY Keats’ poetry career spanned less than four years. It began in 1816, when he decided not to be a surgeon and lasted until late 1819. In all, Keats wrote about 150 poems, many of his best remembered works were written in the last year of his life.

JOHN KEATS: ROMANTICS The works of many early 18 th century poets celebrated the power of reason and rational thought over emotion and imagination. But as the century progressed and the negative effects of the industrial revolution on the lives of ordinary people became clearer, some poets began to question the direction society was taking. These poets considered the city to be an ugly, soul-destroying environment and celebrated the beauty and power of nature. Such poets came to be known as the Romantics and Keats is considered one of the greatest of these. His poems are full of lush and rich descriptions of the natural world and they celebrate the power of imagination over reason.

TO ONE WHO HAS BEEN LONG IN CITY PENT ØThe poem describes how pleasant it can be to spend a day in the country if you have been stuck in the city for a long time: “Tis very sweet to look into the fair / And open face of heaven”. ØThe country is presented as a place of beauty and tranquillity. The tall grass that sways gently in the breeze offers the visitor a “pleasant” secluded place to relax. ØKeats presents the countryside as a loving, benevolent place that warmly welcomes and embraces those who come to visit. The bright blue sky is

TO ONE WHO HAS BEEN LONG IN CITY PENT ØThe person who spends a day in the countryside will experience great joy and Keats cannot imagine a greater pleasure. ØKeats believes the experience will inspire a religious or spiritual response – a “prayer”. There is a sense in which God is smiling back at the person Keats imagines taking this trip to the country: the “open face of heaven”. ØIt is here that someone discovers their “heart’s content”.

TO ONE WHO HAS BEEN LONG IN CITY PENT ØThe journey back to the city will bring mixed emotions – the person will hear the song of the nightingale: “catching the notes of Philomel” and will feel sad that their day is over. ØKeats compares the swift and silent passage of time to the tear of an angel falling from the heavens: “passage of an angel’s tear / that falls through the clear ether silently”. ØThis is a mournful image and seems to suggest the heavens are sympathetic to the feelings of the person returning to the city. The tear falling from heaven is

THEME: NATURE ØKeats was typical of Romantic poets in his worship of the natural world. And his almost overwhelming love of nature is evident throughout this poem. He describes the awe-inspiring beauty of the sky, a sight which inspires one to “breathe a prayer”. ØThe natural world is presented as a loving, caring environment. The poet presents the sky as the smiling and “open face of heaven”. He also describes the great pleasure of sinking into long grass and hiding away from the troubles of the world for a while. ØAs such, the country is presented as an idyllic escape from the hustle and bustle of city life. It is a place that offers the weary city-dweller much needed rest and respite.

STYLE: LANGUAGE, TONE, STRUCTURE ETC. Nature Imagery: Ø Like so many of Keats’ poems, this poem contains a number of memorable images of the natural world. Here Keats concentrates on the sky. ØHe captures the wonderful expanse of the sky when he describes it as an “open face” and speaks of the “smile of the blue firmament”. ØIn the poem’s closing lines Keats describes a cloud drifting across the sky like a boat sailing

STYLE: LANGUAGE, TONE, STRUCTURE ETC. Reference to Older Times: ØLike many Romantic poets, Keats’ poetry makes frequent references to characters from Greek myths and legends. Here the poet refers to the song of the nightingale as the “notes of Philomel”. According to Greek mythology, Philomel was the daughter of an Athenian king who was turned into a nightingale in order to protect her from a cruel and vengeful man.

STYLE: LANGUAGE, TONE, STRUCTURE ETC. Personification and Simile: Ø Keats personifies the sky, likening it to a smiling face. The face is said to be “fair” and “open”. ØThe final two lines of the poem involve a simile. Keats compares the passage of time to the “passage of an angel’s tear”.

KEATS QUESTION: “Keats’ poems frequently express both the pain and beauty of human existence in strikingly powerful and memorable language. ” Discuss this statement, supporting your answer with reference to the poetry of John Keats on your course. Write the paragraph on ‘To One Who Has Been Long in City Pent’ you would include if you were answering the above question.

ON FIRST LOOKING INTO CHAPMAN’S HOMER BACKGROUND: ØIn this sonnet Keats records his pleasure and excitement at discovering George Chapman’s translations of the great Greek poet Homer. ØHomer was famous for his two epic poems The Iliad and The Odyssey. Keats could not read ancient Greek so it was only through Chapman’s translations that he could explore these epics, which are often considered to be the greatest works of Western poetry.

ON FIRST LOOKING INTO CHAPMAN’S HOMER ØThe poem’s opening lines present reading poetry as a form of travel and exploration – a great poet’s collected work is like a country they have painstakingly constructed over years. ØEach poet’s country is a “realm of gold”, a place of great wealth and imaginative richness. Reading a poet’s work is like visiting and exploring that country and Keats is vey well-travelled in this regard because he has read the work of many great poets: “Much have I travelled”

ON FIRST LOOKING INTO CHAPMAN’S HOMER ØHomer’s work is also described as a realm or “demesne”. The country he created is particularly vast and expansive. Homer’s realm dwarfs even the large or “goodly” countries constructed by other great European poets. ØThe air or “serene” in his realm is extremely crisp and pure, suggesting how after thousands of years his poems retain their energy and freshness. ØKeats has often heard about Keats’ amazing epics: “Oft of one wide expanse had I been told”. Yet he has never been able to read them due to his lack of ancient Greek. Now, however, Keats has discovered Chapman’s translations: “I heard Chapman speak out loud and bold”. Chapman’s skill as a translator has allowed him to experience the “wide

ON FIRST LOOKING INTO CHAPMAN’S HOMER ØKeats describes himself as an astronomer or “watcher of the skies” who discovers a new planet. ØKeats also describes the Spanish explorer Cortez discovering the Pacific Ocean when travelling through Panama (Keats is actually mistaken here – he is confusing Cortez with Balboa who actually discovered the Pacific). ØKeats paints wonderful picture of the discovery – he describes Cortez standing “silent” on the mountain peak and how he “stares” at this new ocean, suggesting even a seasoned commander

ON FIRST LOOKING INTO CHAPMAN’S HOMER ØKeats is clearly as thrilled by Chapman’s translations. They permit him for the first time to really discover Homer’s poetry. And this excites him as much as if he’s discovered a new planet. ØHe feels the kind of exhilaration Cortez must have experience when he stood on that Panama hill before a freshly-discovered ocean.

THEME: CELEBRATING ARTWORKS Ø‘Chapman’s Homer’ is one of several poems where Keats celebrates the joy and pleasure of reading (it is also referred to in ‘Long in City Spent’). Reading poetry, the poem suggests, can be a thrilling voyage of discovery. Exploring a new poet’s work is like exploring a new country or island brimming with riches and fantastic sights. ØThe poem also celebrates the incredible excitement of discovering a great new author. For Keats discovering Homer through Chapman’s translation is as thrilling as discovering a new planet or ocean. The poem, then, emphasises the emotional intensity with which Keats responded to works of arts. Most of us don’t share this incredible sensitivity but we may get an idea of it when we discover a new film or

STYLE: LANGUAGE, TONE, STRUCTURE ETC. Nature Imagery: ØKeats was a typical Romantic poet in how he littered his work with images of the natural world. As a tribute to Homer, who wrote a great deal about sea voyages, the poem features a great deal of water imagery; we see “western islands”, the swimming planet, the great sailor Cortez and the Pacific Ocean itself. ØThis poem centres on epic images of discovery in nature. Cortez explores new lands and astronomers explore the heavens. The act of

STYLE: LANGUAGE, TONE, STRUCTURE ETC. References to Older Times: ØKeats was greatly interested in the classical works of ancient Greece. We see this in the reference to the Greek god Apollo and in how he pays tribute to Homer, the very greatest of the Greek poets.

STYLE: LANGUAGE, TONE, STRUCTURE ETC. Metaphor: ØThe poem’s first eight lines are dominated by an extended metaphor that compares the activity of reading to the activity of travel. A memorable feature of the poem is how it depicts European poetry as a king of “map”. ØAnother metaphor is used to described the vividness and intensity of Chapman’s translation. Chapman’s book is compared to someone speaking out “loud and bold”, suggesting the

STYLE: LANGUAGE, TONE, STRUCTURE ETC. Sound Effects: ØThroughout the poem Keats makes extensive use of assonance to create a pleasant verbal music. ØWe see this in line 4 with its repeated ‘o’ sound: “Apollo hold”. This is also clear in line 11: “stout Cortez”.

KEATS QUESTION: “Keats’ poems frequently express both the pain and beauty of human existence in strikingly powerful and memorable language. ” Discuss this statement, supporting your answer with reference to the poetry of John Keats on your course. Write the paragraph on ‘On First Looking Into Chapman’s Homer’ you would include if you were answering the above question.

WHEN I HAVE FEARS THAT I MAY CEASE TO BE o. Keats compares his poetic imagination to a field that’s alive with growth and fertility that’s “teeming” with grain at harvest time. o. However, Keats worries that he will “cease to be” before he has the chance to use his pen to “glean” or gather these ideas. His mind might be brimming with ideas but he is terrified that he will die before he has had the chance to turn these ideas into poems. o. Yet Keats is also humble about his poetic ability, describing how poems are written with help from the “magic hand of Chance”. He presents poetic inspiration as something mystical, beyond the poet’s own control.

WHEN I HAVE FEARS THAT I MAY CEASE TO BE o Keats was filled with a burning desire to express the beauty and mystery of nature in his verses. Yet he worries he will “never live” to achieve this, that he will die before writing poems that adequately capture the night-time clouds: “That I may never live to trace / Their shadows”. o. This poem also reveals that there is a woman for whom Keats feels great affection and desire. He is never happier than when he is gazing upon the beauty of this “fair creature”. o. He fears he will die soon and will no longer be able to

WHEN I HAVE FEARS THAT I MAY CEASE TO BE o. Keats experiences fears relating both to “Fame” and “Love”. He worries he will die before he can maximise his artistic potential and win lasting fame as a poet. He also worries that he will die before he can properly experience love. o. He responds to these fears by going to the “Shore of the wide world”. We can imagine him walking along a beach or cliff as he meditates upon the fears the fill his mind: “I stand alone and think”. o. Standing on the seashore allows him to focus on the “bigger picture”. When he contemplates the wide world and vast ocean that surrounds him and the vastness of time and space, his own concerns seem petty and unimportant. His fears regarding love and fame become “nothing” in his mind: “Till Love and Fame to

THEME: ARTISTIC CREATIVITY o. Keats, like other Romantic poets, recognised artistic creativity as one of the greatest human traits, regarding it as something sacred and mystical. o. The poem emphasises the pride and delight Keats takes in his own poetic gifts. He stresses the great fertility of his imagination which is “teeming” with ideas. He seems confident that if he lives long enough he will be able to create a high pile of books filled with his poetic words. He also seems confident that inspiration’s “magic hand” will allow him to capture nature’s beauty in his verses. o However, the poem also stresses that artistic creation requires hard work. The poet’s ideas and inspirations have to be painstakingly worked on and transformed into poems, jut as the harvest must be gathered with backbreaking toil.

o Keats was typical of the Romantic poets in his THEME: NATURE worship of the natural world. In this poem he celebrates the beauty of the starry night sky and describes his burning ambition to capture such beauty in his poetic works. o The poem also celebrates the bounty of nature at harvest time and the constancy of the waves washing against the shore. o The poem also suggests that Keats somehow “sees” nature differently than the rest of us. Where the rest of us merely see a “night sky” he observes a “starr’d face”, where the rest of us see clouds, he sees “symbols of a high romance”.

THEME: DEATH o. Death very much forms the background music of Keats’ works. This poem centres on a terrifying race against time. Keats is haunted by the possibility that death will claim him before he can make the most of his talent and truly relish the pleasures of romantic love. Sadly, his fears turned out to be all too accurate. o. Keats responds to these fears by standing on the ocean edge and meditating as he watches the waves come in. The ocean has been washing against the shore for millions of years before we were born and will be doing so for millions of years after our deaths. From the “wide world’s” point of view we exist for a blink of an eye so what does it matter if die tomorrow or in sixty years time? o. Eventually the poet’s fears come to seem like nothing at all.

THEME: DEATH o. This response has been described as extremely bleak. Yet it can also be read as a form of mindfulness or meditation. As he contemplates the ocean the poet finds a form of acceptance, coming to terms with his place in the universe, and learns to look beyond his own ambitions, fears and frustrations. o Perhaps the most important message of this poem is that time is of the essence. Each human being has dreams and hopes, goals and ambitions they would like to achieve. It is important, however, that we seize the day and begin to realise our potential as soon as possible,

STYLE: LANGUAGE, TONE, STRUCTURE ETC. Metaphors: o. The poem’s opening lines centre on an extended metaphor, which compares the act of poetic creativity to that of gathering the harvest. This metaphor skilfully shows the abundance of Keats’ imagination, likening it to a fertile filed teeming with “full ripen’d grain”. o Keats also uses a metaphor to describe the night sky, comparing it to a “face” which is occasionally hidden from view by the cloud formations that blow across it:

STYLE: LANGUAGE, TONE, STRUCTURE ETC. Nature Imagery: o. This poem is rich with Keats’ usual nature imagery. The opening lines present us with several images of ripeness and plenty: the fields alive with full-ripened grain, the “rich” garners full to bursting with the harvested crops. These images skilfully suggest the “teeming” fertility of Keats’ imagination, which is rich with ideas that are ripe or ready to be turned into poems. o Another powerful nature image occurs in lines 5 to 6, where Keats depicts the star-filled night sky. Yet perhaps the poem’s most melancholic and memorable image is that of the poet standing alone on “the Shore /

STYLE: LANGUAGE, TONE, STRUCTURE ETC. Sound Effects: o This poem is rich in assonance and alliteration. Alliteration is particularly evident in line 4 with the repeated ‘g’ and ‘r’ sounds: “rich garners the full ripen’d grain”. o. Assonance occurs throughout the poem. We see it in line 3 with its repeated ‘e’ sound. Lines 5 to 8 also feature a pleasant verbal music, generated by the repeated ‘a’ sounds. We see this in the phrase “starr’d face”.

KEATS QUESTION: “Keats’ poems frequently express both the pain and beauty of human existence in strikingly powerful and memorable language. ” Discuss this statement, supporting your answer with reference to the poetry of John Keats on your course. Write the paragraph on ‘When I Have Fears That I May Cease To Be’ you would include if you were answering the above question.

ODE TO A NIGHTINGALE SETTING: q. It is a summer’s evening. The poet is relaxing in a garden when he hears a nightingale singing. The bird is flitting around a place of “beechen green”, suggesting it contains many leafy beech trees. The poet pictures how as night descends their branches must cast countless shadows on the woodland floors: “shadows numberless”.

ODE TO A NIGHTINGALE THE NIGHTINGALE’S SONG: q. The nightingale sings in a “full-throated” manner. It performs with such volume, energy and passion that it fills the little woods with melody, making it a “melodious plot” of ground. q. According to the poet, the bird sings with “ease” and its song seems to celebrate summer-time. However, we should remember that the nightingale is famed for the melancholic nature of its singing.

ODE TO A NIGHTINGALE THE POET’S REACTION TO THE NIGHTINGALE’S SONG: q Keats’ reaction to the nightingale’s singing is a complex one: Ø Listening to its beautiful song gives him happiness and pleasure. Ø At the same time its singing fills him with feelings of sorrow and melancholy: his sense of mind is “pained”. Ø It also fills him with a sense of drowsiness and numbness – he feels as if he’s consumed the deadly poison hemlock and it is shutting down his body. Ø He feels as if he’s drained a glass of liquid opiates and is sinking into a sedated mental blankness: “Or emptied some dull opiate to the drains”.

ODE TO A NIGHTINGALE THE POET’S REACTION TO THE NIGHTINGALE’S SONG: q What causes these feelings of sadness and numbness? Keats stresses that it isn’t “envy” of the nightingale’s “happy lot” among the trees. He claims instead that the singing makes him “too happy”. It’s as if the nightingale’s joyous performance threatens to overwhelm him with emotion. q Keats’ reaction to the nightingale’s song may seem bizarrely over the top. However, we can perhaps understand where he is coming from. Listening to playlist of sad but beautiful songs can produce a similar mix of emotions: happiness in the song’s beauty; sadness at the sorrowful tones or a sense of mental relaxation that might lead to sleep.

ODE TO A NIGHTINGALE THE POET ADMIRES THE NIGHTINGALE: q The poet is conscious of the bird’s “happy lot” and according to the poet, the nightingale has “never known” the troubles we human beings endure. Instead it sings with “ease”, relishing the serenity of the woodland it inhabits. q The fact that Keats describes the nightingale as “light-winged” further reinforces our impression of its carefree existence: “Thou light-winged Dryad of the trees”. This phrase suggests not only the bird’s agility but also its freedoms from the cares and worries that weight down humans: our “weariness”, “fever” and “fret”.

ODE TO A NIGHTINGALE THE POET WISHES TO JOIN THE NIGHTINGALE: q. Keats is distressed by the fact that youth cannot last. Each of us must face the frailty and indignities of old age: “Where beauty cannot keep her lustrous eyes”. Human life is depicted as being full of pain while the nightingale’s days are carefree and happy. q. It is hardly surprising then that Keats wishes to leave this cruel world behind. He wants to slip away quietly from his present existence, to “leave the world unseen” and join the nightingale in its dark and peaceful plot of woodland. While he cannot physically join the nightingale

ODE TO A NIGHTINGALE THE POET LONGS FOR MAGICAL WINE: q Keats longs to drink a glass of wine that has come from the Hippocrene, which was a magical fountain in Greek mythology. According to legend anyone who drank from it would be filled with poetic inspiration. He believes that drinking some of this wine will boost his imagination allowing him to experience the vision of the nightingale’s home he so desires. q. Keats provides intensely vivid descriptions of this magical liquid, describing how it matures for centuries in cool caverns that erosion

ODE TO A NIGHTINGALE THE IMAGINATIVE VISION BEGINS: q Keats has no such magical drink to help his powers of imagination, instead he must rely on his mind’s natural resources if the vision is to take place. He worries whether his “dull brain” is up to the task but the poet is determined the vision will occur and that he will imaginatively join the nightingale: “Away! away! for I will fly to thee”. q. In line 35 he declares that the vision he has long for has occurred and that in his imagination he is “Already with” the nightingale. The poet uses a wonderful metaphor to describe this process. He claims that poetry has carried him into the woodland with its invisible or “viewless” wings.

ODE TO A NIGHTINGALE THE VISION CONTINUES: q Lines 36 – 50 are devoted to this incredibly detailed “vision” of the woodland. It features twisting paths that are overgrown with moss: “winding mossy ways”. It’s a place of green gloominess: “I cannot see what flowers are at my feet”. Keats uses a metaphor to describe how the woodland is only faintly illuminated, saying the summer breeze carries the moonlight and starlight down from heaven and disperses it among the forest’s pathways: “But there is no light, / Save what from heaven is with the breezes blown”. This is an exquisite piece of writing that captures the softness of this starlight. q. His sense of smell, however, is fully engaged by the woodland’s gorgeous odours. The “seasonable” of May lends a different “sweet” smell to each plant and flower. They “embalm” the woodland air, filling it with mild and

ODE TO A NIGHTINGAL THE VISION CONTINUES: A DEATH WISH q In his vision Keats continues wandering through the woods, still listening to the nightingale’s song: “Darkling, I listen”. For a long time, he says, he has been attracted to the notion of dying which will be an “easeful” release from the trials and difficulties of life. This night in particular strikes him as a good time to die: “Now more than ever seems it rich to die”. q Keats uses an inventive metaphor to describe this ‘death wish’, comparing it to a courtship or romance. He has been “half in love” with death and had “courted” death with poems the way someone might court a beautiful woman: “Call’d him soft names in many a mused rhyme”. He has implored death to gently terminate his existence by stopping his breathing: “To take into the air my quiet breath”. q. He imagines that the nightingale would continue singing after his death: “Still wouldst thou sing” and that its song would become his funeral “requiem”.

ODE TO A NIGHTINGALE THE VISION CONTINUES: THE BIRD’S IMMORTAL SONG q This nightingale, he claims, is an “immortal Bird”. It has existed for thousands of years and it will never die: “Thou wast not born for death”. q. He imagines that thousands of years ago the nightingale was present in the empires of the ancient world, maybe in Egypt, Greece or Rome. Its song delighted both emperors and court jesters. He imagines that the nightingale’s song might also have been heard by Ruth, a character from the Bible. q. Keats claims that the nightingale has even travelled to “faery lands”, to mysterious and supernatural countries humans can never visit.

ODE TO A NIGHTINGALE THE VISION ENDS: q Then Keats’ vision comes to an abrupt end. It’s as if the word “forlorn” reminds him of the real world with all its woes and difficulties and snaps him out of his happy woodland fantasy. q His mind had been filled with an incredibly rich and detailed fantasy of the woodland but suddenly he is aware only of his “sole self”. The nightingale begins to move away from the piece of woodland near Keats’ garden and he listens to its melancholic singing become fainter as it moves deeper into the countryside. q The poem concludes with Keats wondering about the strange mental journey he has just taken. Was it simply a daydream – a “waking dream” or should it be thought of as a “vision” because of its intensity? We are left with a feeling that this was far more than a daydream and was more of a “vision”.

THEME: NATURE o This poem highlights the poet’s particular sensitivity to nature and how his responses to nature’s beauty seem far more intense and heightened than those of his fellow human beings. This is especially evident in his intensely atmospheric vision of the woodland. o. We sense the relish Keats takes in the woodland’s aromas. He delights in nature’s variety, in listing the range of plants and flowers that thrive. Even insects thrill him, as witnessed by his rapturous description of the buzzing flies. The beauty of the night sky is also celebrated in the memorable personification whereby Keats depicts the moon as the “Queen” of the night and the stars as her fairy servants.

THEME: NATURE o Yet Keats’ unusual sensitivity to the natural world is nowhere more evident than in his reaction to the nightingale’s singing. The nightingale’s song fills the poet with seemingly contradictory emotions: he is happy, melancholy and numb all at the same time. He describes how the bird’s singing makes him “too happy”, as if his system is overwhelmed with emotion. o ‘Ode to a Nightingale’ also demonstrates how the poet regards nature’s beauty as a consolation for the strains and difficulties of human life. This world may be a place of suffering but the poem suggests that there is ease and pleasure to be found in the beauty of nature.

THEME: ARTISTIC CREATIVITY o. Keats, like the other Romantic poets of his generation, recognised artistic creativity as one of the greatest human traits , as something mysterious and sacred. Keats’ poetic imagination allows him to join the nightingale in his woodland home, flying there on poetry’s invisible wings. o ‘Ode to a Nightingale’ is perhaps above all a celebration of the power of the imagination. Keats, it must be remembered, never actually physically enters the forest. Instead he simply imagines what the nightingale’s leafy home must be like. Lines 35 – 50 show Keats constructing an intensely detailed and vivid depiction of an environment that exists only in his mind. o The poem, then, shows how Keats retreats from the pain and suffering of the real

THEME: DEATH o Death is a constant presence in Keats’ work. This is a poem that takes a fairly negative view of life. The world is depicted as a place full of moaning and groaning: “here where men sit and hear each other groan”. o Our lives, according to Keats, are dominated by sickness, worry and tiredness. He suggests that to even think about the human condition is to be filled with “sorrow / And leaden-eyed despairs”. o However, the poet is also fascinated by the notion of death and dying: “For many a time I hath been in love with easeful death”. He seems especially pleased by the thought of slipping away peacefully on this particular night, with the song of the nightingale ringing in his ears. Like many Romantic poems, ‘Ode to a Nightingale’ presents the notion of dying young as something glamorous and attractive.

THEME: CHANGE AND CHANGELESSNESS o. This is a poem that contrasts change and changelessness. Change is represented by human beings, each of whom finds their youthful beauty stripped away as they age, become “spectre-thin” and eventually die. o Changelessness, on the other hand, is represented by the nightingale. For this “immortal bird” has existed for centuries, since “ancient days” and will continue into the future. Keats knows the bird is not actually immortal, this particular bird will die like any other but the song it sings is the same song nightingale’s have been singing for thousands of years and will continue. o The song of the nightingale, then, is everlasting and eternal while all around “hungry generations” come and go. The song therefore serves as a powerful symbol for the kind of everlasting art Keats admired and

STYLE: LANGUAGE, TONE, TECHNIQUES ETC. References to Older Times: o Keats was greatly interested in the classical world of ancient Greece and Rome. ‘Ode to a Nightingale’ contains many references to Greek and Roman mythology: Ø Alcohol is associated with Bacchus, who was the Roman god of wine. Ø Flowers are associated with Flora, who was the Greek goddess of flowers, plants and gardens. Ø Keats refers to the nightingale as ‘Dryad’. These were magical tree spirits in Greek mythology. Ø Keats also refers to mythical places such as Lethe and Hippocrene.

STYLE: LANGUAGE, TONE, TECHNIQUES ETC. Metaphors: o In stanza 1 Keats uses a wonderful metaphor comparing the nightingale to a Dryad. o Another two memorable metaphors are to be found in stanza 4. Keats wittily compares being drunk to being carried off by Bacchus on his magical chariot. Poetic inspiration is also compared to a set of “viewless” wings that take the poet on wonderful imaginary journeys. o Keats also uses metaphors to describe nature. The moisture in the petals of the musk-rose is compared to “dewy wine”. Another memorable metaphor is used to describe the emotion and soulfulness of the bird’s singing. Keats declares the bird’s soul is emanating from its

STYLE: LANGUAGE, TONE, TECHNIQUES ETC. Personification: o Keats make extensive use of personification. In stanza 3 concepts of love and beauty are presented as almost human beings. “Beauty” is presented as a woman with bright “lustrous” eyes while “Love” is presented as a man who “pines” for her affection. o The moon is described as the “Queen” of the night sky, sitting on her throne amid the heavens. The stars, meanwhile, are personified as her fairy servants that “cluster” around her. o Death is also depicted as a person with whom the poet has fallen in love. Keats portrays death as his lover, as someone he has flattered and courted by writing beautiful poems.

KEATS QUESTION: “Keats’ poems frequently express both the pain and beauty of human existence in strikingly powerful and memorable language. ” Discuss this statement, supporting your answer with reference to the poetry of John Keats on your course. Write the paragraph on ‘Ode to a Nightingale’ you would include if you were answering the above question.

BRIGHT STAR ØThe poet addresses a star in the night sky and says he would like to be as “stedfast” as the star is: “would I were stedfast as thou art”. Ø The poet envies the star’s ability to remain in the same place, never moving and never changing.

RIGHT STAR ØHowever, although the poet admires the star’s steadfastness, there is much about the star’s existence that he does not envy. Ø The star might look splendid, shining in the night sky but it is alone and isolated, far removed from the world that it watches: “in lone splendor … And watching”. Ø Keats likes the star to an ancient recluse or

BRIGHT STAR Ø The poet imagines that the star has eyes which never blink and that it watches, for all eternity, the movements of the earth far below: “watching, with eternal lids apart”. Ø From its height, the star can see the movements of the oceans. Keats considers the rise and fall of the tides each day to be like a ritual cleansing or “ablution” of the shores. Ø The poet does not wish to be as remote as the star – even though it has a perfect view of beautiful sights – but he would still like to be steadfast: “No – yet still stedfast, still unchangeable”. He would like to remain as he is for all eternity, never changing position and

BRIGHT STAR Ø The reason that the poet would like to be “steadfast” is given in lines 10 to 13. His head is resting upon his beloved’s chest that gently rises and falls as she breathes. Ø The poet would like to remain as he is and experience this for all eternity: “To feel for ever its soft fall and swell”. In such a position he could happily “live ever”. Ø However, if he can’t live forever in the way he has just described, the poet would rather “swoon to death”.

THEME: CHANGE AND CHANGELESSNESS Ø The poet considers the star “unchangeable” and envies its ability to remain the same. It never sleeps or alters its position. The poet wishes that he too could stay awake forever. Frozen in a state of “sweet unrest” he will happily feel the rise and fall of his beloved’s chest and listen to her soft breath. Ø Though the poet longs to be “stedfast” and unchanging, the poem can also be reads as a celebration of the human world of change, from which the star remains eternally remote. ØIt is the earth that the poem ultimately celebrates with its constantly moving waters and “new soft-fallen mask / Of snow upon the mountains and the moors”. The star can only gaze upon this, whereas those who live on earth are part of this beautiful landscape.

THEME: NATURE Ø Keats’ almost overwhelming love of nature is evident throughout his poetry and in ‘Bright Star. The poem considers the natural world to be something truly aweinspiring. Ø The oceans, mountains and moors that the star gazes upon suggest that the earth is a place of great beauty. There is something incredibly soothing about the “moving waters” and the “soft-fallen”

THEME: DEATH Ø In poem after poem we find Keats lamenting the reality of death and the consequences for human existence. However, there also moments when the poet seems attracted or fascinated by the notion of death. Ø Perhaps the poet feels that if he must die, he cannot imagine a better place to die than where he is, lying in bed with his beloved, his head resting upon her chest. The ecstatic joy he feels is very similar to his emotions when listening to the bird’s song in ‘Ode to a Nightingale’.

STYLE: LANGUAGE, TONE, TECHNIQUES ETC. Nature Imagery: Ø The central image in the sonnet is that of the star. Keats depicts it as something beautiful yet somewhat tragic. It is isolated from the very beauty that it is destined to observe forever. Ø The poem, like many of Keats’, incorporates images of the sky and the sea in order to convey a sense of majesty and mystery. In this sonnet the poet gazes up at the star in the sky and imagines how it must view the sea below. Keats likens the sea to a cleansing body of water, purifying the world. ØThe image of the snow upon the mountains is also one of purity, its pristine whiteness masking the mountains and the moors.

STYLE: LANGUAGE, TONE, TECHNIQUES ETC. Sound Effects: Ø The poem contains many wonderful examples of assonance and alliteration. The eighth line contains both: “Of snow upon the mountains and the moors”. The assonance of the ‘o’s coupled with the alliteration of the ‘n’s combine to create a very pleasant musical line. ØAgain in line eleven the poet uses both to fine effect: “To feel for ever its soft fall and swell”. The soft ‘s’ sounds mix beautifully with the ‘f’s to give the line a very sweet and dreamy atmosphere.

KEATS QUESTION: “Keats’ poems frequently express both the pain and beauty of human existence in strikingly powerful and memorable language. ” Discuss this statement, supporting your answer with reference to the poetry of John Keats on your course. Write the paragraph on ‘Bright Star’ you would include if you were answering the above question.