The Powerful Force of the Imagination in Keat's Poem, Ode to a Nightingale

In his poem Ode to a Nightingale, Keats describes the power and force of imagination belonging to a man who desires to escape the emerging consumerist society of the 19th century. The Nightingale in the poem is based off of Ovid’s Metamorphoses, and the narrative mirrors Philomela escaping the threat of her murderer. In the poem, the narrator travels to the dark forest to join the nightingale, which Keats’ uses as a symbol of freedom and immortality however, he realizes to be able to experience the luxuriousness of it, he must use his imagination to be able to create this with his senses. In essence the poem, ultimately presents several Marxist ideas of bourgeoisie ‘escapism’ from the working class society and reaction against industrialisation to the literary celebration of nature and imagination.

Initially, Keats views the ideal upper-class lifestyle as one that is fully occupied in the night-time world of ‘draught’, ‘Dance and Provençal song’, basically describing that only through expensive wine and scenic locations can one ‘leave the world unseen’. Even though he wants to achieve greater means through this, primarily being able to write poetry, he still suggests alcohol is the only way he can gain a greater imagination and mentions his desire to drink ‘the true, blushful Hippocrene’, a fountain where by drinking it, gave inspiration to poets in Greek Mythology. The Marxist presentation of the working class reality in stanza three, ‘the weariness, the fever and the fret’ achieves a binary between freedom and the ideal versus the working class reality. The general implication is that those in the lower societal positions experience exhaustion, social struggle and defeat. Keats profoundly conveys a strong reaction to reality he...

... middle of paper ...

... due gaining knowledge from a wealthier upbringing, Keats might have been considered part of the lower-class by the time he was twenty-three and writing the odes. By the final stanza, Keats soon finds himself back in his everyday life after being abandoned by the nightingale, ‘forlorn!’… to toll me back from thee to my sole self’ and it is concluded that neither of which alcohol nor death can save him from the working class lifestyle. Ode to the Nightingale can definitely be noted as having elements of Marxism within it, and when reviewing his social context during the period of writing the poem in 1819, the ideas and philosophies the narrator expresses can be seen as authentic to his own. However, this is when viewing the poem through the eyes of a Marxist and poem. Overall, the poem appears to be the expression of his emotions during this hard period in his life.