Mortality and Immortality in Ode to a Nightingale

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When talking about poetry and Romanticism, one of the most common names that come to mind is John Keats. Keats’ lifestyle was somewhat different from his contemporaries and did not fit the Romantic era framework, this is most likely the reason he stood out from the rest. Keats wrote many poems that are still relevant, amongst them Ode to a Nightingale, which was published for the very first time in July, 1819. The realistic depth and lyrical beauty that resonates in Ode to a Nightingale is astounding. Though, his career was rather short, Keats expressed a deep yearning to rise above misery and celebrate life via his consciousness and imagination. Themes of life and death play out in a number of his poems. This essay seeks to discuss Keats’s representation of mortality and immortality, specifically in his poem Ode to a Nightingale.

Before discussing the poem in great detail, it is significant to look at how this ode came to be. While living with a friend in Hampstead during the first months of 1819, a nightingale built a nest in the garden. Keats felt a connection to the bird’s joyous moments each time it sung. It is then that the poet decided to compose a poem expressing his feelings regarding the nightingale’s song (Stillinger 34-5). There are three other odes that follow on the same themes and imagination.

Romantic poets were drawn to lyric poetry. Keats, along with other Romantic writers, is known to have revived the art of writing odes. An ode is an Ancient Greek song that is usually written to praise the subject and is performed at formal occasions. Ode to a Nightingale is a Horatian ode and exhibits the consistent stanza length and meter of this specific type. The poem has eight separate stanzas of ten lines each, and t...

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...he stresses of life.

Works Cited

“An Analysis of John Keats' Odes: "Ode to a Nightingale," "Ode on Melancholy" - RealStudyGuides.net." RealStudyGuides.net. N.p., n.d. Web. 01 Mar. 2014.

Cook, Elizabeth. John Keats. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1990. Print.

"John Keats." Poetry Foundation. Poetry Foundation, n.d. Web. 02 Mar. 2014.

"Literary Devices." Literary Devices. N.p., n.d. Web. 02 Mar. 2014.

Roe, Nicholas. John Keats and the Culture of Dissent. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1998. Print.

Scott, Heidi. "Keats’s Ode to a Nightingale." Explicator, 63(3) (2005): 139-141. Print.

Stillinger, Jack. "The “story” of Keats. ." Wolfson, S. J. The Cambridge Companion to Keats . Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2001. 246-260. Print.

White, Keith D. and John Keats. John Keats and the Loss of Romantic Innocence, Volume 107. Rodopi, 1996. Print.

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