John Keats Ode; to a Nightingale

John Keats Ode; to a Nightingale Holly Bost AliseErdlen

SAD HAPPY HOW TO GET HAPPY: • Mrs. Morris’s period 4 lit class: • Music • Friends • Sports • Others????? • KEATS: • Alcohol? • Keats gets very sad and wants desperately to be happy again. He contemplates getting drunk.

Born 1975 in London England John Keats is considered one of the greatest English poets of the 19th century Died leaving his epic poem "Hyperion" unfinished In his short life he influenced many English poets vivid imagery and sensual style 'The great beauty of Poetry is, that it makes every thing every place interesting - 'John Keats to his brother George, 1819

My heart aches, and a drowsy numbness painsMy sense, as though of hemlock I had drunk,Or emptied some dull opiate to the drainsOne minute past, and Lethe-wards had sunk:'Tis not through envy of thy happy lot,But being too happy in thine happiness,--That thou, light-winged Dryad of the treesIn some melodious plotOf beechen green, and shadows numberless,Singest of summer in full-throated ease.O, for a draught of vintage! that hath beenCool'd a long age in the deep-delved earth,Tasting of Flora and the country green,Dance, and Provençal song, and sunburnt mirth!O for a beaker full of the warm South,Full of the true, the blushful Hippocrene,With beaded bubbles winking at the brim,And purple-stained mouth;That I might drink, and leave the world unseen,And with thee fade away into the forest dim:

Fade far away, dissolve, and quite forgetWhat thou among the leaves hast never known,The weariness, the fever, and the fretHere, where men sit and hear each other groan;Where palsy shakes a few, sad, last gray hairs,Where youth grows pale, and spectre-thin, and dies;Where but to think is to be full of sorrowAnd leaden-eyed despairs,Where Beauty cannot keep her lustrous eyes,Or new Love pine at them beyond to-morrow.Away! away! for I will fly to thee,Not charioted by Bacchus and his pards,But on the viewless wings of Poesy,Though the dull brain perplexes and retards:Already with thee! tender is the night,And haply the Queen-Moon is on her throne,Cluster'd around by all her starry Fays;But here there is no light,Save what from heaven is with the breezes blownThrough verdurous glooms and winding mossy ways.

I cannot see what flowers are at my feet,Nor what soft incense hangs upon the boughs,But, in embalmed darkness, guess each sweetWherewith the seasonable month endowsThe grass, the thicket, and the fruit-tree wild;White hawthorn, and the pastoral eglantine;Fast fading violets cover'd up in leaves;And mid-May's eldest child,The coming musk-rose, full of dewy wine,The murmurous haunt of flies on summer eves.Darkling I listen; and, for many a timeI have been half in love with easeful Death,Call'd him soft names in many a mused rhyme,To take into the air my quiet breath;Now more than ever seems it rich to die,To cease upon the midnight with no pain,While thou art pouring forth thy soul abroadIn such an ecstasy!Still wouldst thou sing, and I have ears in vain--To thy high requiem become a sod.

Thou wast not born for death, immortal Bird!No hungry generations tread thee down;The voice I hear this passing night was heardIn ancient days by emperor and clown:Perhaps the self-same song that found a pathThrough the sad heart of Ruth, when, sick for home,She stood in tears amid the alien corn;The same that oft-times hathCharm'd magic casements, opening on the foamOf perilous seas, in faery lands forlorn.Forlorn! the very word is like a bellTo toll me back from thee to my sole self!Adieu! the fancy cannot cheat so wellAs she is fam'd to do, deceiving elf.Adieu! adieu! thy plaintive anthem fadesPast the near meadows, over the still stream,Up the hill-side; and now 'tis buried deepIn the next valley-glades:Was it a vision, or a waking dream?Fled is that music:--Do I wake or sleep

Poetic Techniques • Apostrophe is an exclamatory rhetorical figure of speech, when a talker or writer breaks off and directs speech to an imaginary person or abstract quality or idea. It is related to personification, although in apostrophe, objects or abstractions are implied to have certain human qualities (such as understanding) by the very fact that the speaker is addressing them as he would a person in his presence. In dramatic works and poetry, it is often introduced by the word "O". • Imagery is used in literature to refer to descriptive language that evokes sensory experience.

Stanza 1 My heart aches, and a drowsy numbness painsMy sense, as though of hemlock I had drunk,Or emptied some dull opiate to the drainsOne minute past, and Lethe-wards had sunk:'Tis not through envy of thy happy lot,But being too happy in thine happiness,--That thou, light-winged Dryad of the treesIn some melodious plotOf beechen green, and shadows numberless,Singest of summer in full-throated ease. The poem opens as the speaker is outside experiencing a heavy emotional response to nature, particularly a nightingale. He longs for a connection to the bird.

QUESTION 1 • WHAT DOES KEATS WANT TO DO IN ORDER TO BE HAPPY AGAIN?????? • ALCOHOL • He contemplates getting drunk to be happy again.

Stanza 2 O, for a draught of vintage! that hath beenCool'd a long age in the deep-delved earth,Tasting of Flora and the country green,Dance, and Provençal song, and sunburnt mirth!O for a beaker full of the warm South,Full of the true, the blushful Hippocrene,With beaded bubbles winking at the brim,And purple-stained mouth;That I might drink, and leave the world unseen,And with thee fade away into the forest dim: He contemplates alcohol as a way to lose himself in order to be free like the bird.

Stanza 3 Fade far away, dissolve, and quite forgetWhat thou among the leaves hast never known,The weariness, the fever, and the fretHere, where men sit and hear each other groan;Where palsy shakes a few, sad, last gray hairs,Where youth grows pale, and spectre-thin, and dies;Where but to think is to be full of sorrowAnd leaden-eyed despairs,Where Beauty cannot keep her lustrous eyes,Or new Love pine at them beyond to-morrow. His longing to go with the bird away to the forest makes him pity man.

Stanza 4 Away! away! for I will fly to thee,Not charioted by Bacchus and his pards,But on the viewless wings of Poesy,Though the dull brain perplexes and retards:Already with thee! tender is the night,And haply the Queen-Moon is on her throne,Cluster'd around by all her starry Fays;But here there is no light,Save what from heaven is with the breezes blownThrough verdurous glooms and winding mossy ways. The speaker reaffirms’ that he wants to escape with the bird. He decides to do this by means of “Poesy”.

QUESTION 2After deciding not to use alcohol to make him happy, Keats’ turns to what? Poesy- 1 a: a poem or body of poems b:poetry c: artificial or sentimentalized poetic writing 2: poetic inspiration -Webster's Online Dictionary

Stanza 5 I cannot see what flowers are at my feet,Nor what soft incense hangs upon the boughs,But, in embalmed darkness, guess each sweetWherewith the seasonable month endowsThe grass, the thicket, and the fruit-tree wild;White hawthorn, and the pastoral eglantine;Fast fading violets cover'd up in leaves;And mid-May's eldest child,The coming musk-rose, full of dewy wine,The murmurous haunt of flies on summer eves. The speaker uses very dark images. He uses words and phrases such as cannot, embalmed darkness, thickets, fading, musk-rose, and haunt of flies.

Stanza 6 Darkling I listen; and, for many a timeI have been half in love with easeful Death,Call'd him soft names in many a mused rhyme,To take into the air my quiet breath;Now more than ever seems it rich to die,To cease upon the midnight with no pain,While thou art pouring forth thy soul abroadIn such an ecstasy!Still wouldst thou sing, and I have ears in vain--To thy high requiem become a sod. The speaker contemplates death. He thinks that “death retains power only over a living man who is able to fear his own end”.

Stanza 7 Thou wast not born for death, immortal Bird!No hungry generations tread thee down;The voice I hear this passing night was heardIn ancient days by emperor and clown:Perhaps the self-same song that found a pathThrough the sad heart of Ruth, when, sick for home,She stood in tears amid the alien corn;The same that oft-times hathCharm'd magic casements, opening on the foamOf perilous seas, in faery lands forlorn. The speaker addresses the bird, and is envious that the bird has no knowledge that it will die.

Stanza 8 Forlorn! the very word is like a bellTo toll me back from thee to my sole self!Adieu! the fancy cannot cheat so wellAs she is fam'd to do, deceiving elf.Adieu! adieu! thy plaintive anthem fadesPast the near meadows, over the still stream,Up the hill-side; and now 'tis buried deepIn the next valley-glades:Was it a vision, or a waking dream?Fled is that music:--Do I wake or sleep? The speaker’s fantasy about escaping with the bird ends and he leaves the audience with questions.

QUESTION 3 • Why do you think Keats’ was envious of the bird?

“Poetry should please by a fine excess and not by singularity. It should strike the reader as a wording of his own highest thoughts, and appear almost as a remembrance.”- John Keats • John Keats’ life came to an end very prematurely. He became sick in 1820 with tuberculosis and died in 1821 at the age of 25. • Keats wrote poetry for only 5 years. • The largest collection of Keats’ letters, manuscripts, and other papers are in the Houghton Library at Harvard University. “Here lies one whose name was writ in water”

Keats’ was very specific about what he wanted on his tombstone. He did not want his name. Instead he wanted it to read "Here lies One Whose Name was writ in Water." His friends thought more needed to be written so they added "This Grave contains all that was mortal, of a YOUNG ENGLISH POET, who on his Death Bed, in the Bitterness of his heart, at the Malicious Power of his enemies, desired these words to be Engraven on his Tomb Stone“. They also added an image of a lyre with broken strings THE END!

John Keats Ode; to a Nightingale