Hilma Taddeus
220122733
Theory practice for world poetry 2A
Ode to a nightingale analysis
Keat is in an uncomfortable state of drowsiness and, his heart is in pain but he feels like he drank
something that made him numb. The speaker stated that the nightingale is not responsible for Keats’s
state, he is not jealous of the nightingale, it has just arisen thoughts of escaping from the real world,
because looking at the nightingale filled him with some sense of happiness and he imagine his life as
peaceful as that of a bird. He wants to escape from the life of human suffering, he does not want to
think that people suffer and die, he want to escape and leave the life of sorrow. While he was listening
to the nightingale he thought that he can simply escape from his life of misery by dying.
The poet used different devices to give meaning to the poem, one of them being simile which is used to
compare the mood of the speaker to that of a drunk person. “A drowsy numbness” full of “aches”
similar to the intoxicated feeling due to ingesting hemlock (a toxic plant). The word forlorn is also
compared to a bell. In the four opening lines the poet used alliteration “drunk and drowsy” atmosphere,
the poet also used alliteration in line 15 on the bright b sound “O for a beaker full of warm south
Full of true, the blushful hippocreme
With beaded bubbles wriking at the brims”
The poet used imagery to present a vivid picture of his miserable plight such as “though of hemlock I
had drunk”. The poet repeated the same vowels in the same lines to present assonance in lines such as
the sound of /I/ in “the voice I hear this passing night was heard” and /O/ in ”in some melodious plot
The poet used personification in line twenty-nine “where beauty cannot keep her lustrous eyes” as if
beauty is human and can see. Beauty is given qualities of a human such as lust and it is also given eyes,
as if beauty can see to last over something. The second example is in line thirty-six “the queen moon is
on her throne is being compared to a human being a queen, on her throne. Another example is when
the Keats said that “seem rich to die” death is being given human quality that it gets rich as of wealth.
“Death called him soft names” death here is being personified that it has a voice to call him soft names
Inclusion I can say that the poet really did not know to feel after hearing the bird sing and he wish he
could live a life as free as that of a bird, away from all the pains and sorrow and all the sufferings. He was
amazed by how the bird lives in a place where there is no light and the experience with the nightingale
made him want to escape from the real human life.