Ode to The Nightingale by John Keats

Throughout the poem we are represented to the suffering of the speaker.
He wonders why man is so inhuman with other man,
where other elements of nature work with each other in harmony.


The First Stanza:

My heart aches, and a drowsy numbness pains
My sense, as though of hemlock I had drunk,
Or emptied some dull opiate to the drains
One minute past, and lethe-wards had sunk:
?tis not through envy of thy happy lot,
But being too happy in thy happiness,
That thou, light-winged Dryad of the trees,
In some melodious plot
Of beechen green, and shadows numberless,
Singest of summer in full-throated ease.

The poet is feeling pain in his heart and his senses are not functioning in a good way. He feels as if he's
drugged and forgot everything. He talks to the nightingale saying that he knows that she is happy and
spreading her happiness all over the world. Then, he explains that he is not envying her but feeling happy
for her happiness. When the poet speaks like that, we find out that he's actually not speaking about
himself but live in others emotions. Meaning, when they are happy, he becomes happy. After that, the
poet addresses the nightingale again by saying around you there are the green fields and everything
appears happy. This is because you are spreading happiness. By doing that we are able to see the
harmony of the nature. He again repeats, I am not jealous of you but trying to be like you.

The Second Stanza:

O for a draught of vintage! That hath been
Cooled a long age in the deep-delved earth,
Tasting of Flora and the country-green,
Dance, and Provencal 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 unsean,
And with thee fade away into the forest dim:

He wishes to have a special kind of wine. The kind that kept under the ground for a long time. He wants
some wine that taste like flowers. He explains, in its taste I will find the taste of the ground that it comes
from. This wine will remind me of the country dances, songs and joy. It will also remind me of the
countrymen and the rural places. He again ask for a beaker of wine which is full. He describes it by saying
that it is full of bobbles and the mouth of the beaker is purple. He says, I will drink from it till I die of
drinking. Then, I'll forget my pain and anguish and be with you (nightingale) singing. In these lines, the
poet wants us to see how badly he wants to be like the nightingale and be in harmony with
nature just like her.

The Third Stanza:

Fade far away, dissolve, and quite forget
What thou among the leaves hast never known,
The weariness, the fever, and the fret
Here, where men sit and hear each other groan;
Where palsy shakes a few, sad, last grey hairs,
Where youth grows pale, and specter-thin, and dies;
Where but to think is to be full of sorrow
And leaden-eyed despairs;
Where beauty cannot keep her lustrous eyes,
Or new love pine at them beyond to-morrow.

There is what's known as an enjambment between the last line of the
second stanza and the first line of the third one.
In these lines we are represented to the poet's point of view about life. He has a bad idea about it.
For him, life is full of suffering and man only sets with man to hear others groan.
He then says that he hopes to be with out identity. He speaks to the nightingale saying:
I would offer every thing in my life to be like you. This life is the place where old men live
sadly till they die and where young ones are thin like ghosts and die fast.
This lifetime, for him, is a hopeless place where humans live sadly for ever.
He explains that our eyes will be as heavy as lead and our senses will be
dull and will not help us to feel any thing. In this life, beauty and truth will not be seen.
( there will be no love, happiness or beauty )

The Forth Stanza:

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,
Clustered around by all her starry fays;
But here there is no light,
Save what from heaven is with the breezes blown
Through verdurous glooms and winding mossy ways.

He says: I am not going to be taken away by Bacchus ( the god of wine and pleasure) and his followers.
I'll take the wind of reality( poetry ) and fly to you. Then he states that no one will be
happy as the nightingale and this is what his brain told him. He should accept that thing
with out any complain. He declares that he now feels that he's already with her. Then, he jump
to another idea when he say that night now is beautiful and full of happiness.
He explains that the only thing that make his suffering go away is poetry. He feels that he is
flying to the moon which is represented as a Queen and appear as if it surrounded by many
spirits dancing around it. The light of the moon is coming from heaven.
( here is an important picture that I did not write ???sorry).
( I also did not complete this part ????very sorry)



* This poem has some ideas that are similar to ones discussed in some poems before:
a- The possibility for poets to find pleasure in nature; It takes us bake to the age of
innocence before the fall of Adam and Eve from heaven.
b- The poet in his poetry can achieve what he can't in reality.
c- The suffering of man caused by other man.

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