(Stanza 1) The poet is extremely fascinated by the sweet song of the nightingale. In fact, he is oppressed by its beauty and joy. His heart begins to ache, and his senses are benumbed by the excess of joy. He becomes forgetful of himself as if he has taken a cup of poison or a doze of some drug. To the poet the nightingale is a wood nymph, who in soon beech green sings of the beauty of summer in a joyful and melodious manner.
(Stanza 2) The poet longs to lose his very spirit in complete
absorption with the nightingale’s song. He believes that the place where the
nightingale sings her sweet song might be a region of perfect and eternal
bliss. He therefore, wants to escape from this world an go to the joyous world
of the bird. At first he seeks the intoxicating influence of wine to help him
in his imaginative flight to the birds dwelling place, and he longs for a cup
of very strong wine that has been kept under the earth for centuries. He believes
that by drinking such wine he will be able to forget the world around him and
fly in imagination to the delightful regions of the bird. The thought of wine
brings to his mind the rich romantic association of Southern France.
(Stanza 3) The poet longs to fade away into the dim forest
where the nightingale sings joyfully and to lose his spirit in the spirit of the
happy bird. He wants to fly away from this world of sorrows and miseries and
join the bird in her happier region. He believes that the nightingale never
experiences these sorrows and miseries. The poet may enjoy if only for a short
while the happiness of the nightingale by enkindling the imagination with the help
of wine and forgetting the sorrowful realities of the world. Human life is a
tale of sorrow and pain and men cannot enjoy even a moment of their lives. In this
world, men sit and hear one another narrating individual sorrows and disappointments.
In this world beauty and love are both transient (short lived). Beauty loses
its charm very soon and youth also seizes to feel the romance of love.
(Stanza 4) The poet drops the idea of flying to the happy
regions of the bird with the help of wine. Now he says that he will fly to the
bird with the inspiration of poetic imagination through his dull mind temporarily
checks his flight. But the next moment he finds himself in the dim forest of
beauty and romance where the nightingale is singing her sweet song. It is the
time of night and perhaps the moon, surrounded by the stars is shining int eh
sky like a fairy queen sitting in her chariot surrounded by all her attendant fairies.
But the bird is singing in the dark where there is no light. The moonlight sometimes
enters the place at the blowing of the wind, when the leaves are separated and
light passes through them.
(Stanza 5) The poet describes the romantic grove. Though
there is pitch darkness all around and the poet cannot see the flowers, he can
distinguish them by their fragrance. His imagination pictures the forest scene
in all the beauty of early summer.
(Stanza 6) The poet listens to the song of the nightingale
in this perfumed darkness. The song of the nightingale has transported him to the
highest moon of imaginative rapture. This moment he feels is most suitable for him
to die. Death will relieve him from all the troubles and miseries of life. He invites
death to come upon him slowly and silently at this time of midnight. Even after
his death the nightingale would continue singing her song.
(Reference to Ruth) Ruth was a woman of Moab who after the
death of her husband follows her Mother-in-law Naomi to Judah. There she
gleaned corn in the fields of Boaz, kinsmen to her mother-in-law. Later on Ruth
married Boaz.
(Stanza 7) The nightingale is not moral like man. She is
not born for death – at least her voice is immortal. It has given pleasure to
Kings and peasants alike in the past. E.g., Ruth and princesses.
(Stanza 8) Soon the poets dream is broken. The bird flies
away and his airy castle of imaginative pleasure build upon the beauty of the
nightingale’s song is shattered. Keats believed that the poetic imagination was
like a fairy who mischievously deceives men by giving them false allurement of
happiness. As the bird flies further away and the musical notes deceived, he is
still in doubt whether he is awake or sleeping.
Meanings of terms in the poem:
Lethe – a river of forgetfulness in the classical
underworld
Flora – Goddess of flowers
Hippocrene – was a fountain in Mount Helicon which was
sacred to the muses. It was supposed to have gushed out from the earth when it
was struck by the hoof of a winged horse Pegasus. The fountain was supposed to
have power to inspire those who drank from it.
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