Ode to the Nightingale by John Keats

Ode to the Nightingale: is a beautiful ode written on a nightingale written by John Keats in 1819 and published in the same year of the composition. 

'Ode to a Nightingale' is a very beautiful poem written by John Keats in May 1819. John Keats is known as one of the best nature poets. Keats wrote the present poem while he was sitting under a plum tree in his garden. In fact, a nightingale had built its nest near his house during the spring season and was singing so sweetly that attracts the poet. Being inspired by the nightingale's sweet song Keats composed the present poem in one day which became one of his odes and was first published as his fine arts. He wrote most of his poems based on the beauty and elements of nature. This is a personal poem of Keats that describes his journey into the state of negative capability. This poem is full of melancholy. He has shared his pain, suffering and dejection in this poem using visual images. 

"Ode to a Nightingale" is in fact written primary in iambic pentameter lines and rest are in iambic trimetre lines. It has a rhyme scheme ababcdecde. In the present poem the poet gets lost in the world of imagination hearing the sweet song of the bird nightingale. In fact, the poet composed this poem at the time when his heart was full of sorrow he was morning at the death of his youngest brother Tom he was suffering from a great pain at that moment when he composed this poem but sweetness of the nightingales voice turned his pain into pleasure and he began to feel relax. 

The poet wants to escape from the painful worldly life and desires to spend his life with the nightingale. He is filled with a desire to skip from the world of cares to the world of beautiful place of the bird where there is nothing but pleasure in life.  This poem presents the picture of the tragedy of human life in the world of imagination he  enjoys the divine pleasure even in a great grief.  The complex emotion gives the poem a unique charm. By this beautiful poem the poet wants to make us realizes that universal and eternal voice of the nature like that of a nightingale gives us an escape from our grief therefore he desires to leave this world while listening the melodious song of the nightingale. 

The first four stanzas of the poem are filled with allusions involving alcohol, drinking and also drugs. In the very first line Keats says "My heart aches, and a drowsy numbness pains ". This sort of poem suggest our emotion what we feel losing someone whom we love too much. Keats feel such pain as he has also lost his brother Tom. In the second stanza Keats wants to get rid of the pain from his life forever. The third stanza seems to be a suicide note as the poet says that he decides to forgot the past and does not wish to go on living. The poet is in deep despair and longs to fade away. In the first three stanzas Keats believes that alcohol and drugs are only the way out in his life but in the 4th stanza he realizes that eternal voice of the nature can give us an escape from our grief hearing and getting enchanted by nightingale's sweet voice. 

Finally the poet comes out of the world of imagination and accepts the reality of the real world as an imaginative mind can have a momentary  fight into a fanciful world. The present Ode of Keats combines imagination and reality and most of the images used in the poem are visual images. This is a beautiful and inspiring Ode of Keats focusing on the significance of nature in human life.