Keat presentation

Forest

Ode to a Nightingale by John Keat

Annie G.
Aaron B.
Melizza W.

Life

Born October 31, 1795

Father died when he was 8; Mother died of Tuberculosis when he was 14

Richard Abbey and John Rowland Sandell legal guardians appointed by his maternal grandmother

Apprenticed with an apothecary surgeon when he was 15 in London

Decided to become a poet in 1816

1817 took care of his brother Tom until his death from tuberculosis in 1818

Ode to a Nightingale written in 1819

Met and fell in love with Fanny Brawne (16) a few months later

Contracted Tuberculosis and had a feeling that he was going to die soon

Instructed by doctor to go to Italy to be in a warm winter, leaving Fanny behind

Treated with opium and bleeding

Died soon after on February 23, 1821 at the age of 25

Imagery- Image and Abstraction

Image: Here, 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;

Image: Called him soft names in many amused rhyme, To take into the air my quiet breath;

Abstraction: This not through envy of thy happy lot, But being too happy in thy happiness,---

Abstraction: Where but to think is to be full of sorrow And laden-eyes despairs; Where beauty cannot keep her lustrous eyes, Or new love oune at them beyond tomorrow.

Imagery- Symbolism

Sense of desirePositive sounding beauty and conflict

Combines image and abstraction to illustrate emotions and experience

Imagery- Romantic Themes

SupernaturalMythological references

Beautythe grass, the thicket, and the fruit tree wild, White hawthorn and the pastoral eglantine; Fast fading violets covered up in leaves;

Past near meadows, over the still stream, Up the hill-side; and now 'tis buried deep

SublimeCharmed magic casements opening on the foam Of perilous seas, in faery lands forlorn.


Dryads Hippocrene Bacchus



Diction

Repetition of consonantsSoft S: singest of summer v. Hard D: drowsy, drunk, dull

The weariness, the fever, and the fret: fricative F gives feeling of anxiousness

Diction

Contrasting LanguageAnxiousness of fever, and the fret v. the word usage of Tender in the next stanza

Specific words "tender, soft, incense, quiet, rich, sweet, peaceful" - what he wishes for the better alternative to life. Uses words such as "sad, sick, faded, pale, aches, groan" during the tone changes where he is feeling depressed and hopeless.

Diction

Musical ReferencesNightingale references

Requiem, song, and anthem

Requiem connects the bird to passed on souls

Use of Nightingale symbolizes freedom of worldly pain and the connection of nature

Tone

Tonal Shifts

Away! Away! For I will fly to thee, Not charioted by Bacchus and his Pards, but on the viewless wings of Poesy...

But here there is no light...

Thou was not born for death Immortal Bird!...

Forlorn!...

Help to emphasize the tug of war speaker feels about life and death

Tone

Reinforces the theme that death is a better alternative to life by making it seem magical and mythical.

Realizes what he is saying in the end and is confused by it himself that he doesn't know whether he was awake or asleep when he was thinking about it.

Depressed about his brother dying so he toys with the idea of wanting to die himself to free himself from this nasty world.

Tone

Tone emphasizes idea of nature as transformative; the way nature is portrayed as dark yet mystical reinforces the tug of war the speaker feels about life and death.

Documents

Keat presentation