...Examination of John Keats’ Ode to a Nightingale Outline and Thesis of “Ode to A Nightingale” by John Keats. Thesis: John Keats correlated the nightingale’s transcendent song with man’s desire for immortality. I. Brief History of Poem A. Outline details, including when, where written. B. Outline interesting relevant historical facts II. Break down of poem – stanza by stanza A. Include description of title. B. Identify rhyme and metrical device employed in poem. C. Include theme, setting description. D. Identify literary devices utilized by Keats III. Closing Analysis A. Speculate about Keats ultimate inspiration. B. Relate inspiration theme to Ode to a Nightingale theme. C. Close with analysis of irony of respective poems compared. D. Repeat thesis statement in closing for synchronicity of essay. Written in May of 1819, “Ode to a Nightingale” was one of five “odes” written by John Keats during that year [1]. The poem, which was published July of the same year in the Annals of Fine Art, was originally titled “Ode to the Nightingale”, but was apparently changed by the publisher twenty years following the death of John Keats(reference here) . According to a recollection of Keats’ good friend, Charles Brown, Keats’ inspiration for the poem came while sitting under a plum tree growing upon Hampstead Heath. There, Keats was said to be mesmerized by the melodic song of a nightingale who proved to be the...
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...何梓涵 12010007 To Professor Hou Yiling English Literature The Transient Sublime and Mortality in “Ode to a Nightingale” Composed during the most creative period in Keats’s brief poetic career, “Ode to a Nightingale” has long been regarded as one of the most refined works of his poetry. Previous criticism has comprehensively explored its themes of nature, beauty and mortality, as well as its demonstration of Keats’s notion of Negative Capability. But based on my research, few critical reviews have touched upon the point which I find clearly suggest itself in this poem: that the poet’s experience here depicted is not merely an escape into the realm of ideal beauty, but also an intoxication with the Romantic sublime. Between the sublime and his anticipated death, Keats builds an analogical connection from which he gains insights into both. Hence it is my endeavour in this paper to illustrate that in “Ode to a Nightingale”, Keats describes the entire process of his journey into and back from the sublime, after which he has to face again the transience of the sublime and the mortality of human life. Traditionally, most critics agree on the poem’s theme being the conflict between reality and the Romantic ideal of uniting with nature, among many other contrasts that are present throughout the poem. The most representative interpretation comes from Richard Fogle, who defines the principal stress of the poem as a struggle between ideal and actual, containing more particular antitheses...
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...Comparing nature/inspiration in ‘Ode to a Nightingale’ and ‘As Kingfishers Catch Fire.’ Superficially, ‘Ode to a Nightingale’ and ‘As Kingfishers Catch Fire,’ could be seen to be very similar works of poetry. Both Keats and Hopkins draw inspiration from the sight and sounds of the English birds, and from here expand into an explanation of what has been termed ‘the imagination.’ The poetic imagination is not a concept that can be easily defined, but it can be broadly understood as a productive faculty, capable of producing profound knowledge that can then be transcribed most clearly in the form of poetry. Both Keats and Hopkins experience the world through Nature, and, through the awesome power of what they perceive, the two poets are capable of creating their identity through a subjective sense of feeling. ‘Ode to a Nightingale’ (Keats) and ‘As Kingfishers Catch Fire’ (Hopkins) explore the immediate impression of the deep and powerful feelings excited by the objects which they attempt to describe. The poems can be seen as an undisciplined overflowing of the soul, highlighting its claim to approbation on an attempt to imitate the untameable wildness and inaccessible solemnity from which those feelings sprang. Hopkins’ work can be seen as an explanation of what he termed ‘inscape,’ which, coined on the word ‘landscape’ refers to the unifying designs by which the unique interior essences of a thing are held together. Hopkins’s poem shows what he believes to be the harmony of things...
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...‘’Where is the Pastoral Tradition in Keats’ Ode to a Nightingale?’’ Two hundred years after the Renaissance period in England, critics became concerned in the reasoning behind John Keats’s poetry. They searched many of the origins of the poet’s references to his works and this gave assistance into asserting that he was a poet in search of the ideal to escape from the real world of ‘’fever and fret’’. (Keats’ Ode to a Nightingale: stanza 3) This is due to the experience of cruel disappointments in his personal life. Ode to a Nightingale is a fine example of the cruel disappointments that Keats faced in life for he wrote the Ode soon after the death of his brother Tom who was suffering from tuberculosis. In one of Keats’s personal letters (Gittings 1970: letter 263) Keats claimed that he and his brothers could never count on any happiness lasting – that they were continually confronting death in the family. Keats shows this pain in stanza 3 of the poem: ‘’Here, where men sit and hear each other groan; Where palsy shakes a few, sad, last grey hairs, Where youth grows pale and spectre-thin, and dies;’’ (Keats’ Ode to a Nightingale: stanza 3) However, Ode to a Nightingale also portrays Keats’s escape from the cold realities of life. It is through this ‘escape’ that I am going to shape this essay into the pastoral tradition. My main focus shall be how the Ode offers a resemblance to a poem of pastoral retirement but has a pastoral elegy concealed within it. The...
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...University Ode to a Lyrical Masterpiece Introduction Creative writing is seen by many as a way to free the expression of the mind, allowing anyone who feels the urge to put their thoughts on paper can do so. There are a large number of people who have lived throughout time that have had their legacy live forever through their writing because they were able to eloquently configure their thoughts in a manner to reach others. Writing in literature has stretched over many long periods since the beginning of time and that could easily be established by taking note that the Bible is the highest selling book of all time. The Bible may have not been written all at one time, but the majority of the works and its authors were mainly from the same time period. Writing has gone through different ages where the majority of writers had the same idea, or style of writing that they wanted to focus on. Some of the ages of writing that had a strong influence on literature as a whole were that of the neoclassical and romantic age of writing. One piece of literature in particular that has been the topic of many discussions is the “Ode to a Nightingale”. This piece of artwork has been under much scrutiny for its lyrical anatomy, and it has also received much praise for its elegance in form. This short poem has given the world of literature much to discuss all the way down to when it was actually written and how many pages it was originally written on. Writing in Style Ode to a Nightingale was a piece...
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...wordsworth-optimism keats-skeptical arts are really powerful.l what's the story behind the poem?? trigger the imagination. urn has the power to create our imagination. I. THOU still unravish’d bride of quietness, Thou foster-child of silence and slow time, Sylvan historian, who canst thus express A flowery tale more sweetly than our rhyme: What leaf-fring’d legend haunts about thy shape Of deities or mortals, or of both, In Tempe or the dales of Arcady? What men or gods are these? What maidens loth? What mad pursuit? What struggle to escape? What pipes and timbrels? What wild ecstasy? II. Heard melodies are sweet, but those unheard Are sweeter; therefore, ye soft pipes, play on; Not to the sensual ear, but, more endear’d, Pipe to the spirit ditties of no tone: Fair youth, beneath the trees, thou canst not leave Thy song, nor ever can those trees be bare; Bold Lover, never, never canst thou kiss, Though winning near the goal - yet, do not grieve; She cannot fade, though thou hast not thy bliss, For ever wilt thou love, and she be fair! III. Ah, happy, happy boughs! that cannot shed Your leaves, nor ever bid the Spring adieu; And, happy melodist, unwearied, For ever piping songs for ever new; More happy love! more happy, happy love! For ever warm and still to be enjoy’d, For ever panting, and for ever young; All breathing human passion far above, That leaves a heart high-sorrowful and cloy’d, A burning forehead, and a parching tongue. IV. Who are these coming to the sacrifice?...
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...reflect upon life or draw inspiration. Each writer of the Romantic period came upon different interpretations from their experiences with nature and these varying perspectives are reflected in their works. Pantheism was a very pervasive theme found in the works of the Romantic Period. This shared sentiment did not come as a surprise as nature became personal havens found on Earth. Most Romantic writers found nature to be a place flooded with spiritual presence. One of the most popular poets of the period shared this belief. William Wordsworth’s works illustrate a common feeling of exultation within the cosmic realms of nature—especially in childhood. He spoke of his youth as a time when “[t]he earth… [was] appareled in celestial light” (“Ode”, Lines...
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...Natural Connections Heather Conway ENG/106 January 20, 2014 Nikki Moorman Natural Connections Early works of literature show many concepts of emotion from anger and wrath, to love and devotion. In these works, it is sometimes not easy to find what the author is tying say or convey when it comes to his or her work. As a reader, it can be difficult to comb through what the author is trying to establish in their work, whether it be love, hate, envy, or a personal struggle for the intended characters. In some of the more modern works, it is apparent that romantic emotion is a constant and can easily be discerned from each individual piece. In John Keats’ “Ode to a Nightingale”, it is automatically assumed that the narrator is speaking of something that is loved. In this case, it appears as if the narrator is speaking of a bird, but it can also be said that he is speaking about a love, or lover, that he had once and then lost. In the first stanza, the first line, it suggests that he is missing a piece of himself, and his ‘heart aches’. He later describes this ache as the complete opposite of what it is to be in the ‘singest of summer in full-throated ease.’ (pg. 2160, 10) As the poem continues, Keats continues to use descriptions of nature and other things, showing a true connection there between the way the narrator feels and how it compares to certain aspects of nature and natural things. In the second stanza, the narrator continues to describe his heart break, and the...
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...your prescribed texts and other texts of your own choosing Romanticism developed during the late 17th century in Europe, at a time in history when people were beginning to question society and their place within the world. The French and American revolutions represented a universal atmosphere of social tumult in which previously accepted social and political structures were becoming increasingly challenged. The French Revolution was influenced by Romantic ways of thinking such as what it means to achieve liberty for the individual. The romantic exploration of liberty for the individual through a connection to nature, imagination and spirituality through the sublime are represented in both Coleridge's poem Kubla Kahn and Keat’s “Ode to a Nightingale”. These romantic views were a direct reaction from the art of the enlightenment era as explored in the 1768 painting of Agrippina Landing at Brundisium, emotional stoicism is represented as being a model for morality in society. Revolutionary questioning of the fundamental nature of humanity and change for women was explored in Mary Wollstonecraft's text "A vindication in the rights of women". The 1768 painting by Benjamin West of Agrippina landing at Brundisium depicts the qualities of the Enlightenment that the romantics rebelled against. The neoclassical painting was popular during the enlightenment as it stressed logic, harmony, proportion and reason over emotion. This is represented in the paintings frieze-like composition and...
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...and in art. He writes and defines beauty: “A think of beauty is joy for ever” In John Keats, we have a remarkable contrast both with Byron and Shelley. He knows nothing of Byron’s stormy spirit of antagonism to the existing order of things and he had no sympathy with Shelley’s humanitarian real and passion for reforming the world. But Keats likes and worships beauty. In his Ode on a Grecian Urn, he expresses some powerful lines about his thoughts of beauty. This ode contains the most discussed two lines in all of Keats's poetry: “Beauty is truth, truth beauty," - that is all Ye know on earth, and all ye need to know.” The exact meaning of those lines is disputed by everyone; no less a critic than TS Eliot considered them a blight upon an otherwise beautiful poem. Scholars have been unable to agree to whom the last thirteen lines of the poem are addressed. Arguments can be made for any of the four most obvious possibilities, -poet to reader, urn to reader, poet to urn, poet to figures on the urn. The issue is further confused by the change in quotation marks between the original manuscript copy of the ode and the 1820 published edition. P. B. Shelley: Shelley expresses love as one of the God-like phenomena in human life and beauty is the intellectual beauty to him....
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...Compare the ways Keats and Brontë present love in their collected poetry and 'Wuthering Heights' respectively. Both Keats and Brontë explore love in a poetic and romantic style, but combine this with darker tones and aggression in very different ways. Keats presents a styled, romantic love and contrasts it to harsher reality, a reality shown in ‘Wuthering Heights’. Brontë highlights love’s rugged, passing nature through several relationships in her book. Keats’ poetry looks at the illusion of love and its reality, for example, ‘Ode on a Grecian Urn’. The urn is a ‘Sylvan historian’, an object that holds many mysteries, an idea emphasised by the large number of rhetorical questions in stanza 1; ‘What maidens loth?’, ‘What mad pursuit?’. The urn depicts a story of love, a romance immortalised through the urn. The love ‘cannot fade’, an idealistic, eternal love. However, locked into the urn, the lovers cannot express their love; ‘never canst thou kiss. Keats presents the romantic idea of perfect love, but also that it can never be experienced, only imagined. The idea is that this couple’s love will never be disrupted, it will live on forever, yet it will never be physical or real. Brontë also presents love in a pure and realistic way through the relationship between Catherine and Heathcliff. Their love transcends the isolation of wuthering heights and the social divide. Catherine declares that ‘I am Heathcliff’, presenting the couple as idyllic soul mates. Despite their...
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...Romanticism Unshackled: a Study of the Modern Prometheus The most remarkable aspect about Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein is the ability to label the novel in so many different ways amongst many genres, ranging from science fiction, to fantasy, to horror, and have all of them be correct. At such a young age, Mary Shelley constructed a narrative so revolutionary, intricate, and involved that it is still pertinent to be written about in college essays almost 200 years after it was written. As the author, Shelley is often attributed with vast creative intellect, and rightly so, as is evidenced while reading through her novel. It is imperative to recognize, however, just how much influence her colleagues—the Romantic poets—had on the ideas that became manifested in her writing. Frankenstein should bear the title of Romantic literature because the novel embodies trademark Romantic ideas, situations, and characteristics throughout the text. In an attempt to categorize any novel as Romantic, however, one must first attempt to identify what, exactly, makes a work Romantic. A group of poets, including the likes of William Blake, Samuel Coleridge, William Wordsworth, John Keats, Lord Byron and—Mary’s husband—Percy Shelley, who are commonly credited as being the ground-breaking authors of the Romantic movement (Ferguson). A prime example of this method of poetry was introduced in the 1798 collection, Lyrical Ballads. This work, written by Wordsworth and Coleridge, is a compilation...
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...George Frideric Handel and Baroque Music Name: 高晓莹（Alison） Student No.：130440202 Major：Applied English（International Business） George Frideric Handel and Baroque Music It is commonly believed that music is an important way to express one's feelings and emotions. Music tells us who we are as well as reflects our thinking ,values and the social environment it came from. As we know, in the long run of history, music vary from period to period. Baroque music is one of the special style of music.Baroque music describes a style of European classical music approximately extending from 1600 to 1750. This era is said to begin in music after the Renaissance and was followed by the Classical era. The word "baroque" came from the Portuguese word barroco, meaning "misshapen pearl".That is to say, the typical characteristic of Baroque music is replacing the old with the new , though it may be irregular, exaggerated as well as grand. George Frideric Handel is a famous German-born British composer during this period. He was born in Halle (Germany), on February 23rd,1685, just a month before JS Bach was born in Eisenach, not so far to the south. Handel's father intended him for the law, but his own musical inclinations soon prevailed.He was strongly influenced both by the great composers of the Italian Baroque and the middle-German polyphonic choral tradition. Following his studies in Germany, Handel went to Italy where he spent more than three years...
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...23 February 1821) was an English Romantic poet. He was one of the main figures of the second generation of Romantic poets, along with Lord Byron and Percy Bysshe Shelley, despite his work having been in publication for only four years before his death.[1] Although his poems were not generally well received by critics during his lifetime, his reputation grew after his death, and by the end of the 19th century, he had become one of the most beloved of all English poets. He had a significant influence on a diverse range of poets and writers. Jorge Luis Borges stated that his first encounter with Keats was the most significant literary experience of his life.[2] The poetry of Keats is characterised by sensual imagery, most notably in the series of odes. This is typical of romantic poets, as they aimed to accentuate extreme emotion through the emphasis of natural imagery. Today his poems and letters are some of the most popular and most analysed in English literature. 1 1.1 Biography Life mask of Keats by Benjamin Haydon, 1816 Early life John Clarke’s school in Enfield, close to his grandparents’ house. The small school had a liberal outlook and a progressive curriculum more modern than the larger, more prestigious schools.[11] In the family atmosphere at Clarke’s, Keats developed an interest in classics and history, which would stay with him throughout his short life. The headmaster’s son, Charles Cowden Clarke, also became an important mentor and friend, introducing Keats to Renaissance...
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...B.A. (HONOURS) ENGLISH (Three Year Full Time Programme) COURSE CONTENTS (Effective from the Academic Year 2011-2012 onwards) DEPARTMENT OF ENGLISH UNIVERSITY OF DELHI DELHI - 110007 0 Course: B.A. (Hons.) English Semester I Paper 1: English Literature 4(i) Paper 2: Twentieth Century Indian Writing(i) Paper 3: Concurrent – Qualifying Language Paper 4: English Literature 4(ii) Semester II Paper 5: Twentieth Century Indian Writing(ii) Paper 6: English Literature 1(i) Paper 7: Concurrent – Credit Language Paper 8: English Literature 1(ii) Semester III Paper 9: English Literature 2(i) Paper 10: Option A: Nineteenth Century European Realism(i) Option B: Classical Literature (i) Option C: Forms of Popular Fiction (i) Paper 11: Concurrent – Interdisciplinary Semester IV Semester V Paper 12: English Literature 2(ii) Paper 13: English Literature 3(i) Paper 14: Option A: Nineteenth Century European Realism(ii) Option B: Classical Literature (ii) Option C: Forms of Popular Fiction (ii) Paper 15: Concurrent – Discipline Centered I Paper 16: English Literature 3(ii) Paper 17: English Literature 5(i) Paper 18: Contemporary Literature(i) Paper 19: Option A: Anglo-American Writing from 1930(i) Option B: Literary Theory (i) Option C: Women’s Writing of the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries (i) Option D: Modern European Drama (i) Paper 20: English Literature 5(ii) Semester VI Paper 21: Contemporary Literature(ii) Paper 22: Option A: Anglo-American Writing from 1930(ii) Option B:...
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