Keats: Ode to a Nightingale - A Grecian Urn. A comparison.

When reading the titles of the two "poems" one immediately recognizes that they have got something in common. This common "property" is referred to by the technical term "ode", which originally was to denote a song. As such odes belonged to the repertoire of Greek tragedies where they served as counterparts to the spoken scenes. The term "ode" did not, however, have a precise meaning until the Renaissance . Only then a generic concept of the ode has been "invented", and from this time on odes have been used to express solemn thoughts. The form, of course, should represent these solemn thoughts by an appropriate form. Therefore, odes are strictly organized and consist of stanzas, and they often comprise invocations, elements of mythology, personified nouns, and generalisations.

Favourite topics of the ode are God, religion, the state, Art, Nature, truth, love, enjoyment of life, or fame after death. This variety of themes displays that odes can be used for various occasions ("occasional poems") such as solemn celebrations, e.g. at a wedding or a birthday. The ode reached its climax with Pindar ("Olympic Odes") and Horaz who himself had called his odes "carmina".

Keats' odes are mainly poetic meditations about eternity, permanence, transitoriness and (everlasting) beauty. Some of his odes are therefore connected with mythological topics (Ode to Psyche), and others remind of Wordsworth's concept of Nature (Ode to autumn, Ode to a nightingale). However, the permanent striving for new experiences, which is typical of the Romantic poets, is restrained in Keats' poetry. According to the weight of the topics his odes are structured quite strictly.

I have chosen two famous odes by Keats, Ode to a Nightingale and Ode an a Grecian Urn, both of them exemplify Keats' style and main topics pretty well.

In Ode to a Nightingale the speaker/poet projects his yearning for ideal beauty onto a symbol which takes part in both time and eternity. Thus, the tension between the world of being (earthly life) and the world of flux (eternal life) are overcome. The symbol of the merging of the two contradictory "states" is the nightingale which on the one hand is a subjective and mortal bird and which on the other hand due to its singing - which can be enjoyed independently of a single bird - is used as a symbol of the timeless order of the world.

The above mentioned contradiction and merging of solid state and eternal flux is also represented by the speaker himself. The subject of the ode, the poet, is the fixed point (world of being) whereas his experiences are changing permanently (world of flux).

Keats describes an experience in the course of its very happening, and so he allows the reader to take part in it directly. The direct description of the experienced emotions and the writing down of each stirring in the very moment of its arising supplies the ode with dynamism and tension. Both this dynamism and the tension are reflected in the structure of the ode with its main pictures and images being repeated and played with in various stanzas which, at first sight, seem to be only loosely connected.

The same topic is dealt with in Ode on a Grecian Urn. A now antique piece of art symbolizes eternity which then contained the ashes of a dead person (symbol of transitoriness). The use of an object as a symbol reminds of the literary genre of the picture poem ("Gemäldegedicht"), whose main content is the enthusiastic description of a painting or a sculpture. The respective piece of art, in this case the urn, can be regarded as a permanent manifestation of perfect beauty. Consequently, the urn does not only stand for eternity and Art but also for Nature and Love, for ideal beauty depends on Nature (mimesis, imitatio of Nature).

To put it shortly, if there is reflection on reality and the ideal world which is always imaginative, people must be able to imagine and invent a situation or "state" in which the two contrasting notions are merged. This "state" is regarded as paradise.

Ode to a Nightingale

1

My heart aches, and a drowsy numbness pains 1 a1

My sense, as though of hemlock I had drunk, 2 b1

Or emptied some dull opiate to the drains 3 a1

One minute past, and Lethe-wards had sunk: 4 b1

'Tis not through envy of thy happy lot, 5 c1

But being too happy in thine happiness, - 6 d1

That thou, light-winged Dryad of the trees, 7 e1

In some melodious plot 8 c1

Of beechen green, and shadows numberless, 9 d1

Singest of summer in full-throated ease. 10 e1

The poem starts with the description of the lyrical subject's, i.e. the poet's melancholic and depressive mood which has its origin in the song of a nightingale (l.5,6). Not only does the poet's heart hurt, but he is also in a sleepy daze as if he had drunk poison or a sleeping drug which now makes him feel close to the river Lethe. This is the river which surrounds the Elysian fields and makes the souls of the dead forget their former lives on earth. The speaker's melancholic and trance-like state is well reflected in the deep sounds "a, o, u" and the many strong mono-syllabic words which are interrupted by only few poly-syllabic words.

The reason of the poet's melancholic state is not jealousy or his being depressed for some reason, but due to his being "too happy" which – as mentioned before – has got its origin in the superb singing of the bird. Unfortunately, the poet is far away from this sphere of absolute happiness which the nightingale seems to be enjoying (l.7-10), he is longing in vain for the same happiness. Since the speaker is aware of his inability to reach this sphere of absolute happiness, the bird's singing causes a mixed feeling: too much happiness and sadness at the same time. Sadness and enjoyment are thus combined in an almost masochistic way. The human ability to hear the voice of complete happiness which causes a desire for (at least momentary) death reveals the erotic aspect of death.

Another disappointment the speaker has to stand is that he cannot only be as happy as the bird but that he even cannot see the nightingale. To demonstrate all this, Keats has chosen the nightingale because it can be derived from the verb "galan" which means "to sing", and the speaker can only hear the nightingale which is singing in the green of the trees.

His imagination allows the poet to equate the nightingale with the vegetative Nature so that he attributes the adjective "melodious" not only to the singing of the bird but also to the trees. Furthermore, the poet calls the nightingale a "Dryad of the trees", a nymph that symbolizes Nature's power and its ability to grow. Thus, reality and symbol/mythology are merged in the nightingale whose singing is not only transitory but mainly a symbol of everlasting Nature, ideal beauty and the enchanting power of Art.

The nightingale itself is completely at ease which causes its singing of the forth-coming summer, the time when everything is ripe and completed. The last verse shows this connection because the words "song", "summer" and "ease" are combined with each other by the sound "s" which can be found in any of these words. For the same reason the iambic foot, which dominates in the ode, is replaced by dactyls which even allows for the listener (reader) to imagine the nightingale to be merrily dancing while singing.

As mentioned above, there is a noticeable tension between the world of the poet and that of the nightingale since only the latter can enjoy complete happiness. This tension is also expressed in line 6 in form of a paradox ("too happy"). Although the poet can feel empathy with the nightingale since he is longing for the same kind of happiness, the words 'thy' and 'thine' serve as an obstacle which hinders the poet to reach the nightingale's world of complete happiness. The poet also realizes that his happiness is incomplete. This awareness of incomplete happiness and consequently incomplete existence endows men with the wish of a 'natural' pursuit of perfect happiness. This pursuit of happiness is the driving force which enables people to be creative and imaginative. Another consequence of this awareness is that the tension between reality and ideal is increased so that the poet suffers even more. This suffering, too, is a source of man's creativity.

The tension between the material and the immaterial, idealistic world is mirrored in the organisation of the words used by Keats. There are different directions of movements which symbolize not only physical but also mental directions. The direction of the first stanza's movement is of a double character. First, there is a downward movement when referring to death - "Lethewards sunk". In the second part of the stanza the speaker talks about the world of the nightingale which is characterized by "summer", "light-winged Dryad" and "full-throated ease" so that here the movement is going upwards again.

2

O, for a draught of vintage! that hath been 11 a1

Cool'd a long age in the deep-delved earth, 12 b2

Tasting of Flora and the country green, 13 a2

Dance, and Provençal song, and sunburnt mirth! 14 b2

O for a beaker full of the warm South, 15 c2

Full of the true, the blushful Hippocrene, 16 d2

With beaded bubbles winking at the brim, 17 e2

And purple-stained mouth; 18 c2

That I might drink, and leave the world unseen, 19 d2

And with thee fade away into the forest dim: 20 e2

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