Ode to a Nightingale

Ode to a Nightingale
by John Keats
W. J. Neatby's 1899 illustration for
"Ode to a Nightingale"
Written1819
CountryEngland
LanguageEnglish
Full text
Ode to a Nightingale at Wikisource
Preview warning: Page using Template:Infobox poem with unknown parameter "italic title"

"Ode to a Nightingale" is a poem by John Keats written either in the garden of the Spaniards Inn, Hampstead, London or, according to Keats' friend Charles Armitage Brown, under a plum tree in the garden of Keats' house at Wentworth Place, also in Hampstead. According to Brown, a nightingale had built its nest near the house that he shared with Keats in the spring of 1819. Inspired by the bird's song, Keats composed the poem in one day. It soon became one of his 1819 odes and was first published in Annals of the Fine Arts the following July. The poem is one of the most frequently anthologized in the English language.[1]

"Ode to a Nightingale" is a personal poem which describes Keats' journey into the state of negative capability. The tone of the poem rejects the optimistic pursuit of pleasure found within Keats's earlier poems and, instead, explores the themes of nature, transience and mortality, the latter being particularly relevant to Keats.

The nightingale described experiences a type of death but does not actually die. Instead, the songbird is capable of living through its song, which is a fate that humans cannot expect. The poem ends with an acceptance that pleasure cannot last and that death is an inevitable part of life. In the poem, Keats imagines the loss of the physical world and sees himself dead—as a "sod" over which the nightingale sings. The contrast between the immortal nightingale and mortal man sitting in his garden, is made all the more acute by an effort of the imagination. The presence of weather is noticeable in the poem, as spring came early in 1819, bringing nightingales all over the heath.[2]

  1. ^ "Hit Singles by Joshua Weiner". Poetry Foundation. 11 April 2018. Archived from the original on 2 August 2020. Retrieved 11 April 2018.
  2. ^ "What Is The Main Idea Of Ode To A Nightingale?". bookriff.com. Retrieved 28 May 2022.