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John KeatsOde to a Nightingale
Fiction | Poem | Adult | Published in 1819A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Symbols & Motifs
The Nightingale
The nightingale—referred to by its name only in the poem’s title—is the hyperbolic “immortal Bird” and the center (Line 61) of the poem’s universe. As the adjective suggests, the nightingale is a symbol of immortality. Immortality is a complex theme in the poem, since it doesn’t imply literal deathlessness—a nightingale is after all as much a mortal creature as a human being. Instead, the immortality the nightingale represents is freedom from the constraints of human existence. The nightingale’s flight is compared to the movement of a dryad, a magical tree spirit, who can change from tree to a feminine form. Thus, the flight represents a blurring of boundaries and a freedom from shackles. The nightingale and its song symbolize a kind of timelessness that Keats associates with a pastoral existence. Unlike humans, whose “hungry generations” (Line 62) prey on each other, the nightingale is free from emotions like greed and the burden of thought. Although factually, a bird too would be susceptible to death and decay as the humans in whom “palsy shakes a few, sad, last gray hairs” (Line 25). Symbolically, the bird, in its lack of sentience, is unencumbered by the burden of mortality. That is to say, the bird is immortal simply because it does not know it’s going to die the way human beings possess this knowledge.
The nightingale also symbolizes another kind of immortality: the one offered by art. The immortal appeal of art is a common motif in the poetry of Keats. In “Ode on a Grecian Urn,” another of his great odes, the figures of lovers on a sculpted vase are described as eternal since their love and beauty cannot be corroded by time and decay. Similarly, the nightingale’s song transcends eras, heard by the Bible’s Ruth, and kings and clowns in ancient times. The poet suggests the only immortality available to the artist is through creating beautiful, lasting works of art.
Wine, Opiates, and Intoxication
Images and references to opiates, wine, and intoxicated states abound in the poem. These are symbols of an escape from the brutal reality of human existence and the poet’s troubled mind. In the very first line, the poet uses the phrases “drowsy numbness” to describe the painful euphoria the nightingale’s song has aroused in him. This suggests that in the speaker’s current circumstances, the idea of happiness is linked with that of exhaustion, release, and amnesia. So heavy is the speaker’s heart, it can be inferred, that they welcome any catalyst that can distract them from their pain. The reference to sinking in the Lethe in Line 3 suggests forgetfulness is a welcome state. In Line 11, the speaker longs for “a draught of vintage!” Note that draught suggests a drink consumed in a single gulp, again conjuring a state of total intoxication and forgetfulness. The speaker wants to drink this vintage and “leave the world unseen” (Line 12).
As the poem progresses, the motifs of intoxication and forgetting become intertwined with the symbol of death. The poet suggests death may be the only comfort in human life, since it takes one away from the place where “men sit and hear each other groan” (Line 24). The imagery of the speaker calling to death is strikingly similar to them being drunk on the nightingale’s song; thus, death or freedom of existence is also a kind of intoxication. The lines,
Darkling I listen; and, for many a time
I have been half in love with easeful Death,
Call'd him soft names in many a mused rhyme,
To take into the air my quiet breath (Lines 51-54),
with their emphasized “many.” suggest the speaker is addicted to the idea of death. They often desire death to intoxicate them and peacefully ferry them away from the clamor of their own mind.
Weariness, Fever, and Fret
In Line 23, the speaker suggests that unlike humans, the nightingale has never known “the weariness, the fever, and the fret” of existence, which is to say, tiredness, disease, and worry. These factors symbolize decay, mortality, and the burden of human life in the poem. It is important to note that they do not necessarily represent death, since death is a release from human troubles. Rather, it is the grind of disease that the speaker loathes. The word palsy, referring to weakened muscles, occurs twice in the poem. Not only does disease symbolize the constraints of human mortality in the poem, but the symbol is also rooted in Keats’s reality. His younger brother died of debilitating tuberculosis months before “Ode to a Nightingale” was composed; he was only 19 at the time. Thus, images of human suffering are deeply personal symbols for the poet. Through these images of suffering, Keats conveys a central human dilemma: how to exist free-spiritedly when haunted by the scepter of time and decay.
“Fret” has a dual meaning in the poem: excessive worry as well as wear and tear, as in insects fretting a leaf. The speaker feels existence eats away at his happiness and power of imagination. It keeps him from escaping into flights of fancy and leading a carefree existence. Worry becomes a symbol of decay and corrosion, as can be seen in lines such as: “Where but to think is to be full of sorrow” (Line 27). In such a reality, one’s self, filled with worry and weakness, becomes a liability. The “dull brain perplexes and retards” (Line 34), and the speaker’s return to his “sole self” (Line 72) is a moment of mourning, almost accompanied by the tolling of a funereal bell. “Sole self” here is again a metaphor for the alienation of human life, which is isolated from nature’s goodness. The speaker is lonely because he has been wrested away from his natural state, which is to live in harmony with nature’s creatures.
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By John Keats
