Ode to a Nightingale

Summary

The speaker opens with a declaration of his own heartache. He feels numb, as though he had taken a drug only a moment ago. He is addressing a nightingale he hears singing somewhere in the forest and says that his “drowsy numbness” is not from envy of the nightingale’s happiness, but rather from sharing it too completely; he is “too happy” that the nightingale sings the music of summer from amid some unseen plot of green trees and shadows.

In the second stanza, the speaker longs for the oblivion of alcohol, expressing his wish for wine, “a draught of vintage,” that would taste like the country and like peasant dances, and let him “leave the world unseen” and disappear into the dim forest with the nightingale. In the third stanza, he explains his desire to fade away, saying he would like to forget the troubles the nightingale has never known: “the weariness, the fever, and the fret” of human life, with its consciousness that everything is mortal and nothing lasts. Youth “grows pale, and spectre-thin, and dies,” and “beauty cannot keep her lustrous eyes.”

In the fourth stanza, the speaker tells the nightingale to fly away, and he will follow, not through alcohol (“Not charioted by Bacchus and his pards”), but through poetry, which will give him “viewless wings.” He says he is already with the nightingale and describes the forest glade, where even the moonlight is hidden by the trees, except the light that breaks through when the breezes blow the branches. In the fifth stanza, the speaker says that he cannot see the flowers in the glade, but can guess them “in embalmed darkness”: white hawthorne, eglantine, violets, and the musk-rose, “the murmurous haunt of flies on summer eves.” In the sixth stanza, the speaker listens in the dark to the nightingale, saying that he has often been “half in love” with the idea of dying and called Death soft names in many rhymes. Surrounded by the nightingale’s song, the speaker thinks that the idea of death seems richer than ever, and he longs to “cease upon the midnight with no pain” while the nightingale pours its soul ecstatically forth. If he were to die, the nightingale would continue to sing, he says, but he would “have ears in vain” and be no longer able to hear.

In the seventh stanza, the speaker tells the nightingale that it is immortal, that it was not “born for death.” He says that the voice he hears singing has always been heard, by ancient emperors and clowns, by homesick Ruth; he even says the song has often charmed open magic windows looking out over “the foam / Of perilous seas, in faery lands forlorn.” In the eighth stanza, the word forlorn tolls like a bell to restore the speaker from his preoccupation with the nightingale and back into himself. As the nightingale flies farther away from him, he laments that his imagination has failed him and says that he can no longer recall whether the nightingale’s music was “a vision, or a waking dream.” Now that the music is gone, the speaker cannot recall whether he himself is awake or asleep.

Form

Like most of the other odes, “Ode to a Nightingale” is written in ten-line stanzas. However, unlike most of the other poems, it is metrically variable—though not so much as “Ode to Psyche.” The first seven and last two lines of each stanza are written in iambic pentameter; the eighth line of each stanza is written in trimeter, with only three accented syllables instead of five. “Nightingale” also differs from the other odes in that its rhyme scheme is the same in every stanza (every other ode varies the order of rhyme in the final three or four lines except “To Psyche,” which has the loosest structure of all the odes). Each stanza in “Nightingale” is rhymed ABABCDECDE, Keats’s most basic scheme throughout the odes.

Themes

With “Ode to a Nightingale,” Keats’s speaker begins his fullest and deepest exploration of the themes of creative expression and the mortality of human life. In this ode, the transience of life and the tragedy of old age (“where palsy shakes a few, sad, last gray hairs, / Where youth grows pale, and spectre-thin, and dies”) is set against the eternal renewal of the nightingale’s fluid music (“Thou wast not born for death, immortal bird!”). The speaker reprises the “drowsy numbness” he experienced in “Ode on Indolence,” but where in “Indolence” that numbness was a sign of disconnection from experience, in “Nightingale” it is a sign of too full a connection: “being too happy in thine happiness,” as the speaker tells the nightingale. Hearing the song of the nightingale, the speaker longs to flee the human world and join the bird. His first thought is to reach the bird’s state through alcohol—in the second stanza, he longs for a “draught of vintage” to transport him out of himself. But after his meditation in the third stanza on the transience of life, he rejects the idea of being “charioted by Bacchus and his pards” (Bacchus was the Roman god of wine and was supposed to have been carried by a chariot pulled by leopards) and chooses instead to embrace, for the first time since he refused to follow the figures in “Indolence,” “the viewless wings of Poesy.”

 From Goolge

FUNCTION OF CRITICISM – ARNOLD

Arnold confirms that the creative power of poetry requires ideas and material to provide it with inspiration and achieve success. These ideas nourishes the creative power. The critical effort tries to create cultural environment rich with ideas.

He goes on to equate the emotional experience of writing criticism with the emotional experience of writing creative work. He intends to undermines typical opinion against criticism. He defends criticism against the opinion that believes that it serves no purpose, and that those who criticize cannot write something creative themselves.

He compares between the success of Goethe and that of Byron. Arnold says that both of them had a great productive power, but Goethe was nourished by great critical effort which provided the required material for his work. Lord Byronpossessed the same gift but was less productive because he found no rich cultural background and material. Byron lacked critical efforts.

 Thus, he sees that the poet should understand the world about which he writes. Understanding the world needs critical effort and analysis. 

Arnold sees that real criticism is essentially the exercise of the quality of curiosity. Curiosity is the disinterested desire for knowledge in all fields. It is an instinct that urges man to seek knowledge for the sake of knowledge. The creative activity must be preceded by criticism. Criticism paves the way for creative activity.

Disinterestedness: Arnold sees that the indispensable rule of English criticism is disinterestedness or objectivity. It also means independence of judgement.

How can criticism show disinterestedness?

·         Criticism should follow the law of its own nature which is freedom. Criticism should be a free activity which is not subject to any external influence.

·         Criticism should refuse to submit to political or practical consideration.

·         Criticism should serve nothing but itself. 

What is the business of criticism?

·         The business of criticism is to know the best that is known and thought in the world.

·         Moreover, it should spread this knowledge to create a flow of new ideas.

·         Its business is to practise the function with strict honesty and sense of duty. He opposes the flexible honest in criticism.

What does hinder criticism?

·         Arnold sees that practical considerations hinder faithful criticism and suffocates it. Criticism should be free of these considerations. It should be firstly a free play of mind. The free play of mind is much more important than any practical ends.

Spiritual Function of Criticism:

The spiritual function of criticism is to protect man from a self-satisfaction that holds him back. It lends him to perfection by introducing his mind to excellent ideas, beauty and fitness. Non-objective practical criticism makes man blind to shortcomings and faults in their practice. This will lead to narrow-mindedness.

Arnold specifies certain activity for criticism. Criticism should refrain itself from the sphere of practical life. It involves itself in a slow and obscure work. The common people never have the enthusiastic motive of seeing things as they are, so inadequate ideas will satisfy them.

Scepticism was a direct result of the new intellectual theories of Darwin. Darwin's theory of evolution lead to scepticism about religious beliefs and Christian faith. His theory contradicts the story of creation in the Bible.

Arnold advocates the importance of education. He believed that schools were essential location for civilising and enlightening the next generation of lower classes. He anticipated that this generation will occupy the political positions. This shows that he has a good vision because the Victorian age witnessed the gradual rise of the middle class. This also reflects his belief that proper education is one of the best equipments to have a better life. It is a means by which man can improve his life and position.

Arnold defines criticism as the disinterested endeavour to learn and propagates the best that is know and thought in the world. He means that it is an objective and unbiased attempt to reveal the best ideas that are tackled.

Arnold provides criticism with an important social function and paved the way for its institutionalization. He means to make criticism a genre for study at school.

Arnold believes that poetry is in its essence a criticism of life. The poet should apply his ideas to life. Poetry should give an answers to the question how to live. 

Arnold believes that criticism is responsible for generating the context of ideas and high standards that are required for the production of literature.

In his book Culture and Anarchy, he shows his aim at raising the impulse to the development of the whole man. He wants to create harmony among all parts of man to make him reach perfection. In this book, he gave answers to most of the questions that engaged people and writers' minds such as what kind of education the one should receive. These answers came at a moment in English history when anarchy and social unrest prevailed. He shows that the best persons would be critics who are unbiased thoughtful and against fanaticism. They aspire to perfection. In Culture and Anarchy, he asserts the value of poetry on attitude to the cultural anarchy of his age.

Arnold is mainly interested in the personality and moral tone. He was criticised for focusing on moral tone. He enthusiastically defends the function of criticism and literature against its enemies. He defends culture as "a study of perfection." He believes that culture is seductive and harmonious not conflictual. Arnold sees that criticism requires flexibility and curiosity. The critic should be also open to life and a true evaluation. 

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