John Keats’ poetry is known to be full of vivid imagery. His expressive imagery has inspired at least 20 paintings. In Ode to a Nightingale he first uses synesthetic language to connect unrelated things or feelings. However, as he moves towards the end he no longer makes the connections. Keats often uses this method to distinguish between reality and dream.

The poem begins with the narrator’s heartbreak and his thoughts on how to stop the pain. He is considering drinking hemlock from the herb or the Lethe River which was a river where souls that were soon to be reincarnated could drink from in Hades. The narrator is forced to choose the poisonous drink, which comes from the herb hemlock. He also has the option of drinking the Lethe River in Hades where souls soon-to-be reincarnated drank it to forget their past lives. The narrator, hearing the nightingale music, is transported into a special world created by the bird. Then he uses synesthesia to combine sight and sound, “In some melody plot / Of beechen-green,” (8-9). Keats uses the word “melodicous” for a beechen, which is not normally used to describe a green. Keats says this in order to inform his reader that they’re about enter a dream. The reader becomes aware of the link between dream and reality by combining both senses.

In the second stanza, he pleads for relief from his pain through finely aged wines. He hopes to escape his world by drinking “a glass full of warm South” (15). Keats’ synesthesia can be seen in the following example. The narrator tastes “Flora & the Country Green,” an activity – “Dance,” an audio – “Provenal Songs,” and a state of mind – “mirth.”

The third stanza shows Keats’s frustration and illness. The narrator is trying to “Fade Far Away and Forget / What Thou amongst the Leaves Hast Never Knew” (21-22). He believes that the nightingale is naive, invincible, and has not experienced “the fatigue, the fever, or the fret” of life.

The fourth verse begins with “Away! “, the cry from the narrator who says that he won’t be “charioted” by Bacchus (32) the god or wine. He prefers not to drink and instead travels on the “wings Poesy”, (33). He’s now in a dream where he believes it’s the night and that he is flying with a nightingale. But, he can neither see nor feel any light. In realizing that he will lose his physical sensations as he gives up suffering, the man begins to give up on pain. The narrator mentions immediately the blowing breeze when he realizes there is no light or vision. The narrator has combined both senses in order to describe how the wind is moving the leaves on the nightingale tree. By combining the senses, the reader can still see how the narrator connects the dream and the reality.

In the fifth verse, he is unable to perceive anything and it seems as if everything around him is alien. He relies on his imagination when it is not accurate to describe what is in front of him. He relies on his imagination and memories to make him believe that certain trees and flowers are all around him. I believe the first line, “I can’t even see the flowers at my feet” (41), is also an admission of sadness. He admits that his depression has made it impossible for him to appreciate the finer things in life. In the second verse, he describes “soft incense” hanging on the branches. In this line, he uses touch and smell to convey the idea that the dream is connected to reality.

The narrator still desires an “easeful” death in the sixth stanza (52). He has always wished for a “quiet death,” but he now thinks it’s time to listen to a melodic singing nightingale and die in peace. He realizes, after reaching this stage in his dream, that it would be a waste of time to die. The death of his character would not release him from pain. It would mean that the nightingale’s music, which he had listened to in “ecstasy,” would cease to exist.

The seventh stanza represents the narrator’s return to reality. The song of the nightingale is unchanged from its earlier days, so it seems that the bird lives forever. Keats’s awareness of mortality is shifted in this stanza from Keats to his perception of the immortality of the nightingale. The narrator, however, is mistaken in his claim that the song will never die. It is actually the music. The word “forlorn” (70), which is the last word from stanza 7, is repeated in stanza 8. The reader will also be able to relate to the dream, as it’s almost like something is calling them back to reality.

“Forlorn!” (71) starts to ring him “like bell” in the final stanza. He realizes that he is not able to exist on both sides of the world and have both their finest qualities. He wants nothing more than to escape the pain he is in, but that would mean he could not hear his nightingale’s music. He is torn by the conflict between his two lives. After the nightingale sings its last note, the narrator returns to reality and wonders if it was a dream, a vision (79). It’s almost as if his mind was questioning its validity and he wasn’t sure whether to believe in himself. I believe that despite his uncertainty he gradually realized there is no difference between a fantasy and reality.

He used nightingales to guide him on his journey and help him determine what he desired in life. He convinced himself that suicide was not the answer to his problems. In a way, he convinced himself to reject suicide as a solution to his problems. He realized that he could enjoy life’s pleasures without drinking wine, taking drugs, or even daydreaming. I believe he stopped using synesthetic images towards the end of his trip. It served its purpose at the beginning of his journey, but by the end he no longer felt a need to explain to the reader the difference between the two realms.

dylanwest

Dylan West is a 33-year-old education blogger and traveler. He has a degree in education from the University of Texas and has been blogging about education since 2009.