John Keats

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John KeatsOde to a Nightingale

• By Frankie, Anthony, and Cameron

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John Keats

• John Keats (1795-1821) was born in England as the
  oldest of four surviving children, died of
  tuberculosis at age 25
• His father fell off a horse and cracked his skull
  when Keats was 8, his mother died of tuberculosis
  when he was 14
• Keats was put in the custody of his grandmother,
  who appointed two guardians for Keats
• He was removed from school in 1810 to become a
  surgeons apprentice, but chose to write instead
  of using his apothecary license

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Keats and His Contemporaries

• Keats became acquainted with Leigh Hunt
  (influential editor of the Examiner, who
  published O Solitude and On First Looking into
  Chapmans Homer.
• Hunt then introduced Keats to Percy Shelly and
  William Wordsworth
• Influenced by these writers, Keats published a
  volume of poems that received negative reviews,
  with the exception of Shelleys opinion.
• Keats declining health over the years is often
  attributed to his broken spirit after receiving
  so many unfavorable reviews of his poetry.

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Ode to a Nightingale
First Stanza Keats, in his heartache, feels as
though he has drunk poison, but declares that he
does not envy the nightingale for being happyin
fact, he revels in the fact that the bird sings
so happily in the forest. Second Stanza Keats
wishes for wine that tastes like Dance and the
country green so that he could use alcohols
psychological effects on the mind to float away
with the nightingale.
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Ode to a Nightingale

• Third Stanza Keats lists things that the
  nightingale has never known, such as palsy, and
  solemnly admits that in the human world, youth,
  beauty, and love dont last forever.
• Fourth Stanza Keats decides that he will not use
  wine to float away with the bird. Though the
  dull brain perplexes, he tells the bird to fly
  away, so that he can follow it on the wings of
  poetry.

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Ode to a Nightingale

• Fifth Stanza Keats writes that although he cant
  see the different flowers, he can use each
  flowers scent to label them in the embalmèd
  darkness.
• Sixth Stanza Keats has been half in love with
  the idea of dying. The nightingales song would
  make dying then and there easier, but his ears
  would then only be able to hear the birds song
  in vain.

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Ode to a Nightingale
Seventh Stanza Keats comments on the birds
immortality, saying it sang for emperors in
ancient days. He also writes that the birds
song could open magic casements. Eight Stanza
Keats halts his adoration of the nightingale to
concentrate on himself. He is saddened by the
birds flight elsewhere and by his seeming lack
of imagination.
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Literary Devices, Allusion

• The River Lethe Greek and Roman mythology,
  underworlds river of forgetfulness
• Flora Roman goddess of flowers
• Hippocrene Muses fountain
• Bacchus (and his leopards) Roman god of wine
• Ruth widow who left her people for a new land.

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Literary Devices, Alliteration/Assonance

• Fade far awayand quite forget/the fever and
  the fret
• Perhaps the self-same song/the sad heartsick
  for homestood in tears
• While thou art pouring forth thy soul abroad
• Thou was not born for death, immortal Bird

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Literary Devices, Personification

• Death Called him soft names
• Fancy cannot cheat so well
• Youth grows pale
• Beauty cannot keep her lustrous eyes
• Love pine at them.

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Literary Devices

• Synesthesia Describes one sensation in terms of
  another (i.e. sound as taste, color as
  sound)
• Diction/Style
• Uses archaic words (beechen thine, thou, thee)
• Elevated Vocabulary verdurous, palsy, plaintive
  anthem, embalmed, lustrous

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The More You Know

• An ode is a complex, long lyric poem on a serious
  subject, intimate, meditative not a story, but
  emotions and thoughts
• Keats use of slant rhyme (been green)
• Ode to a Nightingale is an example of
  Quintessential Romanticism.

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Works Cited
"John Keats." Poets,org. 2010. Web. 1 Feb 2010.
lthttp//www.poets.org/poet.php/prmPID/66gt.
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Thanks for Reading, Signed