Ode to a nightingale Flashcards
1
Q
message
A
- transitory nature of time
- happiness comes from being mortal - we would not enjoy nature if we could live for eternity
2
Q
Context
A
- Coleridge wrote two poems about nightingales ‘the nightingale’
- myth of philomela (her brother in law raped her but the gods let her become a nightingale with a beautiful song)
3
Q
techniques in stanza 1:
A
- negative objects designed to stop time all related to poet ‘hemlock’, ‘dull opiate’, ‘lethe-wards’
physical limitations of humans vs spirt of nature ‘sense’ (caesura after highlights physical boundary) vs’ ‘dryad’ - assonance of positive images associated with nature ‘beechen green’
-synaesthesia highlights power of nature ‘singest of summer’
4
Q
techniques stanza 2:
A
- jubilant happy tempo ‘o, for a draught of vintage’
- synaesthesia wine described through taste and colour ‘for a beaker full of the warm south’
- joyful tone ‘dance and provencal song and sunburnt mirth’ - free from humanties failings i.e industrial revolution - contrast tone of next stanza
- most personal ode, use of ‘i’
5
Q
techniques stanza 3:
A
- dull monotonous rhythm
- dim colours of humanity ‘gray’ ‘pale’ contrast previous purple and green of nature
- ‘spectre-thin and dies’ ‘full of sorrow’ grieving loss of brother and reverence for nature
6
Q
tecniques stanza 4:
A
- power of poetry not god ‘not charioted by bacchus’
- unites poetry and nature both can fly ‘wings of poesy’
- truth and reality comes from intuition not sense ‘here there is not light’ world of nightingale isn’t perfect
7
Q
techniques stanza 5:
A
- images of ripening and withering throughout poem to show time ‘fats fading violets’ ‘coming musk rose’
8
Q
technique stanza 6
A
- turning point
- pain romanticized ‘half in love with easeful death’
- gentle language used to make death positive ‘soft names’ ‘mused rhyme’ ‘no pain’
- eternal nature of nature, nightingale still sings after death ‘to they high requiem become a sod’
9
Q
stanza 7:
A
- nightingale song can only be heard with mortal senses but can be immortalized like poetry
- use of archaic language separates bird from nature ‘thou’
- chilled reality of present disrupts thoughts of suicide
- death pain and suffering even in world of nightingale ‘sad heart of ruth’ ;stood in tears’
10
Q
stanza 8:
A
- finality in the repetition of ‘adieu!adieu!’
- negative capability ‘do i wake or sleep?’
- inadequacy of imagination, escapist or acceptance poem ‘was it a vision or a waking dream?’
