ode to a nightingale Flashcards
‘drowsy numbness pains’
lethargy
oxymoron
‘hemlock’
sedative - impact of trauma
links to socrates who died after corrupting the youth
‘lethe’
greek river of forgetfulness
wants to forget his woes
escapism
‘but being too happy in thine happiness’
nature doesn’t suffer like humans do
‘light winged dryad of the trees’
mythical creature
bridge between reality and fantasy
‘draught of vintage’
synaesthesia
alcohol as an escape - wants to drink the nightingale’s song
‘deep delved earth’
ancient song
part of the earth
‘flora and the country green’
roman goddess of plants
wants to escape
‘sunburnt mirth’
sunburnt song
exposed for too long
ancient
‘warm south’
song is international
transports us to different places
connotations of healing
‘leave the world unseen’
death without legacy
not experienced the whole world
‘quite forget’
jealous of the nightingale
wants to be removed from suffering
‘the weariness, the fever, and the fret’
difficulty of human experience
‘youth grows pale, and spectre-thin’
difficulty of life
‘where beauty cannot keep her lustrous eyes, or new love pine at them beyond tomorrow’
even beauty dies
death looms
‘viewless wings of poesy’
uses poetry to connect with the nightingale
art transcends
‘dull brain perplexes and retards’
even though he’s depressed, his imagination is powerful
‘queen-moon’
diana
nightingale is a messenger from the natural world - can’t access
‘heaven is with the breezes blown’
elevated status
‘the murmurous haunt of flies on summer eves’
can’t escape death
follows him around
‘easeful death’
death brings relief from a world of pain
call’d him soft names ‘
death is attractive
‘still wouldst thou sing’
immortality of nature
‘perilous seas, in faery lands forlorn’
heard everywhere
‘fancy cannot cheat so well’
can’t escape reality
‘do i wake or sleep?’
die or wake up to reality?
rhetorical question
poem about questioning life
structure
caesura - takes in the natural beauty of the nightingale, contrast between life and death and the nightingale and human experience
headlines
the difficulty of human experience
by questioning death, we also question life
immortality of nature
every positive aspect of life also has negatives
nature offers an escape from reality
art is intoxicating
imagination offers an escape from reality
