Ode to a Nightingale: Death

Question 1

Seeking to avoid the descent into death through aging.

this state is one of powerlessness in the face of degradation s3

Answer 1

“Here where men sit and hear each other groan
Where Palsy shakes a few, sad, last gray hairs,
When you grows pale, and spectre-thin, and dies”

Question 2

Even in avoidance death seems present: description of sedation has death-y tones s1/2

Answer 2

drinks “hemlock”
“emptied some dull opiate to the drains”
“Lethe-wards had sun”
“draught” from the “deep delved earth”

Question 3

Goes from sedation to poetic imagination, but even there lingers the knowledge of death s5

Answer 3

“soft incense hangs upon the boughs” “embalmed darkness” “haunt of flies”

Question 4

Romanticises death: seems odd! and a bit of an about-turn on his previous sentiments.
Seems to be the only way to avoid dying is to suddenly be dead- a route to immortality, preservation of the dream state that is exempt from reality
crit:

Answer 4

“half in love with easeful death” links to “singest of summer in full throated ease”
“take into the air my quiet breath” contrasts the death rattle
“to cease upon the midnight with no pain”
Kappel: death comes to the poet’s mind as the possible preserver of Fancy’s garden

Question 5

Even in death, not ideal– cannot be eternal because will be trodden down. Poetry repurposed
Crit:

Answer 5

“no hungry generations tread thee down”
“violets” “musk-rose” “Eglantine”
Belinda Jack: build on others work, become pas