The nightingale Flashcards
What time of day do you hear birds
Are they happy
What’s different about the nightingale
Hear birds in morning
Sound happy
Nightingale sounds melancholy
A03 context
April 1798 Coleridge went to visit Wordsworth and sister Dorothy in Somerset
Poem is subtitled a conversational poem but focuses primary on thoughts of Coleridge on hearing a nightingale when out for an evening walk with Wordsworths
He refers to classical myth of Philomela from Orid’s Metamorphoses
She was the Princess of Athens who was terrible raped and mutilated
She metamorphoses in to a nightingale to survive but her song is a sorrowful lament of all she has endured
A01
Stanza 1+2
What contrasting impressions of the evening does Coleridge focus on
No sun, clouds
Glimmer of stream
Silently flowing
A01
Stanza 1 and 2
How does he describe the night and the nightingale songs when he first hears it
Melancholy
A01
Stanza 1 and 2
Why does Coleridge believe that poets have traditionally associated nightingale with melancholy
Man - sad - hears nightingale - associates sadness with the nightingale
A01
Stanza 1 and 2
What should poets do to find inspiration
Go out and experience nature
A01
Stanza 1 and 2
How should poets change their ‘songs’ (poems) in lines 29-34
Make it about nature?
‘Be loved like nature’
‘Should make all nature lovelier’
A01
Stanza 1 and 2
What is the reality for young people and why does Coleridge reference Philomela
Won’t appreciate nature - spend time indoors
Philomela- daughter of king of Athens - her sister turned into a nightingale
A01
Stanza 1+2
How does Coleridge and Wordsworth and his sisters new nightingale differ from traditional associations
They see it as sound of joy
A05 interpretation
-dominant images
‘Tis the merry…/ thick warble his delicious notes’
How might these images be used as a conceit (extended metaphor) for the creative writing process
?
A01
Stan
How is the grove described. What atmosphere is created?
‘Castle huge’
‘Thin grass’ ‘king-cups’
‘In wood and thicket’
> gothic atmosphere
A01
Sta
How is the maid described and what is her significance
‘Gentle’ - made nightingales song together
A01
S
What type of upbringings does Coleridge want son to have
Experience joy and be with nature
How does Coleridge’s focus change in each stanza of whole poem
- Misery - night time
- Excitement - ‘delicious notes’
- Gothic - ‘castle’ - wood - dark
- Magical - night to morning
- Optimism and joy for child future
A04
Eolian harp vs nightingale similar
Both conversational
Primarily Coleridge talking
Each stanza has seperate focus
