Keats's Ode to a Nightingale | Close Reading & Analysis | Greater Romantic Lyrics

John Keats's "Ode to a Nightingale" is an imaginative flight of fancy occasioned by an encounter with the beauty of the bird's song. In previous videos on the Greater Romantic lyric, we've seen how the lyric poems trace the movements of deep thought and feeling. In Keats's "Ode to a Nightingale," the poem follows the contours of the speaker's inner experience of pain, beauty, longing, and abjection. The movement follows the basic pattern of the Greater Romantic lyric--from outward, inward, and the return to outward with a sense of resolution--but with a distinctive difference.
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Introduction 0:00-1:04
Stanza 1:04-3:36
Stanza 2 3:36-6:25
Stanza 3 6:25-9:05
Stanza 4 9:05-11:41
Stanza 5 11:41-13:55
Stanza 6 13:57-16:20
Stanza 7 16:20-18:21
Stanza 8 18:21-20:17
Conclusion 20:17-21:08
Keywords
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[@robertgainer2783]

Excellent as usual. I was a little puzzled by the pronunciation of draught as ‘drawt’, which is not a pronunciation I have ever heard before, with ‘draft’ being the pronunciation I am familiar with in the UK. However, I looked it up and although rare, it is a valid alternative pronunciation. It also makes sense as an echo of throat. There are several echoes in the poem from the last lines of some stanzas in the first lines of the following stanzas, so I can see why you would make that point. I’m still not entirely convinced though. Keats is arguably one of the most musical poets in the canon, and I don’t hear the harshness of ‘drawt’ fitting in with that musicality, whereas ‘draft’ is much softer sounding. It’s a shame that we cannot ask Keats to clarify it for us. it is a great poem and it adds another dimension to this series of Romantic reveries.

[@closereadingpoetry]

Brilliant. Pinning this because you're correct about draught of course! The connection there between throat and draught is probably associated in idea rather than in sound. The instinct to look for sound similarities in Keats occasionally leads me astray 😅

[@akramobada]

Sensational as usual Adam ,thanks a lot , big fan of your channel , I saw your comment about mysticism and pantheism in William Wordsworth poem "tintern abbey" Your explanation is very convenient ❤ You inspire me a lot ,although my native tongue is not English ,it is Arabic ,I am planning to get master degree outside Iraq

[@fernandamurari8577]

Hello! Your analysis is beautifully done! This poem is something sublime and every time I read it i find something new to admire and muse upon. Thank you!

[@mysh9337]

I still remember first time reading this poem in my student years as a literature major. I regret that your channel didn’t exist 6 years ago, Adam. My grades would have been much better 🥲

[@solaceandshine]

fantastic. thank you. would you consider close reading Sylvia Plaths Wurthering Heights? i find it facinating the tones of mental health she explores within the natural landscape.

[@beifangyi115]

THANKS for your EXCELLENT explanation of this beautiful poem! I am still kind of confused with the sentence: "Still wouldst thou sing, and I have ears in vain--To thy high requiem become a sod." I kind of understand the meaning---but confused with "...become a sod."---WHO or WHICH "become a sod" --from the syntax for this sentence of stanza?---THANKS again!!

[@isaacbeen2087]

"become a sod," in the sense of under the sod, which means to be dead and buried-someone correct me if I'm wrong!-viz. after he has died the Bird's "high requiem", which makes of the song a repose for the soul of the dead Poet; Keats posits this song is unchanging, remaining "self-same" from the time of Ruth to long after his death. This is one possible explanation for the line "Thou wast not born for death, immortal Bird!"; I think that this is unconvincing, though the Bird's song may forever ring and outlive its body, so too do the Poet's words outlive his, So why is the Bird immortal, and not the Poet? my idea is only that, being unconscious of his mortality, the Bird is immortal from his own perspective-but perhaps you are unconvinced. I hope that helps! (:

[@closereadingpoetry]

Seconding Isaac's great explanation, "become a sod" means to be dead. Perhaps like Wordsworth's "A slumber did my spirit steal," in which the girl figure, "Lucy," dies and is buried and lives on in some kind of material transmutation: she "neither hears nor sees; | Rolled round in earth's diurnal course, | With rocks, and stones, and trees." This may also explain why he has "ears in vain"? Because they are mortal receptacles of the immortal birdsong... just a guess!

[@phillylifer]

A tautology Haha critics assuming they know better than Keats on his poem's composition. Damnright it lends something, otherwise it wouldn't be there. One the finest poems ever written in human history.