Ode to a Nightingale by John Keats poem summary, explanation, British Literature - II, B.A English Literature, 1st Year 2nd Semester

 BA English Literature

 [1^st Year, 2^nd Semester]

Core Paper V: BRITISH LITERATURE

UNIT 1: Poetry 

1.8. “Ode to a Nightingale” John Keats 

Poem: 

M y heart aches, and a drowsy numbness pains

         My sense, as though of hemlock I had drunk,

Or emptied some dull opiate to the drains

         One minute past, and Lethe-wards had sunk:

'Tis not through envy of thy happy lot,

         But being too happy in thine happiness,—

                That thou, light-winged Dryad of the trees

                        In some melodious plot

         Of beechen green, and shadows numberless,

                Singest of summer in full-throated ease.

O, for a draught of vintage! that hath been

         Cool'd a long age in the deep-delved earth,

Tasting of Flora and the country green,

         Dance, and Provençal song, and sunburnt mirth!

O for a beaker full of the warm South,

         Full of the true, the blushful Hippocrene,

                With beaded bubbles winking at the brim,

                        And purple-stained mouth;

         That I might drink, and leave the world unseen,

                And with thee fade away into the forest dim:

Fade far away, dissolve, and quite forget

         What thou among the leaves hast never known,

The weariness, the fever, and the fret

         Here, where men sit and hear each other groan;

Where palsy shakes a few, sad, last gray hairs,

         Where youth grows pale, and spectre-thin, and dies;

                Where but to think is to be full of sorrow

                        And leaden-eyed despairs,

         Where Beauty cannot keep her lustrous eyes,

                Or new Love pine at them beyond to-morrow.

Away! away! for I will fly to thee,

         Not charioted by Bacchus and his pards,

But on the viewless wings of Poesy,

         Though the dull brain perplexes and retards:

Already with thee! tender is the night,

         And haply the Queen-Moon is on her throne,

                Cluster'd around by all her starry Fays;

                        But here there is no light,

         Save what from heaven is with the breezes blown

                Through verdurous glooms and winding mossy ways.

I cannot see what flowers are at my feet,

         Nor what soft incense hangs upon the boughs,

But, in embalmed darkness, guess each sweet

         Wherewith the seasonable month endows

The grass, the thicket, and the fruit-tree wild;

         White hawthorn, and the pastoral eglantine;

                Fast fading violets cover'd up in leaves;

                        And mid-May's eldest child,

         The coming musk-rose, full of dewy wine,

                The murmurous haunt of flies on summer eves.

Darkling I listen; and, for many a time

         I have been half in love with easeful Death,

Call'd him soft names in many a mused rhyme,

         To take into the air my quiet breath;

                Now more than ever seems it rich to die,

         To cease upon the midnight with no pain,

                While thou art pouring forth thy soul abroad

                        In such an ecstasy!

         Still wouldst thou sing, and I have ears in vain—

                   To thy high requiem become a sod.

Thou wast not born for death, immortal Bird!

         No hungry generations tread thee down;

The voice I hear this passing night was heard

         In ancient days by emperor and clown:

Perhaps the self-same song that found a path

         Through the sad heart of Ruth, when, sick for home,

                She stood in tears amid the alien corn;

                        The same that oft-times hath

         Charm'd magic casements, opening on the foam

                Of perilous seas, in faery lands forlorn.

Forlorn! the very word is like a bell

         To toll me back from thee to my sole self!

Adieu! the fancy cannot cheat so well

         As she is fam'd to do, deceiving elf.

Adieu! adieu! thy plaintive anthem fades

         Past the near meadows, over the still stream,

                Up the hill-side; and now 'tis buried deep

                        In the next valley-glades:

         Was it a vision, or a waking dream?

                Fled is that music:- Do I wake or sleep?

About Poem:

"Ode to a Nightingale" was written by the Romantic poet John Keats in the spring of 1819. At 80 lines, it is the longest of Keats's odes (which include poems like "Ode on a Grecian Urn" and "Ode on Melancholy"). The poem focuses on a speaker standing in a dark forest, listening to the beguiling and beautiful song of the nightingale bird. This provokes a deep and meandering meditation by the speaker on time, death, beauty, nature, and human suffering (something the speaker would very much like to escape!). At times, the speaker finds comfort in the nightingale's song and at one point even believes that poetry will bring the speaker metaphorically closer to the nightingale. By the end of the poem, however, the speaker seems to be an isolated figure—the nightingale flies away, and the speaker unsure of whether the whole experience has been "a vision" or a "waking dream."

Poem Summary:

     The poet starts off with a declaration of his physical and mental state. His heart pains and he feels drowsy and numb as if he has taken the poison, “hemlock” or the drug, “opiate” or immersed in the Greek river of forgetfulness, the “Lethe‑wards.” But he clarifies that his trance-like condition is not in envy of the bird’s unhindered bliss; rather he feels “too happy” on hearing the nightingale sing rapturously of summer from some shady plot.

     Keats does not wish to remain content with an overzealous adoration of the bird’s blesses state; he pines for a long preserved vintage wine, “ draught of vintage,” that typically conjoins the taste of flowers “flora” plants, song, dance and happiness “sunburnt mirth.” An alternative for him would be “a beaker” containing the rejuvenating essence of the “warm South” and brimming with the reddish liquid of the fountain “Hippocrene.” And all these would aid him to leave this physical world “unseen.”   

    The poet’s earnest desire to “fade away” becomes more prominent now. He desperately yearns to “dissolve” so as to be freed from the depressing clutches of “weariness,” “fever,” “fret,” by which all (except the nightingale), are affected. Also included in the list is the glaring reality, old age before which even “Beauty” and “Love” turn immaterial and redundant.

   However, “Bacchus,” the wine God would not assist him in his flight, it would rather be accomplished by taking the aid of his “wings of Poesy.” It is important to note that after an elaborate description of his fanciful soaring so far, he now offers us a glimpse of his immediate surroundings.  It is a soft and “tender” night with a visible moon and stars, but there is hardly any light, except the tiny amount that penetrates when the breeze blows the branches. Bereft of vision, the poet employs his olfactory senses to give a full-fledged portrayal of the flowers and the grass that touch his feet.

     While relishing such an invigorating ambiance, the poet wishes to have a peaceful death such that there is no pain even if his ears would become useless “vain” to continue appreciating the ecstatic song of the bird, then symbolizing a “requiem” or church music sung in remembrance of a dead person. The poet then invests the bird with an everlasting quality, “immortal Bird” and further extends its trait of triumphing over the constraints of time by saying that its song has been heard by the Biblical character “Ruth” as well as by other ancient emperors and kings. The song also possesses a magical quality and is thereby “charmed” to open “casements” on a ship.

     It is the utterance of the word “forlorn” at the end of the seventh stanza that drags him back to his present self and the realization that his wishful thinking “fancy” has not been effective in transporting him into the land of the carefree nightingale. As the bird flies away, he bids farewell, “Adieu” and keeps pondering whether the entire experience had been a reality or imagination, “waking dream.”

Ozymandias by Percy Bysshe Shelley poem summary, explanation, British Literature - II, B.A English Literature, 1st Year 2nd Semester

  BA English Literature

 [1^st Year, 2^nd Semester]

Core Paper V: BRITISH LITERATURE

UNIT 1: Poetry (Detailed)

1.7. “Ozymandias” by Percy Bysshe Shelley 

“Ozymandias” is one of the most famous poems of the Romantic era and it has eventually become Shelley’s most well-known work. Shelley’s this poem was published on January 11, 1818, in the weekly paper The Examiner. and the following year republished in 1819 in his collection Rosalind and Helen.

Poem:

I met a traveller from an antique land

Who said: Two vast and trunkless legs of stone

Stand in the desert. Near them, on the sand,

Half sunk, a shattered visage lies, whose frown,

And wrinkled lip, and sneer of cold command,

Tell that its sculptor well those passions read

Which yet survive, stamped on these lifeless things,

The hand that mocked them, and the heart that fed;

Poem Summary: 

The poet met a traveler who came from a remote land. He told the poet that he saw the remains of a statue in the desert. Two huge legs made of stone stood and the remaining part of the statue – the upper body was missing.

Another part of the statue, the face lay on the sand nearby. It was damaged and broken into pieces. The shattered head denotes that the whole statue is destroyed. But we don’t really know what exactly happened to that statue. It’s perhaps just the natural process of decay with time.

But the next line shifts the attention from the statue to the sculptor who created it. The traveller admires that the artist understood and felt (read) his subject’s (the man in the statue) passions and emotions very well. That is why he could draw the face so perfectly that it is still visible.

The face of the statue had expressions of displeasure and a taunting smile. The wrinkles and lines of the face were also there. The poet says that the sculptor who had made the statue had read the expressions on the Egyptian king Ramesses’s face very well as he was able to copy them onto his statue so accurately.

The traveller quotes the words written on its pedestal. The inscription declares the name of the man. It’s Ozymandias. He also regarded himself as the ‘King of Kings’. The ruler addresses others who think themselves powerful (Mighty) to look at his works to get their illusion shattered (despair).

These expressions continued to exist even after the king’s death through this lifeless statue. The sculptor’s hands copied the king’s ruthless expressions and mocked at them while the king’s stone heart brought out these expressions on his face.

Here Ozymandias is giving a warning to the other kings and rulers not to hope for much greatness, as they can never cross his achievements. That certainly gives an impression of his proud and commanding nature. But ironical enough, his own statue is now grounded by the great force of nature.

From Childe Harold’s Pilgrimage by Lord Byron poem summary, British Literature - II, B.A English Literature, 1st Year 2nd Semester

  BA English Literature

 [1^st Year, 2^nd Semester]

Core Paper V: BRITISH LITERATURE

UNIT 1: Poetry

1.6. “From Childe Harold’s Pilgrimage” By Lord Byron

About Poem:

‘Childe Harold’s Pilgrimage’ by Lord Byron is a narrative poem separated into four parts. 

The poem Childe Harold’s Pilgrimage describes the journey of Childe Harold, whose experiences correspond to Byron’s own. On 2 July 1809 Byron left England along with a Cambridge friend John Cam Hobhouse, his servant Fletcher and his ‘little page’, Robert Rushton. On 6 July they reached Lisbon.

The first two cantos describe the pilgrim, surfeited with his past life of sin and pleasure, finding diversions in his journey across Portugal, Spain, the Ionian Islands and Albania. Byron returned to Newstead in England in 1811 and the first two cantos were published in 1812. It was received enthusiastically by London society and lauched Byron as a major poet of England. ‘I woke one morning’ Byron wrote in March 1812, ‘and found myself famous.’

In April 1816 Byron left England, never again to return to it. He went to Geneva in Switzerland where he met Shelley and completed the third canto of Childe Harold, which was published the same year. It describes the pilgrim’s travels to Belgium, the Rhine, the Alps and Jura. Childe Harold also reflects on the Spanish War, and the Battle of Waterloo (1815) at which, Napoleon suffered his final defeat against the United Kingdom.

In October 1816, Byron left Geneva for Venice with Hobhouse. In the fourth canto he speaks directly about his experiences in Italy, his meditations on time and history, on Venice and Petrarch, Ferrara and Tasso, Florence and Boccaccio, Rome and her great men ending with the symbol of the sea. Byron had an abiding interest in the mountains and the sea. The extract that you are going to read is a meditation on the symbol of the sea.

Kubla Khan Or a vision in a dream A Fragment by Samuel Taylor Coleridge poem summary, British Literature - II, B.A English Literature, 1st Year 2nd Semester

   BA English Literature

 [1^st Year, 2^nd Semester]

Core Paper V: BRITISH LITERATURE

UNIT 1: Poetry

1.5  “Kubla Khan” Or, a vision in a dream. A Fragment.

By Samuel Taylor Coleridge 

In Xanadu did Kubla Khan

A stately pleasure-dome decree:

Where Alph, the sacred river, ran

Through caverns measureless to man

Down to a sunless sea.

So twice five miles of fertile ground

With walls and towers were girdled round;

And there were gardens bright with sinuous rills,

Where blossomed many an incense-bearing tree;

And here were forests ancient as the hills,

Enfolding sunny spots of greenery.

But oh! that deep romantic chasm which slanted

Down the green hill athwart a cedarn cover!

A savage place! as holy and enchanted

As e’er beneath a waning moon was haunted

By woman wailing for her demon-lover!

And from this chasm, with ceaseless turmoil seething,

As if this earth in fast thick pants were breathing,

A mighty fountain momently was forced:

Amid whose swift half-intermitted burst

Huge fragments vaulted like rebounding hail,

Or chaffy grain beneath the thresher’s flail:

And mid these dancing rocks at once and ever

It flung up momently the sacred river.

Five miles meandering with a mazy motion

Through wood and dale the sacred river ran,

Then reached the caverns measureless to man,

And sank in tumult to a lifeless ocean;

And ’mid this tumult Kubla heard from far

Ancestral voices prophesying war!

The shadow of the dome of pleasure

Floated midway on the waves;

Where was heard the mingled measure

From the fountain and the caves.

It was a miracle of rare device,

A sunny pleasure-dome with caves of ice!

 

A damsel with a dulcimer

In a vision once I saw:

It was an Abyssinian maid

And on her dulcimer she played,

Singing of Mount Abora.

Could I revive within me

Her symphony and song,

To such a deep delight ’twould win me,

That with music loud and long,

I would build that dome in air,

That sunny dome! those caves of ice!

And all who heard should see them there,

And all should cry, Beware! Beware!

His flashing eyes, his floating hair!

Weave a circle round him thrice,

And close your eyes with holy dread

For he on honey-dew hath fed,

And drunk the milk of Paradise.

  

Poem Summary:

Coleridge beautifully imagined and skillfully described what he had imagined about a palace about which he had read. He has achieved remarkable success in making the description lively and complete. He writes as if he has seen it before him.

The poem begins with the description of the kingdom of Kubla Khan. The action takes place in the unknown Xanadu (a mythical city). Kubla Khan was the powerful ruler who could create his pleasure dome by a mere order. Alpha was the sacred river that passed through Xanadu. It followed through the measureless caverns (caves) to the sunless sea. There were gardens in which streams were following in a zigzag manner. The gardens had many flowers with sweet smells and the forests had many spots of greenery. The poet gives a beautiful description of the remote and distant land cape of Xanadu.

There was a wonderful chasm sloping down the green hill. The cedar trees were growing on both sides of the chasm. The place was visited by fairies and demons. Coleridge then gives a medieval tale of love and romance. When the moon declined in the night it was visited by a woman. She was sad for her lover. Form the chasm shot up a fountain violently. It threw up stones. They were falling down in every direction. The sacred river Alpha ran through the woods and dales. Then it reached the unfathomable caverns and sank noisily into a lifeless ocean with a tumult. In that tumult Kubla Khan heard the voices of his ancestors. They warned him of approaching war and danger.

In the second part of the poem Coleridge describes the pleasure dome of Kubla Khan. Its shadow floated midway on the waves. There was mixed music of the fountains as well as of the caves. It was bright with sunlight and also had caves of ice. Then the poet tells the reader about his vision. In his vision he saw an Abyssinian maid playing upon her dulcimer. The poet desires to revive their symphony and song. Her music world inspires with divine frenzy. With the divine frenzy he would recreate all the charm of Kubla Khan’s pleasure dome. The poet would be divinely inspired so people would draw a circle around him, and close their eyes with divine fear. The poet must have fed on honeydew and drunk the milk of paradise.

Three Years She Grew in Sun and Shower by William Wordsworth poem summary, British Literature - II, B.A English Literature, 1st Year 2nd Semester

  BA English Literature

 [1^st Year, 2^nd Semester]

Core Paper V: BRITISH LITERATURE

UNIT 1: Poetry

"Three Years She Grew in Sun and Shower”

by William Wordsworth

Poem line by line explanation:

Stanza One

Three years she grew in sun and shower,

Then nature said, “a lovelier flower

on earth was never sown;

This Child I to myself will take;

she shall be mine, and I will make

A Lady of my own

In the first stanza, the speaker let’s the reader identify with Lucy. It is not hard to imagine a lively young three year old, playing in the sun or in the rain. But she was too lovely for earth, or so Nature decided. The speaker suggests that Nature has taken the child for herself because she was too beautiful for the earth.

Stanza Two

Myself will to my darling be

both law and impulse: and with me

The irl, in rock and plain,

In earth and heaven, in glade and bower

Shall feel an overseeing power

To kindle or restrain

The speaker shifts to thoughts of himself. He can easily see how Nature wanted this little girl for herself, lovely as she was, but he himself would need to respond to this loss. When he says that he will be “both law and impulse”, he implies that he will react in the way he is expected to react, and do the things he is expected to do, but he would not react without impulse. He would give way to his feelings and allow grief to have its way in his heart. He implies that as he walks the earth, and as he looks into the heavens, he will feel her presence as “an overseeing power” and he reveals that he will either kindle that feeling or restrain it, probably depending upon the time and circumstances in which this feeling arises.

Stanza Three

She shall be sportive as the fawn

That wild with glee across the lawn

Or up the mountain springs;

And hers shall be the breathing balm,

And hers the silence and the calm

Of mute insensate things

The speaker shifts tones once again in order to focus on her- Lucy. He has explained what this loss means to Nature, and to himself, but what does it mean for Lucy? He finds his comfort in this. Lucy is symbolic of Wordsworth’s daughter, Catherine, who died of Polio. The speaker believes that Lucy will be “sportive as the fawn” and able to run “across the lawn” as she was “wild with glee”. He believes that contrary to her limited physical ability on earth, in her new place, she would be able to enjoy running wild as a fawn. She would also enjoy “the silence and the calm”. The speaker finds comfort in this idea.

Stanza Four

The floating clouds their state shall lend

To her;for her the willow bend

Nor shall she fail to see

Even in the motions of the storm

Grace that shall mould the Maiden’s form

By silent sympathy

In this stanza of Three Years She Grew in Sun and Shower, the speaker continues to imagine what Lucy is now doing. He imagines her floating on clouds, and watching those on earth. He imagines that she should never “fail to see” the “silent sympathy” he feels for her.

Stanza Five

To stars of midnight shall be dear

To her; and she shall lean her ear

In many a secret place

Where rivulets dance their wayward round

And beauty born of murmuring sound

shall pass into her face

The speaker imagines that Lucy “shall be dear” even “to stars”. He imagines that she is enjoying her existence as she moves about in the night, being loved by the stars and all the heavenly beings.

Stanza Six

And vital feelings of delight

shall rear her form to stately height

her virgin bosom swell;

such thoughts to Lucy I will give

While she and I together live

Here in this happy dell

 

In this stanza, the speaker reveals his belief that although Lucy is no longer alive in earthly terms, she will still experience “vital feelings of delight” as she grows up into her “stately height” and into maturity. The imagery of her rearing her form “to stately height” and of “her virgin bosom swell[ing]” reveal his belief that wherever she is, wherever Nature has taken her, she will continue to grow up there, with all feelings of life and vitality. He vows to give these thoughts to Lucy daily, so that even though she exists in a different realm than he, they would still “together live here in this happy dell”.

Stanza Seven

Thus Nature spake- the work was done

How soon my Lucy’s race was run!

She died, and left to me

This heath, this calm, and quiet scene;

The memory of what has been,

And never more will be.

In this final stanza of Three Years She Grew in Sun and Shower, the speaker refers back to Nature. Nature is the authority in this situation, and she has said that “the work was done” and Lucy was no longer needed on earth. The speaker mourns over this, but he doesn’t resent it. He exclaims, “How soon my Lucy’s race was run!” and he is clearly grieving when he said, “she died and left to me this heath, this calm, and quiet scene”. This reveals that Lucy’s absence in his life is felt deeply. The absence of her laugh is painfully noticeable, and he is left only with memories of the past. Although the stanzas leading up to this final one speak of Lucy living a vital and fulfilling eternity, the speaker chooses to end Three Years She Grew in Sun and Shower with the grief that he feels in knowing that “what has been…never more will be”.

To end this poem in grief, even though all comforting words were spoken and acknowledged, is to be real and tangible to readers. Anyone who has experienced loss knows that all hope of an afterlife, and all words of comfort, cannot change the empty feeling and knowledge that what once was, is now changed forever. With this poem, Wordsworth offers hope and comfort, yet he does not deny the unending grief. For this reason, Three Years She Grew in Sun and Shower relates with many who have suffered loss, for Wordsworth reveals that he suffers too, and it that, there is some comfort for readers because they feel they are not alone.