Major 2
Name Of College : Maharani shree Nandkunverba mahila arts and commerce college
Name :jadeja Hinaba Nirmalsinh
Year : F.Y.B.A
Sem : 1st sem
Subject : English
Paper Name : major 2
Date : 22/8/2025
Professer Name : Shivangi mam
Home Assignment
Unit :2 Understanding literature through verse (poem)
Poem : 1 ode to a nightingale
- By john keats
◾️Introduction
As we already know, the "Ode to a Nightingale" poem was written by John Keats in May1819. The Poem is considered as one of the finest works in English. The whole Poem isdivided into eight stanzas, each containing ten lines. This Poem is one of the mostcelebrated works of John Keats and a masterpiece of English literature.
◾️ Summary
The Poem's main theme is mortality, transience, and the power of art to transcend theselimitations. The writer or the speaker of the Poem is trying to listen to the song Nightingale,and this song is transported by its beauty and the sense of escape it offers. The song byNightingale is beyond the reach of the physical world. It represents an immortal, eternalbeauty. And this is not subject to the limitations of time or space.
The Poem starts with the expression of desire expressed by the speaker. The speaker wantsto leave the world of reality and escape to the world of imagination. The main reason behindthis is speaker wants to be free from the pain and suffering that are part of everyday life. Thespeaker hears the song sung by the Nightingale and is also transported by the beauty of theNightingale. Speaker tries to describes the bird's song as a "pouring forth" of joy andhappiness.
In the Poem's second stanza, the speaker tries to imagine the Nightingale as a symbol of theworld. And this Nightingale is free from the limitations of time and space. The speaker said that Nightingale is "immortal" and " happy." The song that the Nightingale sings is arepresentation of beauty. And this beauty is not subject to the limitations of mortality. Themain bedrock of this stanza is that the speaker longs to be a part of this world of eternalbeauty.
In the third stanza of the Poem, the speaker tries to connect the Poem by connectingNightingale and himself. Speaker acknowledges that Nightingale is mortal and subject to thelimitations of time and space. The speaker said his life is full of "weariness, the fever, and thefret." The speaker is very well aware that he can never fully escape the limitations of hismortality.
In the fourth stanza of the Poem, the speaker again expresses his desire to escape from theworld of reality. And after escaping the world of reality, he wants to be a part of the world ofeternal beauty the Nightingale represents. The speaker imagines himself as a "drowsynumbness," and this helps him to become part of this world of beauty.
In the next fifth stanza of the Poem, the speaker starts questioning the nightingale's worldreality. In this Poem, the speaker wonders if it is real or just a product of his imagination.Soon, the speaker
realized that he could never fully escape
the limitations of his mortality.
In the sixth stanza of the Poem, the speaker acknowledges that the world of the Nightingaleis different from the speaker's reality, and he is not permanent to escape from reality. Soonhe was able to understand that the song of nightingales eventually faded away. In thisstanza, the speaker says that the nightingale's song is a "fading coal" that will eventuallyburn out..
In the seventh stanza of the Poem, the speaker reflects on the power of art to createmoments of beauty that can bring joy and comfort to those who experience them. Thespeaker acknowledges that art has the power to transcend the limitations of mortality and tocreate a sense of beauty that can last forever.
◾️Analysis
With "Ode to a Nightingale," Keats's speaker begins his fullest and deepest exploration ofthe themes of creative expression and the mortality of human life. In this ode, the transienceof life and the tragedy of old age ("where palsy shakes a few, sad, last gray hairs, / Whereyouth grows pale, and spectre-thin, and dies") is set against the eternal renewal of thenightingale's fluid music ("Thou wast not born for death, immortal bird!"). The speakerreprises the "drowsy numbness" he experienced in "Ode on Indolence," but where in"Indolence" that numbness was a sign of disconnection from experience, in "Nightingale" it isa sign of too full a connection: "being too happy in thine happiness," as the speaker tells thenightingale. Hearing the song of the nightingale, the speaker longs to flee the human worldand join the bird. His first thought is to reach the bird's state through alcohol-in the secondstanza, he longs for a "draught of vintage to transport him out of himself.
his meditation in the third stanza on the transience of life, he rejects the idea of being"charioted by Bacchus and his pards" (Bacchus was the Roman god of wine and was supposed to have been carried by a chariot pulled by leopards) and chooses instead toembrace, for the first time since he refused to follow the figures in "Indolence," "the viewlesswings of Poesy.”
The rapture of poetic inspiration matches the endless creative rapture of the nightingale'smusic and lets the speaker, in stanzas five through seven, imagine himself with the bird inthe darkened forest. The ecstatic music even encourages the speaker to embrace the ideaof dying, of painlessly succumbing to death while enraptured by the nightingale's music andnever experiencing any further pain or disappointment. But when his meditation causes himto utter the word "forlorn," he comes back to himself, recognizing his fancy for what it is animagined escape from the inescapable ("Adieu! the fancy cannot cheat so well / As she isfam'd to do, deceiving elf). As the nightingale flies away, the intensity of the speaker'sexperience has left him shaken, unable to remember whether he is awake or asleep.
In "Indolence," the speaker rejected all artistic effort. In "Psyche," he was willing to embracethe creative imagination, but only for its own internal pleasures. But in the nightingale's song,he finds a form of outward expression that translates the work of the imagination into theoutside world, and this is the discovery that compels him to embrace Poesy's "viewlesswings" at last. The "art" of the nightingale is endlessly changeable and renewable; it is musicwithout record, existing only in a perpetual present. As befits his celebration of music, thespeaker's language, sensually rich though it is, serves to suppress the sense of sight in favorof the other senses. He can imagine the light of the moon, "But here there is no light"; heknows he is surrounded by flowers, but he "cannot see what flowers" are at his feet. Thissuppression will find its match in "Ode on a Grecian Urn." which is in many ways acompanion poem to "Ode to a Nightingale. In the later poem, the speaker will finally confronta created art-object not subject to any of the limitations of time; in "Nightingale," he hasachieved creative expression and has placed his faith in it, but that expression-thenightingale's song is spontaneous and without physical manifestation.
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Class Assignment
Unit :2 Understanding literature through verse ( poem )
Poem : 1 ode to a nightingale
- By john keats
◾️Theme
The Poem Ode to a Nightingale tries to describe a series of conflicts that takes placebetween reality and the Romantic ideal that is used to unite with nature. Richard Fogle, in hiswords, says that the main stress of the Poem is a struggle that takes place between idealand actual. In inclusive terms, it tries to capture more particular antitheses of pleasure andpain. The writer tries to build imagination and common sense reasons, fullness and privation,permanence, and change of nature. Also, the human of artand life, freedom and bondage, waking and dream.
The nightingale's song in the Poem isthe dominant image and dominant "voice" within the Ode. The most notable part of thePoem is an object of empathy and praise within the Poem.
This Poem is about more than just the singing of birds and its related discussion. But it triesto explain the human experience in general. We cannot conclude that song is a simplemetaphor, but it is considered a complex image formed through the comprehensiveinteraction of the conflicting voices of praise and questioning. On the theme of Ode to
Nightingale David Perkins summarizes the way "Ode to a Nightingale" when he says, "Weare dealing with a talent, indeed an entire approach to poetry.
Poem : 2 Break, Break, Break
-By Alfred load tennyson
◾️Summary
In the first stanza, the poet says the torment of his heart is tremendous. There is astruggle like the struggle of the sea waves on the stormy shores. The speaker alsofeels frustrated because the sea can keep moving and making noise while he isunable to utter his thoughts. The sea’s loud roar and its ability to vent its energy aresomething he lacks. The question before him is how he can express adequately thethoughts which are rushing in his mind.
In the second stanza, the poet says that life is full of joy for the fisherman’sson and daughter who are laughing and shouting merrily. The poet on the other handis entirely in a different mood. He is restless and grief-stricken at the death of hisfriend. The poet admires the innocent joy of these youngsters but he is sorrybecause he cannot share it. The lad of the sailor is also happy and sings in his boatface to face-with the magnificence of the sea. But such joy is not for the poet.
In the third stanza, the poet says that the majestic ships ply on theirdestination under the hill. The poet, however, has no definite plan for his life andmisses his friend, Arthur Henry Hallam whose voice and touch were so soft andtender. The grief of the poet is terribly intense.
In the fourth stanza, the poet asks the waves to go on strike against the seashore, but the poet cannot recall the past experience that he enjoyed in the companyof his friend. The waves come again, again, again hitting a wall of rock each time.But for him, there is no return of the dead, just the recurring pain of loss.Nevertheless, both the sea and the speaker continue with their useless but repeatedaction, as though there is no choice. The scene evokes a sense of inevitability andhopelessness.
◾️Analysis
This short poem carries the emotional impact of a person reflecting on the loss ofsomeone he (or she) cared for. Written in 1834 right after the sudden death ofTennyson’s friend Arthur Henry Hallam, the poem was published in 1842.
Although some have interpreted the speaker’s grief as sadness over a lost lover, itprobably reflects the feeling at any loss of a beloved person in death, like Tennyson’sdejection over losing Hallam.
Break, Break, Break is an excellent play on the comparison that the poetdescribes between the life and the sea. The poem expresses theinventible phenomenon of death that is tangled with the waves of the seaand the feeling of the poet will be well observed in this poem.
The poem gained a lot of appreciation in the Victorian Era as it is one ofthe most well written poem that has an abstract framework of writing. It also describes life
as a physical entity and introspecting on one's feelingbased on observation and comparison. This poem is all about how a poetexpresses his feeling towards the loss
of his friend Hallam and dedicatethis
and other poems to his friend.