Abstract This paper explains that, in "Ode to a Nightingale", Keats contrasts his idealized view of a nightingale with his jaded opinion of man's life. The author points out that, as the poem proceeds, his response to the bird's song begins as a celebration of the magnificent "immortal bird" before devolving into a lamentation about the "palsies" and "leaden-eyed despairs" of mankind. The paper relates that Keats' varying diction, imagery and tone correspond to the poem's shifting focus and help the reader to understand the narrator's changing responses to the nightingale.
From the Paper "Like his diction and imagery, Keats' tone alternates between elevated and debased as his attention focuses on the nightingale and on man's plight. The poem's first two stanzas portray an ecstasy so great that the poet feels almost insufficient to express it. He can only compare it to a pleasant intoxication-"as though of hemlock I had drunk, / Or emptied some dull opiate to the drains" (lines 2-3). He feels "too happy" (line 6) on contemplating the joy of the nightingale. This ecstatic tone continues through the end of the second stanza when he hopes to "drink, and leave the world unseen, / And with thee fade away into the forest dim" (lines 19-20)."
