Ode to a Nightingale - Keats

ODE TO A NIGHTINGALE   ‘Ode to a Nightingale’ was written in 1819. This ode was inspired by the song of a nightingale that had built its nest close to the house of writer’s friend in Hampstead. The song of the bird threw the poet into a sort of trance. The subject of ode is not the bird itself rather its song becomes a symbol of eternal and everlasting beauty. The poet begins to aspire for a life of beauty away from the oppressing world and wishes to enjoy the ever- lasting delight of the immortal beauty.   When the melodious and sweet sound of Nightingale’s enchanting song enters the poet’s ears, the poet’s heart is filled up to the brims with excessive joy. The poet exclaims with boundless delight;   “My heart aches, and a drowsy numbness pains, My sense, as though of hemlock I had drunk.”     Poet’s physical eyes are being closed and his spiritual are being activated. The poet feels lethargy as if he were intoxicated. He is being transported into an intuitive condition. He feels;