Keat And Shelley Essay, Research Paper
In Keat?s "Ode to a Nightingale" and Shelley?s "Ode to the
West Wind" both poet?s show much inspiration within their poetry. The
bird in "Ode to a Nightingale" represents a supernatural being
conjured up by the speaker. The wind in "Ode to the West Wind"
inspires the speaker while serving as a "destroyer and preserver." In
the poem, "Ode to a Nightingale" the reader sees that the poet draws
his inspiration through hemlock which the poet had drunk and some kind of
opiate. The poet speaks about dying from the consumption of some type of
poisonous drink in stanza two. The speaker wants to, "Fade far away,
dissolve, and quite forget / What thou among the leaves has never known
(21-22)." He doesn?t seem to have much respect for or admiration of the
world. The speaker cites all of the bad aspects of life and the world which
inspire him to contemplate suicide. This idea of death and suicide is further
<displayed through the quote in stanza six : " I have been half in love with
easeful Death, ?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 (52-58)." The reader?s contemplation of suicide is thoroughly
depicted through this quote. The reader is actually thinking these thoughts
because he realizes that the beautiful bird?s songs only occur through death
because the bird is immortal and with the immortal bird comes the immortal song.
He shows his admiration for the bird when he speaks of the bird?s past
experiences. He is greatly inspired by the bird and this is the reason for this
poem, but in the last stanza he returns to reality and back to his "sole
self". He no longer wants to die and hear this immortal song sung by the
bird which he once longed to experience. In ?Ode to the West Wind?, the
reader sees yet another poet inspired by something that has caught the
speaker?s attention.