Keat And Shelley
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.