KEATS’ “ODE TO A NIGHTINGALE”
1.
“My heart aches, and a drowsy numbness
pains
My sense, as though of hemlock I
had drunk…”
Explain the occasion in which the poet
experiences this kind of sensations.
Ans: As Keats listens to the song of the bird nightingale alone in
the poem “Ode to a Nightingale”, he experiences euphoric ascent of joy to such
an extreme degree that it ultimately leads to the feeling of pain at his heart.
He compares his state of numbness to that being created by the administration
of the legendary poison given to Socrates, Hemlock, which would set in rigor
mortis in the human body.
2.
What is Hippocrene ? why is it blushful?
Keats here identifies the bright, red, sparkling wine with the water of
Hippocrene because he looks upon wine as a powerful source of poetic
inspiration. It is blushful because over-consumption of wine provides a blush
to the checks.
3.
What is ‘Hemlock’ and ‘dull opiate’?
Ans: ‘Hemlock is a poisonous plant which has the capacity to suspend a
person’s feeling and activity. Socretes was compelled to drink it, and he died.
‘Dull opiate’ means a drug which contains
opium and therefore induces sleep.
4.
How does the transitional thought from first
stanza to the second work?
Ans: In the first stanza the
happiness of the nightingale as embodied in its song reminds the poet, by contrast, about the finitude and
pain of human life. In the second stanza the poet tries to find intoxication through wine as a
means for losing himself completely into the blissful world of the nightingale.
5.
Who is Bacchus and why does Keats refer to him ?
Ans: According to Roman mythology Bacchus is
the Roman god of wine who is traditionally shown in chariot drawn by leopards.
Previously the poet had expressed his wish to fly away to the world of the
nightingale with the help of alcohol. But now he resolves to take recourse to
poetic imagination to go there.
6.
“To thy high requiem become a sod”---How does
‘high requiem’ become a sod?
Ans: ‘Requiem’ means a song of mourning while sod means the
surface of the ground. Here it means grave. Even after the death of the poet,
the nightingale would still continue to pour forth his song as a lament to his
death. But in grave being as insensible as a clod of earth he would not be able
to listen to it.
7. Who
is Dryad ? Why is the nightingale called ‘light winged Dryad’?
Ans: Dryad is generally believed to be a
wood nymph and an embodiment of the wild spirits inhabiting the forest. Keats
thinks that the wings of the nightingale are not weighed down by the heavy
burden of life, and so it can flit from one tree to another like a Dryad. So
Keats calls the nightingale ‘light winged Dryad’.
8.
“One minute past, and Lethe-wards had sunk” What
is Lethe? Who has sunk Lethe-wards and why?
Ans: Lethe is
the river of forgetfulness in the lower world. Here poet Keats under the
soothing effect of the nightingale’s song feels like one who has drunk the
water of the river of forgetfulness and has become oblivious of the sorrows and
suffering of the mundane world.
9.
“Tis not through envy of thy happy lot”—Why does
Keats say so?
Ans: In the poem “Ode to a Nightingale”
Keats confesses that he feels the pain of joy and sense of numbness not because
of the jealousy of the better fate of the bird, but because the rapturous music
of the nightingale’s song has produced an excessive joy in his heart.
10.
What does the poet mean by “shadow numberless”?
Ans: The phrase refers to the innumerable shadows created as
the moon light pierces through the dense mass of leaves. Though the first two
stanzas do not clearly establish the fact that the time is night, it is indeed
so. Moreover the interplay of light and shade does not allow the poet to trace
the exact location of the bird.
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