Ode_to_a_Nightingale.doc

Ode to a Nightingale is a poem by John Keats written in May 1819 in the garden of the Spaniards Inn, Hampstead, London. According to Keatss friend, Charles Armitage Brown, a nightingale had built its nest near his home in the spring of 1819. Inspired by the birds song, Keats composed the poem in one day. It soon became one of his 1819 odes and was first published in Annals of the Fine Arts the following July. Ode to a Nightingale is a personal poem that describes Keats journey into the state of Negative Capability. The tone of the poem rejects the optimistic pursuit of pleasure found within Keatss earlier poems, and it explores the themes of nature, transience and mortality, the latter being particularly personal to Keats.The nightingale described within the poem experiences a type of death but it does not actually die. Instead, the songbird is capable of living through its song, which is a fate that humans cannot expect. The poem ends with an acceptance that pleasure cannot last and that death is an inevitable part of life. In the poem, Keats imagines the loss of the physical world and sees himself deadas a sod over which the nightingale sings. The contrast between the immortal nightingale and mortal man, sitting in his garden, is made all the more acute by an effort of the imagination. The presence of weather is noticeable in the poem, as spring came early in 1819, which brought nightingales all over the heath. Many critics favor Ode to a Nightingale for its themes but some believe that it is structurally flawed because the poem sometimes strayed from its main idea.Ode to a Nightingale describes a series of conflicts between reality and the Romantic ideal of uniting with nature. In the words of Richard Fogle, The principal stress of the poem is a struggle between ideal and actual: inclusive terms which, however, contain more particular antitheses of pleasure and pain, of imagination and commonsense reason, of fullness and privation, of permanence and change, of nature and the human, of art and life, freedom and bondage, waking and dream.22 Of course, the nightingales song is the dominant image and dominant voice within the ode. The nightingale is also the object of empathy and praise within the poem. However, the nightingale and the discussion of the nightingale is not simply about the bird or the song, but about human experience in general. This is not to say that the song is a simple metaphor, but it is a complex image that is formed through the interaction of the conflict voices of praise and questioning.AnalysisThe Ode to a Nightingale is a regular ode. All eight stanzas have ten pentameter lines and a uniform rhyme scheme. Although the poem is regular in form, it leaves the impression of being a kind of rhapsody; Keats is allowing his thoughts and emotions free expression. One thought suggests another and, in this way, the poem proceeds to a somewhat arbitrary conclusion. The poem impresses the reader as being the result of free inspiration uncontrolled by a preconceived plan. The poem is Keats in the act of sharing with the reader an experience he is having rather than recalling an experience. The experience is not entirely coherent. It is what happens in his mind while he is listening to the song of a nightingale.Three main thoughts stand out in the ode. One is Keats evaluation of life; life is a vale of tears and frustration. The happiness which Keats hears in the song of the nightingale has made him happy momentarily but has been succeeded by a feeling of torpor which in turn is succeeded by the conviction that life is not only painful but also intolerable. His taste of happiness in hearing the nightingale has made him all the more aware of the unhappiness of life. Keats wants to escape from life, not by means of wine, but by a much more powerful agent, the imagination.The second main thought and the main theme of the poem is Keats wish that he might die and be rid of life altogether, providing he could die as easily and painlessly as he could fall asleep. The preoccupation with death does not seem to have been caused by any turn for the worse in Keats fortunes at the time he wrote the ode (May 1819). In many respects Keats life had been unsatisfactory for some time before he wrote the poem. His family life was shattered by the departure of one brother to America and the death from tuberculosis of the other. His second volume of poetry had been harshly reviewed. He had no gainful occupation and no prospects, since he had abandoned his medical studies. His financial condition was insecure. He had not been well in the fall and winter of 1818-19 and possibly he was already suffering from tuberculosis. He could not marry Fanny Brawne because he was not in a position to support her. Thus the death-wish in the ode may be a reaction to a multitude of troubles and frustrations, all of which were still with him. The heavy weight of life pressing down on him forced Ode to a Nightingale out of him. Keats more than once expressed a desire for easeful Death, yet when he was in the final stages of tuberculosis he fought against death by going to Italy where he hoped the climate would cure him. The death-wish in the ode is a passing but recurrent attitude toward a life that was unsatisfactory in so many ways.The third main thought in the ode is the power of imagination or fancy. (Keats does not make any clear-cut distinction between the two.) In the ode Keats rejects wine for poetry, the product of imagination, as a means of identifying his existence with that of the happy nightingale. But poetry does not work the way it is supposed to. He soon finds himself back with his everyday, trouble-filled self. That fancy cannot cheat so well / As she is famd to do, he admits in the concluding stanza. The imagination is not the all-powerful function Keats, at times, thought it was. It cannot give more than a temporary escape from the cares of life.Keats assignment of immortality to the nightingale in stanza VII has caused readers much trouble. Keats perhaps was thinking of a literal nightingale; more likely, however, he was thinking of the nightingale as a symbol of poetry, which has a permanence.Keats evocative power is shown especially in stanza II where he associates a beaker of wine with beaded bubbles winking at the brim, with sunny France and the sunburnt mirth of the harvesters, and in his picture in stanza VII of Ruth suffering from homesickness amid the alien corn. The whole ode is a triumph of tonal richness of that adagio verbal music that is Keats special contribution to the many voices of poetry.Analysis of Ode to a Nightingale by John Keats在诗歌的第一节里，诗人主要描写夜莺的歌声给诗人带到了飘飘欲仙的忘我境界，在艰难的现实生活里，诗人感到无情命运对其压迫产生的痛楚： My heart aches，and a drowsy numbness pain My sense，as though of hemlock I had drunk 诗人的心里痛苦，困顿麻木，就象吃了鸦片一样，但是痛苦带来的麻木又使诗人感到一丝慰藉： Or emptied some dull opiate to the drains One minute past，and Lethe-wards had sunk； 列撕忘川是哈帝斯冥城里的一条让人忘记过去的河流。作者通过引用这条河流来忘记现实生活的磨难，压迫，在这里诗人大量运用了音来加强痛苦的效果 drunk some,dull,one,sunk：并且S音的重复使用使诗歌具有一种破碎的撕心裂肺的效果，aches，drowsy,numbness,pains,sense,as,drains，两组音的交替出现使人们在朗读过程中深深体会到诗人内心的痛苦，接着，诗歌进入了一个较为欢快的段落，这是因为夜莺的歌声使人感到快意，作者把夜莺比喻成树林里的精灵(Dryad of the tree)，为夏日引吭高歌，并且这种欢快的声音在某种程度上引起诗人的嫉妒： This not through envy of the happy lot, But being too happy in thine happiness 在第一节诗里作者先用现实生活带来的痛苦感受来引出夜莺快乐的情感，这种矛盾修饰辞法(paradox)大大加强了诗歌的戏剧效果，让人更感受到夜莺歌声的魅力，从而自然引出了夜莺歌声而产生的快乐意境。在第二节里，诗人通过运用了通感修辞手法(synesthesia .sin?si:?i?)把夜莺的歌声比作温酿可口的清醇的葡萄酒,葡萄酒产生于法国南部的普鲁旺斯省(Provencal)这一带地区气候温暖湿润，阳光明媚，是一处宜人可爱的地方一樽珍藏在地窖多年的美酒就更加清醇可口了，在这里，诗人联想力得到了极大的发挥：听着夜莺的歌声就象喝下了清醇的美酒。感觉清新自然在这一节里，诗歌开头抑郁的基调没有了，代之以欢快，步伐稳定的节奏，双元音的重复出现是诗歌的节奏稳定(O draught Florafull south warm full mouth might)，富于韵律美，更将诗歌的意境推上了欢快的高潮，而且作者在选词方面也十分讲究，具有动感，很形象地呼应了夜莺地歌声： With beaded bubbles winking at the brim， 短元音j和辅音b的交替运用使读者对夜莺的歌声有了一个活泼的形象，仿佛听到了夜莺欢快的歌声在婉转低唱，诗与音结合在一起，一幅夜莺啼鸣的图画括现在眼前，犹如中国古诗里大珠小珠落玉盘的效果，夜莺的歌声使济慈的心情怡静安宁，暂时忘记了命运的噩耗但在第二节的末句： That I might drink and leave the world unseen And with thee fade away into the forest dim 诗人陶醉在夜莺的歌声中，希望与它一起飞入丛林里，逃避人生的厄运，但在这里语调又变得阴哑，与前面明朗的诗句产生了对比，因为诗人还不能逃避出现实的掌握，诗歌进入了更为绝望得第三节。 第三节里，诗人以消失(fade away)为过度，自然地解释消失的原因，从而展开了一个与夜莺歌声所代表的极美理想世界尖锐对照的丑陋世界。首先进人读者思维的诗一连串伤感的代表病态的词语：weariness，fever，fret，groan，sad，last gray hair，pale，spectre，thin，die，sorrow，despairs，morrow使人产生了一个身体赢弱，奄奄一息的病人形象，充满了对人类无奈、绝望、忧伤、苍白，消瘦、死亡和失去的青春和转眼就失去的爱情的描写。这使人想起了诗人一段刻骨铭心的，但又很快凋谢的爱情，和在1818年死于肺病的弟弟汤姆。死亡的阴影在早年的济慈的心中打下了烙印：小时候父亲的死去，接着在其家道衰落的时候亲眼看见其尊敬挚爱的母亲在肺病的折磨下痛苦死去，现在又轮到了诗人一直深深疼爱的弟弟也因肺病而亡故。加上爱情上深受打击。自己又被诊断为弭患绝症肺结核，命运的波折使济慈大受打击。在这里作者又大量采用了S音(palsy，shakes，spectre，dies，despairs)，再次与第一节沉郁的节奏呼应，暗示了对死亡的预感。 在第四节里，作者又从死亡的阴影里摆脱出来，因为夜莺的歌声又使作者进入美妙的幻想世界。两个away的接连运用，一方面驱散了上面诗句的阴沉气氛，而且个人一个急速，快活的感觉：Away! Away!For I will fly to thee， 拯救作者的是夜莺的歌声，并且使作者展开了想象力的翅膀，向理想的世界飞去，即使是酒神的车驾(Becchus and his pards)都比不上诗歌翅膀的轻快(the viewless wings of poesy)在亮后登上宝座(Tenderis the night and happily the queen moon，Is on her throne clusteredaround by all her starry fays)照着一葱绿幽暗的苔径，不能不让人感到乡村生活的宁静安逸。 第四节与第五节是自然的过度，所描写的景物都是大自然景物(，hawthorn,fruit tree,rose,wine,incense,thicket,pastoral,eglantine)是夜莺清脆的叫声将诗人带入宁静的乡村生活。济慈出生在伦敦，但在父亲亡故，母亲再嫁后，他便和外婆在乡村里住下，这里的自然景物是小济慈的幼小心灵产生强烈的冲击，牧羊人、山陵、开阔的田野、成熟的果树、流水潸潸的小溪和树荫底下的幽径都印在济慈的脑海里，成为其诗歌创作的重要源泉。而这种纯真的乡间生活又是济慈所向往的，自感不久与人世的济慈在夜莺歌声的指引下，诗人随着诗意飘离了尘嚣。 第四、五节是诗歌最美妙、活泼的时刻。这里不但有大量的景物描写，而且韵律轻快明朗，无论在写作手法，韵律上都显示了济慈的天才 希腊古瓮颂济慈(John Keats)你委身寂静的、完美的处子，受过了沉默和悠久的抚育，呵，田园的史家，你竟能铺叙一个如花的故事，比诗还瑰丽：在你的形体上，岂非缭绕着古老的传说，以绿叶为其边缘；讲着人，或神，敦陂或阿卡狄？呵，是怎样的人，或神！在舞乐前多热烈的追求！少女怎样地逃躲！怎样的风笛和鼓谣！怎样的狂喜!听见的乐声虽好，但若听不见却更美；所以，吹吧，柔情的风笛；不是奏给耳朵听，而是更甜，它给灵魂奏出无声的乐曲；树下的美少年呵，你无法中断你的歌，那树木也落不了叶子；卤莽的恋人，你永远、永远吻不上，虽然够接近了但不必心酸；她不会老，虽然你不能如愿以偿，你将永远爱下去，她也永远秀丽！呵，幸福的树木！你的枝叶不会剥落，从不曾离开春天；幸福的吹笛人也不会停歇，他的歌曲永远是那么新鲜；呵，更为幸福的、幸福的爱！永远热烈，正等待情人宴飨，永远热情地心跳，永远年轻；幸福的是这一切超凡的情态：它不会使心灵餍足和悲伤，没有炽热的头脑，焦渴的嘴唇。这些人是谁呵，都去赶祭祀？这作牺牲的小牛，对天鸣叫，你要牵它到哪儿，神秘的祭司？花环缀满着它光滑的身腰。是从哪个傍河傍海的小镇，或哪个静静的堡寨山村，来了这些人，在这敬神的清早？呵，小镇，你的街道永远恬静；再也不可能回来一个灵魂告诉人你何以是这么寂寥。哦，希腊的形状！唯美的观照！上面缀有石雕的男人和女人，还有林木，和践踏过的青草；沉默的形体呵，你象是永恒使人超越思想：呵，冰冷的牧歌！等暮年使这一世代都凋落，只有你如旧；在另外的一些忧伤中，你会抚慰后人说：美即是真，真即是美，这就包括你们所知道、和该知道的一切。In this ode, Keats studies a marble Greek urn and contemplates the story, history and secrets that lie behind its carved pictures. Throughout the poem, he constantly juxtaposes the immortality of art with the mortality of man. His feelings seem confused, as he is torn between jealousy and bitterness that the urn will live forever and be remembered when he is long dead and forgotten, and pity for this inanimate object that has no experience of life, despite its endurance through the ages.Thou still unravished bride of quietness,Thou foster-child of silence and slow timeFrom the start, Keats addresses the urn directly, using the pronoun thou, and continues throughout to personify it.The word still in the first line is key to the poem, as it is polysemic: it could mean yet, reflecting the sense of anticipation present in the poem, or motionless, because the urn does not move.Keats contrasts the urns peaceful quality, (quietness and silence and slow time), with undertones of violence, suggested with unravished bride and foster-child.He uses words with long vowel sounds, such as silence and slow to keep the pace slow.A flowery tale more sweetly than our rhyme:What leaf-fringed legend haunts about thy shapeOf deities or mortals, or of both?With flowery tale and leaf-fringed legend, Keats uses natural imagery, a central feature of Romantic poetry. It links the urn to natures transcendence.He contrasts sweetly with haunts, which highlights the two juxtaposing sides of the urn.On line 7, he introduces the contrast of mortality and immortality, with deities or mortals.What men or gods are these? What maidens loth?What mad pursuit? What struggle to escape?What pipes and timbrels? What wild ecstasy?With the last three lines, Keats increases the pace with quick-fire questions, which reveal his longing to know the urns secrets. Do the questions need to be answered?Men or gods continues the juxtaposition of the mortality with the immortal.Heard melodies are sweet, but those unheardAre sweeter; therefore, ye soft pipes, play on;Not to the sensual ear, but, more endeared,Pipe to the spirit ditties of no toneKeats describes the scene on the urn, in which musicians are pictured, yet their music is unheard. Because he cannot hear the music, in his imagination it is perfect.He again addresses the inhumanness of the urn - it has no senses, so the pipes cannot play to the sensual ear.He employs very deliberate assonance with ear/endeared, spirit/ditties and no/tone, which makes the language very obviously poetic and lyrical - perhaps to show that the poem is art, like the urn.Bold lover, never, never canst thou kiss,Though winning near the goal - yet, do not grieve:She cannot fade, though thou hast not thy bliss,For ever wilt thou love, and she be fair!There seems to be a sense of wasted or unfulfilled life, as the bold lover will never reach his goal, though he is so near to it, because he remains in the same moment in time forever. The repetition of never aids this thought.Keats presents the idea that the urn is caught in an eternity of bliss and love.For ever piping songs for ever new;More happy love! more happy, happy love!For ever warm and still to be enjoyd,For ever panting and for ever young;All breathing human passion far above,That leaves a heart high-sorrowful and cloyd,A burning forehead, and a parching tongue.The repetition of for ever shows the urns immortality, whilst the duplication of happy suggests that all is not happy.Like in the first stanza, the word still is key, acting again polysemically.Panting and breathing represent lifes breath, and reminds the reader that the urn is not alive. Keats again contrasts human mortality with for ever young immortality. Far above is linked with the gods.He ends the stanza with the idea that love causes illness: a burning forehead, and a parching tongue. The last two lines are a further reminder of mans mortality and inevitable death.Who are these coming to the sacrifice?To what green alter, O mysterious priest,Leadst thou that heifer lowing at the skies?Keats describes the next picture on the urn, and introduces a new enigma, which will never be answered, as expressed by the adjective mysterious.There is a semantic field of religious language and imagery throughout the fourth stanza, starting with sacrifice and priest.Like in the first stanza, the unpleasant image of the heifer lowing at the skies reveals an undertone of violence.Emptied of this folk, this pious morn?And, little town, thy streets for evermoreWill silent be; and not a soul to tellWhy thou art desolate, can eer return.The word empty could also be seen as key to the poem, as it seems to describe Keats feelings about the urn; despite its beauty, mystery and many stories, it is without life and therefore empty, and therefoe for evermore will silent be.Where in Stanza 2, the urn was presented as being in an eternity of love and bliss, here it has changed to being eternally desolate. This shows Keats shifting feelings about the urn. It also represents the two paradoxical sides of the urn: in one way its immortality is a positive and joyful thing, but on the other, it is full of desolation, isolation and emptiness. This also has a more literal meaning, as the urn can be physically turned round by the observer, to see the various scenes.Thou, silent form, dost tease us out of thoughtAs doth eternity: Cold Pastoral!When old age shall this generation waste,Thou shalt remain, in midst of other woeThan ours, a friend to man, to whom thou sayst,Beauty is truth, truth beauty, - that is allYe know on earth, and all ye need to know.In the final stanza, Keats seems to be pointing an accusing finger at the urn, labelling it a silent form, which teases the reader/observer. Eternity could be a link to death.His exclamation Cold Pastoral! could be seen as one of anger or frustration, and ultimately a rejection of the urn and its lifeless immortality.A friend to man links with the earlier poem Sleep and Poetry, in which Keats writes that poetry should be a friend, to soothe the cares and lift the thoughts of man.He continues his juxtaposition of the mortality of man, demonstrated by old age, waste and woe, with arts immortality: thou shalt remain.Keats offers an ambiguous conclusion with the final two lines. Depending on where the quotation marks are placed, it could all be the urns message, with Keats taking a step back, or it could be his own thoughts. Is he being ironic, as he has learnt, and become less na?ve, since he wrote Endymion (A thing of beauty is a joy for ever)?ode to a nightingale夜莺颂My heart aches, and a drowsy numbness pains 我的心在痛,困顿和麻木My sense, as though of hemlock I had drunk, 刺进了感官有如饮过毒鸩Or emptied some dull opiate to the drains 又像是刚把鸦片吞服One minute past, and Lethe-wards had sunk: 於是向列斯忘川下沉Tis not through envy of thy happy lot, 并不是我忌妒你的好运But being too happy in thine happiness - 而是你的快乐使我太欢欣-That thou, light winged Dryad of the trees, 因为在林间嘹亮的天地里In some melodious plot 你呵,轻翅的仙灵Of beechen green, and shadows numberless, 你躲进山毛榉的葱绿和荫影Singest of summer in full-throated ease. 放开了歌喉,歌唱著夏季O, for a draught of vintage! that hath been 唉,要是有一口酒,那冷藏Cooled a long age in the deep-delved earth, 在地下多年的清醇饮料Tasting of Flora and the country green, 一尝就令人想起绿色之邦Dance, and Provencal song, and sunburnt mirth! 想起花神,恋歌,阳光和舞蹈O for a beaker full of the warm South, 要是有一杯南国的温暖Full of the true, the blushful Hippocrene, 充满了鲜红的灵感之泉With beaded bubbles winking a