Use of Birds in Keats Ode to a Nightingale and Shelleys To a Sky-Lark

Use of Birds in Keats Ode to a Nightingale and Shelleys To a Sky-LarkOf particular interest is the use of birds by two amorous poets. whoremonger Keats once listened to a bird song and gifted us with his Ode to a Nightingale. The sky-lark inspires Percy Shelley and through his vision of the bird we are privy to its beauty. Birds have unendingly held a significance in human lives. While some animals were companions, others for labor or a source a food, our flying companions held an other-worldly place. They achieved heights unattainable to mankind -- and sung while they did that. These two poets use a bird as their muse and also symbolically for the human experience. Keats ode begins with his feeling drowsy, lethargic and sad, as if he were under the influence of a drug. In the background of his mind he hears the nightingale In some melodious plot (1.8) singing joyfully. The first stanza seems to be the beginning of an awakening. The poet is lost in his own world, in a drugged sta te, where the only sound allowed to enter is the birds song. Alone in a saddened state a person can feel isolated and withdraw from others. In the first part of this stanza Keats conveys this solitary depression, where the mind is so overwhelmed with preoccupation that the outside world cannot intrude. This is mistakable to someone being told devastating news and that person walks about in a daze, even to the point of walking into traffic without realizing it. The jiffy part reveals a touch of redemption. Something from outside the mind is allowed to enter the consciousness. A healing of the mind can happen and the song of a bird is the catalyst. This melancholy is carried over into the second stanza and the poet speaks of wanting to leave the worl... ...eats lacks resolution his poem is slightly disturbing. While the reader can discern seeds of happiness in Keats poem, it never fully develops. Both poets though convey a sense of being one with the bird. In effect the birds becom e anthropomorphic. It is interesting to see how these poets use their imagination to seemlessly blend human keep with the respective birds. Works CitedHeyen, William. In Consideration of Percy Shelley. Southern Humanities Review Spring. 1983 131-42.Jarrell, Randall. The Profession of Poetry. Partisan Review Fall. 1950 724-31.Knight, G. Wilson. Percy Shelley and the Poetry of Vision. New York Barnes and Noble Inc., 1960.Maurer, Robert E. Notes on John Keats. John Keats A Collection of Critical Essays. 1972 79-99. Williams, Meg Harris. Inspiration in Milton and Keats. Totowa Barnes and Noble Books, 1982.