Ode to a Nightingale, Ode on a Grecian Urn, and Ode to Autumn Essay

Ode to a Nightingale, Ode on a Greek Urn, and Ode to downfall The casual reader of John Keats poetry would most certainly be impressed by the exquisite and abundant detail of its verse, the perpetual rancor of its phrase and the extraordinarily rich sensory images scattered throughout its lines. But, without a deeper, more intense reading of his poems as mere parts of a larger whole, the reader may miss specific themes and ideals which are not as readily apparent as are the obvious stylistic hallmarks. Through Keats eyes, the world is a place full of idealistic peach tree, twain artistic and rude(a), whos inherent immortality, is to him a constant reminder of that man is irrevocably effect to decay and death. This theme is one which dominates a large flock of his late poetry and is most readily apparent in trinity of his most famous Odes To a Nightingale, To Autumn and on a Hellenic Urn. In the Ode to a Nightingale, it is the ideal beauty of the Nightingales song - as steadfast as nature itself - in the Ode on a Grecian Urn, it is the beau ideal of beauty as art transfixed and transfigured for incessantly in the Grecian Urn - and in the Ode to Autumn it is the exquisiteness of the season idealised and immortalised as part of the natural cycle - which symbolise eternal and idealistic images of profound beauty. In Ode to a Nightingale, Keats uses the central symbol of a bird to exemplify the perfect beauty in nature. The nightingale sings to the poets senses whose ardour for its song makes the bird eternal and thusly reminds him of how his own mortality separates him from this beauty. The poem begins My heart aches, and a drowsey numbness var. (Norton 1845). In this first line Keats introduces his o... ...fused by the true essence of his subjects for a bird must die and an urn must crumble and are nevertheless symbols of things imagined. Keats however, does discover his elusive eternal beauty in his Ode to Autumn, realising that it is mother nature, with her ever recurring seasons and perfection of purpose that is profoundly beautiful. Growing, maturing and dying are no eternal avoided in Ode to autumn, they are embraced and accepted as necessary for the perseveration of the seasons cycle. Keats, through his poetry, is constantly reminding us that the moment, whether short of duration or forever present, is to be savoured for all things that exist in mans world are subject to decay and death because our ability to perceive them is limited. The world is no longer simply a place of song birds, pleasing art and harvest-feast laden trees, but a world of profound and everlasting beauty.