The “Sweet” but “Plaintive” Music in “Ode to a Nightingale” and “Ode on a Grecian Urn”

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<p>In John Keats’s two masterpieces, “Ode to a Nightingale” and “Ode on a Grecian Urn,” the bird and the urn induce the poet to enter the world of his poetic imagination. While these have been interpreted in many ways by critics, this paper discusses the role of the music emanating from the two figures, in triggering the poet’s trajectory of inspiration, rapture and disillusion. The music is heard when the poet is in ecstasy with the nightingale and the urn, and it ceases as he accepts sadly that he cannot stay eternally with them in the world of his poetic imagination.</p><p>  Through the poet’s imagination, the nightingale gradually becomes a bird of art, and the artificial urn reveals the world of nature. The poet finally realises that he is a mortal, quite different from the bird, but similar to the figures engraved inside the urn. In reality, however, the nightingale is a bird of nature, and the urn is an artefact. Keats discovers the similarity between nature and art in his world of poetic imagination, with music as the medium that connects him with reality and imagination. Since music is related to Apollo and has the power of seducing the poet in his imagination, it is associated with the poet’s inspiration. The moment when the music starts represents the sweet moment of the birth of poetry.</p><p>  The paper contends that Keats’s notion of music and poetry in the two odes is related to his individual maturity as he confronts and accepts the reality of his mortal destiny. In the context of the poet’s personal growth at the time he was writing the two odes, I argue that the music in “Ode to a Nightingale” and “Ode on a Grecian Urn” makes the poet realise the disparity between reality and imagination, his idea of humanity and art. The music indirectly represents Keats’s matured philosophy about poetry.</p>

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