Some Nightingale Before You Sleep

 ‘Tis night already, I’m afraid to say.  The time for the nightingale to come out and play.  Though theoretically speaking, I’m sure the nightingale comes out during the day too.

Point being, we had a couple of wonderful poems yesterday, one by my group, Ode to a Nightingale by John Keats and another by Ciera and Rachel, Ulysses.

Please note: we covered Ode to a Nightingale over two days.  

A little on John Keats (which you should know by now if you had anything to do with Smarties):

-          Father died falling off a horse, mother died of tuberclurosis, brother Tom died of tuberculosis

-          He studied to be an apothecary but chose to write poems instead

-          1^st poem: Endymion, 2^nd poem: Hyperion

-          Fell in love with Fanny Brawne

-          (Jacyln’s group took it from here)

Now a bit on the actual poem:

Stanza 1: He’s in a druggy state listening to the nightingale’s song.  (*if you do not find druggy acceptable in this instance, you may replace it with dreamlike or depressing.  However, I would argue “opiate” and “hemlock” suggest otherwise.)

Stanza 2: He wants to join the nightingale with alcohol.

Stanza 3: He talks about death and how depressing it is, trying to forget about it but also talking about his brother’s death.

Stanza 4: He wants to fly away with the nightingale with poetry (not with “Bacchus and his pards”), finds himself already there during the night.

Stanza 5: He uses his senses to observe nature and sees his mortality by observing the seasons

Stanza 6: He wants to die listening to the nightingale’s song.  (I still believe it was not morbid, but rather a rational argument to die happy and escape the troubles of this world.)

Stanza 7: He talks about the immortal nightingale who has been heard by everyone.

Stanza 8: He feels betrayed by imagination as the song fades and he doesn’t know if it was real or a dream.

**Our homework is to read Matthew Arnold’s bio if you have not already and PREPARE FOR THE HISTORY TEST MONDAY.  This will include everything in the first section (the history section) of the Romantic period.  Tuesday will be the written section about the poems.  Please study.

‘Night boys and girls!