Ode To A Nightingale And Last Sonnet Poem Analysis

Similar to how one views a coin as being either heads or tails, the nature of time is viewed by poets as one of two things: either time is fleeting or time is eternal. Those who recognize the former see the passage of time as destined to occur as well as an end; whereas, those who recognize the latter have the mindset that time will never give way to an end. Poet John Keats, a proponent of the former viewpoint, carries the centralized idea of time throughout his works in order to illustrate the passage of time and the arrival of death as an inevitable event. In his poems “To Autumn”, “Ode to a Nightingale”, and “Last Sonnet”, Keats’s use of vivid imagery and melancholic tone aid in revealing the underlying theme. With Keats introduced to …show more content…
For instance, by the end of “To Autumn”, the process of decay is evident in the “stubble-plains” (Keats, John), the mourning of the gnats, and the dying winds. This stanza is “imbued with a sense of mortality” (Kimball) that results from the melancholic connotation in the words. Similarly, Keats’s poem “Ode to a Nightingale” is laden with negative vocabulary that exemplifies a dejected tone. Such words are especially apparent in stanza three when the speaker reveals “the weariness, the fever, and the fret” (Keats, John) of knowing that one must grow old and die. Through the negative word choice, Keats emphasizes the sadness that comes with the awareness that life, with time, will end in death. Comparatively, “Bright Star” depicts a resigned tone in the last line when the speaker becomes aware the he must “swoon to death” because being immortal is not an option. Keats shifts the tone of “Bright Star” from yearning to be immortal to being resigned in order to convey that one must know that life will move steadily unto death as time