CC - IX: John Keats " Ode to a Nightingale" Short Answer type Question

 

1. What is 'Hippocrene'?

 - According to classical mythology, 'Hippocrene' is a legendary spring on Mount Helicon and is sacred to the Muses. Its water is a source of poetic inspiration. In stanza II, the poet seeks to escape from  the world of reality into the world of imagination by drinking wine which  receives a heightening effect while being linked to the inspirational waters of Hippocrene''. The phrase 'blushful Hippocrene' does not surely mean that the intoxication induced by wine is equated with poetic inspiration. The parallelism conveys a state of exultation akin to ecstasy-a different kind of intensity-the poet seeks to achieve self-forgetfulness. However, it shows Keats, Hellenism- i.e. his love for Greek mythology.

2. What is 'Lethe''?

 - In Greek or Classical mythology, Lethe is the river of forgetfulness in Hell. It shows keats' love for Greek mythology, i.e. his Hellenism. By referring to 'Lethe', the poet means to say that the rapturous song of the bird nightingale not only deadens his consciousness but also makes him forget all about his previous existence, thereby enabling him to escape from the world of reality temporarily,

3. "...for many a time/ I have been half in love with easeful Death"- Explain the phrase 'half in love' in the context of the poem.

-In stanza VI of the poem, the poet dwells on the thought of death in order to achieve the state of ecstasy in which the soul is released from body. But the poet does not long for the total  extinction of his five senses. While one half of his heart seeks to escape from the world of reality through death, other half wants to enjoy the blissful moment of the nightingale's song. In fact, the feeling of revulsion and horror caused by ghastly decay and mortality (as expressed in stanza  III) is here replaced by a luxurious and romantic death-wish, death being seen as a means of prolong the moment of happiness.

4. "That thou light -winged Dryad of the trees"-What do you mean by the expression "light -winged  Dryad of the trees"? who ids addressed in this way?

- By the expression  "light -winged  Dryad of the trees", the poet means a tree-nymph having light wings.

            The bird nightingale is addressed in this way. Here the poet idealizes the bird. The world of nightingale represents an ideal, romantic retreat untouched by human sorrow. The Dryad-image, again suggests the bird's complete identification with the forest-world. The phrase 'light-winged' also conveys the idea of being free from constraint.

5. Cite two examples of synesthetic imagery from Keats' poem "Ode to a Nightingale".

- Synesthesia is the experience of two or more kinds of Sensation when only one sense is being stimulated. In literature, the term is applied to images of one kind of sensation in terms of another - colour is attributed to sound, smell to colour, sound to smell and so on.

                                    We notice synesthetic imageries in Keats' Ode to a Nightingale. For example, "Tasting of Flora and the country green"-here, the poet combines visual sensation with that of taste. Another examples is "embalmed darkness"- here, visual sensation is expressed in terms of olfactory one.

6. "Fade far away, dissolve, and quite forget" - What does the poet want to forget fully?

-The poet wants to forget fully the predicament of mortality ("the weariness, the fever and the fret") and wishes to escape into the world of imagination represented by the bird nightingale. In other words, he wants to forget the world of reality which is full of sorrows and sufferings, miseries and misfortunes and to find find out infinite beauty and joy in the world of art away from this mundane existence.

7. What kind of "draught of vintage" does Keats long for and Why?

 

- The poet aspires to the bird's ecstasy, and to achieve this he wishes for a drink of wine, for a stimulant that would lift him out of his own self. To be precise, the poet longs for that kind of wine ('vintage' meaning time enriches wine) which has been cooled and strengthened by keeping it in the deep underground for many years. Obviously, here is an indication of the poet's longing for permanence of joy.

     The poet wishes for this particular 'vintage' because he really seeks anchorage in a timeless state of existence. He prays for rich vintage in order to prolong the trance which seems to be the only means of escaping from hard realities of life into the world of imagination.

8. "she stood in tears amid the alien corn"- who is 'she' referred to here? Why did she stand in tears amid the alien corn?

/ What is the significance of the allusion to Ruth in the poem ?

-  Here, 'she' is referred  to Ruth. The story of Ruth is found in the Book of  Ruth of the "Old Testament". She was a Moabite women. After the death of her husband she went with her mother-in-law to Judah. She was devoted to her mother-in-law Noami.

                She stood in tears amid the alien or unknown corn field because she felt sick for home. Moreover, the picture of Ruth, as presented by Keats, had nothing to look forward to. By referring to Ruth, the poet seeks to suggest that the song of the Nightingale in Biblical time gives a healing touch to the sad heart of Ruth suffering from homesickness.

9. What is 'Hemlock'?

- 'Hemlock' is a plant producing poisonous juice. In the beginning the poet feels a pain in his heart while listening to the ecstatic song of the nightingale. The pain soon subsides into a sensation of numbness, and the effect of the song is equated with that of poison - i.e. 'hemlock'- that deadens consciousness.

10. Keats says, "My heart aches"-what, according to him, causes the ache?

- According to the poet, he feels a heart-ache through excess of joy while listening to the rapturous song of the Nightingale.  His feeling of extreme joy causes  his sadness. In other words, his joys are so intense as to be unbearable. It reminds one of 'aching joys' and 'dizzy raptures' in wordsworth's Tintern Abbey.

12. Comment on the concluding two lines of the poem  Ode to a Nightingale?

-Keats' poem Ode to a Nightingale ends with the lines- "Was it a vision, or a waking dream?/ Fled is that music :-Do I wake or sleep"?.  The poem ends on a note of ambivalence. The  queries in the last two lines underline the poet's divided heart and torturing perplexity. It suggests that the poet is in wavering state; he is caught between two opposite poles - that of reality and of romance. According, the central tension of the poem between the real and the ideal, the mutable and the immutable, the reality and the imagination, the transience and the permanence ultimately remains unresolved. The poem offers no definite answer. The poet's opposing attitudes are left unreconciled in the final query.

13. What does Keats mean by "the warm south"?

- By "the warm south", Keats means the place where the rich vintage is produced. Obviously, here he refers to the warmth of the southern climate, i.e. the wines of the south of Europe which are noted for their excellence. In fact, the poet longs for a drink of wine produced in the warmth of the southern climate. The figure of speech used here is metonymy (the case being "place for its production") 

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