Thursday, May 22, 2014

explain these lines in detail plxAway! away! for I will fly to thee, Not charioted by Bacchus and his pards, But on the viewless wings of...

In "Ode to a Nightingale," Keats wants to chill. He is
seeking refuge from the pressures of life and the thoughts of growing old, getting sick,
and dying. He wants to escape from his mind for awhile, and who better to take him there
than the nightingale with her beautiful magical song.


So
let's start with a rough contemporary translation:


Hold on.
I'm coming.


And I don't need wine to get me
there.


My poetry will fly me
there


Even though my brain always is bringing me
down.


Hey, here I am with you,
nightingale.


Wow! The night
rocks.


The moon is out and she is surrounded by
stars.


But you can't see the moon and stars in the dark
forest unless a breeze moves the vegetation.


That
essentially is what Keats is saying. However, he masters the language to say it much
more beautifully. Fays are fairies so he uses metaphor and imagery to describe the
stars.


Bacchus is the Greek god of wine. So the poem says
the speaker doesn't have to hitch a ride with Bacchus and his buddies to fly to the
nightingale.


Although his mind weighs him down, he suddenly
is with the nightingale through poetry and its "viewless wings." The language suggests
perhaps the speaker reached the forest and the nightingale through
dreams.


He finds it peaceful in the dark, green forest.
Perhaps he needs the darkness to find refuge from his busy days spent in the
light.

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