Ode to a Nightingale Questions AnswersÂ
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Ode to a Nightingale Questions Answers:
1) Why does the poet’s heart ache?
Ans: In “Ode to a Nightingale”, as the poet John Keats listens to the joyful rapture of the Nightingale, his heart aches. This ache is due to the excessive joy given by the Nightingale’s song that puts the poet’s heart into a trance of numbness by making it brim over with the excess of happiness.Â
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2) Which states does the poet compare his own benumbed state with?
Ans: In Ode to a Nightingale, the poet John Keats compares his own benumbed state caused by the excessive joy given by the Nightingale’s song with the drowsy state caused by the drinking of Hemlock, a poisonous plant-juice, the dull state caused by the drinking of Opium-like drug and the state of oblivion caused by the drinking of the water of Lethe which is, according to Greek mythology, is the river of forgetfulness in Hades.
3) Explain the phrase “blushful Hippocrene”.
Ans: In “Ode to a Nightingale”, the poet John Keats wants to escape the mundane world of frets, fevers and weariness with the help of wine. To do this he takes the help of the genuine tempting and coloured wine of the southern region of France. Hippocrene is the name of fountain which was struck by the hoof of the winged horse Pegasus out of Mount Helicon, the haunt of the Muses. The poet imagines that the spring runs with wine instead of water because he looks upon wine as a powerful source of poetic inspiration.Â
4) Describe after Keats the mundane world of death and decay.Â
Ans: In “Ode to a Nightingale, the poet Keats describes the world of frets, fevers and weariness which he wants to escape to go to the ideal world of joy and happiness of the Nightingale. According to Keats, the mundane world is full of sorrows and sufferings. Here men always groan in pain of their ailments. Here youth and beauty are subjected to decay and sadness and depression prevail all over.
5) Explain the phrase “Bacchus and his pards”.
Ans: In “Ode to a Nightingale”, the poet John Keats at first wants to escape the mundane world of frets, fevers and weariness with the help of wine. But later he rejects the idea of riding the chariot of Bacchus, the god of wine, which is drawn by leopards, to escape the mundane world. He seeks poetic imagination as a means of escape to the world of the Nightingale.Â
6) Describe the world of the Nightingale.
Ans: In Ode to a Nightingale, the poet John Keats gives a vivid and picturesque description of the world of the Nightingale. It is a moonlit night with the starry sky. But there is no light on the ground. Only a faint light is oozing through the gloomy verdure and a mild breeze is blowing. Amidst this chairoscuro, different flowers like hawthorn, eglantine, violet and musk-rose flaunt their identity by their fragrance. The bees and flies being intoxicated by the dew gathered on the flowers are buzzing and humming over them.
7) Why is the poet half in love with wasteful death?
Ans: In “Ode to a Nightingale” the poet John Keats wants to die with ears full of the Nightingale’s joyful rapture. But this kind of happy and musical death is not fully appreciated by the poet because he knows very well that if he dies, he will no longer listen to the Nightingale’s song. In that case his ears will be vain to appreciate the Nightingale’s song. That is why, the poet is half in love with easeful death.Â
8) Explain the phrase “rich to die”.
Ans: In “Ode to a Nightingale” the poet John Keats seeks to die in the Nightingale’s world with the bird’s joyful rapture in his ears. He thinks that for his death this dulcet and romantic moment is ideal and in this moment if death takes away his breath quietly, nothing will bring him greater happiness than death at this moment. It is actually this happy and blissful moment that can give him beatitude and a halcyon calm.
9) Why is the Nightingale’s song called a “requiem”?
Ans: In “Ode to a Nightingale”, the poet John Keats enjoys the joyful rapture of the Nightingale and wants to die at this romantic moment. But soon he realizes that if he dies at this moment, the song of the Nightingale will serve the purpose of a requiem or song of the mourning to the poet’s death.
10) Why is the Nightingale called an immortal bird?
Ans: In “Ode to a Nightingale” the poet calls the Nightingale an immortal bird. By calling so he actually stresses the eternal and everlasting influence of the bird’s song. He thinks that the same song soothed and beguiled the ancient emperors, clowns, the biblical Ruth and the lonely girl of the fairy land.Â
11) Explain the biblical reference of Ruth.
Ans: To explain the immortal quality of the Nightingale’s song, the poet John Keats in Ode to a Nightingale gives the biblical allusion of Ruth. Ruth is a biblical figure who came from Moab. After her husband’s death she went to Judah in Palestine with her mother-in-law, Naomi. There she gleaned corn in the field of Boaz-a-Kinsman. At the time of gleaning, her heart bled for her native land and then the Nightingale’s joyful rapture brought consolation to her sad heart.
12) Why does the word “forlorn” bring the poet back to reality?
Ans: In “Ode to a Nightingale”, the poet John Keats at first wants to dissolve his own self and identify himself with the Nightingale. After enjoying the joyful rapture of the Nightingale, the poet describes the everlasting quality of the Nightingale’s song. In course of his description, he uses the word “forlorn”. This word reminds him of the ever loneliness of an individual in the mundane world and this realisation of the fact that one has to accept the reality brings the poet back to reality.Â
13) Why is fancy called a “deceiving elf”?
Ans: In “Ode to a Nightingale” the poet Keats wants to escape the frets and fever of the mundane world with the help of fancy or poetic imagination. He is borne to the Nightingale’s world and enjoys the joyful rapture of the Nightingale. But a single word “forlorn” brings him back to reality. Then the poet realises that poetic imagination can not make one forget the reality forever. It only gives one a temporary relief and creates an illusion of immortal happiness that can not last long. That is why the poet calls fancy a “deceiving elf”.
14) In what sense Ode to a Nightingale is an ode?
Ans: John Keats’ Ode to a Nightingale, is an ode in the sense that its subject is serious and meditative i. e the metal’s unending pursuit of the ideal and the eternal and his ultimate acceptance of the reality. Structurally also it is an Ode. It is usually composed of equal length stanzas having the same rhyme scheme and meter. Actually it is a Horatian ode.
15) What is the theme of the poem “Ode to a Nightingale”?
Ans: Being fed up with the frets, fever and weariness of the mundane world, the poet wants to escape to the world of the Nightingale, which is the world of ideal beauty and happiness. But at last, he realizes that the ideal can not make one forget the real long. This realisation of the mortal is the central theme of John Keats’ “Ode to a Nightingale”.
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