Ode to a Nightingale

Why?
Keats had a very troubled life. His whole family was very sick, and he spent his short life looking after them. Keats would have been looking to find something beautiful in his life. I think Keats used his poetry to paint images that were beautiful to him. These images were simple, everyday things, that he managed to make extraordinary. I am amazed that someone who had very little to be thankful for, could write such a beautiful, expressive poem.

How?
Keats has clearly had a lot of experience with death. This comes across in his writing when he says things such as, "I have been half in love with easefull Death," and "Thou wast not born for death, immortal Bird!" Keats uses several poetic devices such as alliteration, "self-same song" and allusion, alluding to Ruth. These devices add colour to a poem that might otherwise be consumed in darkness. Keats describes the pain of death by writing "To cease upon the midnight with no pain.". The "pain" that Keats is referring to is perhaps not meant to describe death it's self but the pain leading up to it. Death, Keats is saying would be a welcome to the pain of sickness and the pain of ones family when their loved ones are sick. In the two stanzas that I chose Keats seems to almost be giving up, he is at least considering it. If we look at the pattern of the "journey" he has almost finished what he wants to get across to the reader and is preparing to finish his story and tell the reader his conclusions. Keats is a genious at portraying exactly what he feels to the reader.