Analysis of John Keats' Ode to a Nightingale

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Published 2023-11-01

In his Ode to a Nightingale, Keats explores the natural music of birdsong as a metaphor for art: spontaneous, non-representational, a stream of pure sensation offering temporary release from the woes of the world. Helen Vendler explains the meaning of this great poem.

This is the third video in a series on the Odes of John Keats, based on the interpretation by literary critic Helen Vendler in the book of the same name. Watch the others here:
• The Odes of John Keats (Helen Vendler)

0:00 Introduction
1:44 The Poem
6:50 Vendler's Analysis
7:39 Recording of a Nightingale
8:05 Notion of Art in the Ode
11:31 Structural Shape
13:50 Constitutive Trope
16:07 Opening Stanza
17:06 Stanza II (Wine)
18:14 Stanza III (Life's Sorrows)
21:00 Stanzas IV–VI (Bower Scene)
26:00 Stanza VII (Audiences)
30:22 Closing Stanza/Outcome

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