“Ode to a Nightingale” is the longest of the six odes written by the British Romantic poet John Keats. Keats composed this ode in May 1819 while living in Hampstead at the home of his friend, Charles Brown. Brown reported that Keats grew fond of a nightingale that had nested nearby, and whose song brought him “a tranquil and continual joy.” So taken was Keats with the nightingale’s song that he composed this ode while sitting under a plum tree. The story of the poem’s composition has led many critics to identify the speaker with Keats, though of course it’s also possible to separate the two figures. Whoever the speaker is, they are someone whose anxiety about death and mortality has led to indulgent moments of fantasy and a desire for intoxication. They initially desire the oblivion of alcohol, but later they turn to the transporting song of a nightingale, whom the speaker addresses throughout the poem. The nightingale’s song, which the speaker refers to as “the viewless wings of Poesy” (line 33), conjures fanciful thoughts related to the immortality of art. In the end, though, the nightingale flies away, and as its song fades in the distance, the speaker is once again left alone with their anxiety.

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