Keat And Shelley Essay, Research Paper

In Keat?s "Ode to a Nightingale" and Shelley?s "Ode to the

West Wind" both poet?s show much inspiration within their poetry. The

bird in "Ode to a Nightingale" represents a supernatural being

conjured up by the speaker. The wind in "Ode to the West Wind"

inspires the speaker while serving as a "destroyer and preserver." In

the poem, "Ode to a Nightingale" the reader sees that the poet draws

his inspiration through hemlock which the poet had drunk and some kind of

opiate. The poet speaks about dying from the consumption of some type of

poisonous drink in stanza two. The speaker wants to, "Fade far away,

dissolve, and quite forget / What thou among the leaves has never known

(21-22)." He doesn?t seem to have much respect for or admiration of the

world. The speaker cites all of the bad aspects of life and the world which

inspire him to contemplate suicide. This idea of death and suicide is further

displayed through the quote in stanza six : " I have been half in love with

easeful Death, ?Now more than ever seems it rich to die, To cease upon the

midnight with no pain, While thou art pouring forth thy soul abroad In such an

ecstasy (52-58)." The reader?s contemplation of suicide is thoroughly

depicted through this quote. The reader is actually thinking these thoughts

because he realizes that the beautiful bird?s songs only occur through death

because the bird is immortal and with the immortal bird comes the immortal song.

He shows his admiration for the bird when he speaks of the bird?s past

experiences. He is greatly inspired by the bird and this is the reason for this

poem, but in the last stanza he returns to reality and back to his "sole

self". He no longer wants to die and hear this immortal song sung by the

bird which he once longed to experience. In ?Ode to the West Wind?, the

reader sees yet another poet inspired by something that has caught the

speaker?s attention.