NCERT Class 11 English Elective Ode to a Nightingale

Ode to a Nightingale

My heart aches, and a drowsy numbness pain

My sense, as though of hemlock I had drunk,

Or emptied some dull opiate to the drains

One minute past, and Lethe-wards had sunk:

                                                                      ’Tis not through envy of thy happy lot,

                                                                       But being too happy in thine happiness,

                                                                       That thou, light-winged Dryad of the trees,

                                                                       In some melodious plot

Of beechen green, and shadows numberless,

Singest of summer in full-throated ease.

O, for a draught of vintage! that hath been

Cool’d a long age in the deep-delved earth,

                                                                        Tasting of Flora and the country green,

                                                                        Dance, and Provencal song, and sunburnt mirth!

                                                                        O, for a beaker full of the warm South,

                                                                        Full of the true, the blushful Hippocrene,

With beaded bubbles winking at the brim,

And purple-stained mouth;

That I might drink, and leave the world unseen,

And with thee fade away into the forest dim.

UNDERSTANDING THE POEM

1. How does the nightingale’s song plunge the poet into a state of ecstasy?

2. What are the unpleasant aspects of the human condition that the poet wants to escape from?

3. What quality of ‘beauty’ and ‘love’ does the poem highlight?

4. How does the poet bring out the immortality of the bird?

5. How is the poet tossed back from ecstasy into despair?

6. How does the poem bring out the elusive nature of happiness in human existence?

TRY THIS OUT

1. The poet has juxtaposed sets of opposites like numbness pains,  waking dream. How does this contribute to the poetic effect?What is this figure of speech called? List other such pairs from poems that you have read.

2. The poet has evoked the image of wine—why has this image been chosen?

3. The senses of sound, sight and taste are evoked in the poem. Locate instances of these.

4. The poet addresses the nightingale and talks to the bird throughout the poem. What is this kind of poem called?

5. Make a list of all the adjectives in the poem along with the nouns they describe. List the phrases that impressed you most in the poem.

6. Find out the other odes written by Keats and read them.

7. Find out the odes written by Shelley and read them.

Please refer to attached file for NCERT Class 11 English Elective Ode to a Nightingale