Comparison of Ode to a Nightingale and Ode on a Grecian Urn

Comparison of Ode to a Nightingale and Ode on a Grecian Urn
Both odes are masterpieces of poetry and are the fruit of mature art of the poet. Ode on
Grecian Urn shows the poet’s fascination which he saw in British Museum. Throughout
this ode Keats has appreciated the permanence of art and compared it with transitory
nature of life and worldly things. In this ode Keats has given what we now term as Keats
philosophy of life. Ode to a Nightingale is a tribute to nightingale bird. The poet
expresses his fascination and appreciation for the happy condition of the bird and
compares it with the miserable condition of human life on the earth. Keats wishes to
escape into the nightingale’s world; however, he finally realizes that he cannot run from
his present condition because day dreaming is not the solution of his problem: only
solution is facing and living with those problems.

In both odes poet’s admiration is for the ideal worlds of art and nature. Things carved on
the Grecian urn are permanent and free from decay whereas things of life are exposed to
change and decay. The branches of the tree on the urn will always remain green; the
lovers will enjoy their present state; the music will always remain enjoyable; the lover
will always have his beloved before his eyes and the beloved will never grow old. On the
other hand earthly things keep on changing. Earthly passions do not give satisfaction
and comfort to human being rather they leave a heart high sorrowful and cloyed. Those
who nourish these passions get nothing but a burning forehead, and a parching tongue.

If Ode on Grecian Urn shows Poet’s admiration and yearning for the world of art, Ode to
a Nightingale shows the same for the world of nature. Here once more the poet wants to
escape in the world of nightingale which does not know and pain and suffering. The
world of nightingale is free of fever and fret of human world; in that world pain and
groan are totally absent; things do not grow old there; there is nothing like disease
there; thought which makes people sad and sorrowful is not present in there; frustration
and disappointment are nowhere in the world of nature; and love does not change there.
In both odes imagination of the poet seems to touching climax. Both poems are excellent
manifestation which Kats called negative capability. Negative capability means
expressing personal feelings in a way that they lose all the subjectivity. In other word
make individual feelings and things universal. Negative capability also means to say
things which are not true but which can be shown true with little logic. For example
Keats says that lover on the urn will always enjoy love and the nightingale bird is
immortal. Now both these things are not actually true but logic can prove their truth.
Ode on Grecian Urn gives us a very important message and this message is Keats’
message which is recurrent motif running throughout Keats’ poetry. The message is that
beauty is truth and truth is beauty. On the other hand, the message which we get after
reading Ode to a Nightingale is that human being can run away from the problems of life
and they have to live with the problems of life.
Though subjectivity is present in both poems, Odes to a Nightingale shows comparatively
stronger feelings of subjectivity. Consider the death wish of the poet. We do not find this
wish in Ode on a Grecian Urn. However, the poet finally restores balance and overall
impression of the poem is totally objectivity.
Pain and suffering are permanent features of Keats’ poetry. Both odes dwell on pain and
suffering. Greatness of Keats lies in fact that pain and suffering do not bring element of
frustration and disappointment in Keats’ poetry. Both odes show that Keats takes pain
and suffering integral part of hum life. He wants to escape with strong realization he
cannot escape.
Both odes are highly sensuous in their appeal. Keats’ continuously arouses different
senses of the readers: sometimes with unmatchable picture; sometimes with melodies
voices; and sometimes with wonderful imagination.

Dramatic qualities are present in both odes. In Ode on Grecian Urn Keats seems to be
talking to urn and in Ode to a Nightingale, he seems to talking to the nightingale. Both
odes present the quick succession of picture and images and the reader feels to be
watching a drama in theatre or a movie in cinema.
Both odes are full of lines which have become most quotable lines by any writer. Heard
melodies are sweet, but those unheard are sweeter, beauty is truth is beauty, to cease
upon midnight with no pain has become proverbial when we with how much frequency
we find them quoted by people.
Keats love for compound words such as pouring forth, soul abroad, overwrought,
evermore is very noticeable in both odes.
Music and melody which has become closely related with Keats’ poetry are present in
both odes to the level of perfection in both odes. Consider the following lines:
Ah! Happy, happy boughs!
Now a line from Ode to a Nightingale:
Away! Away! For I will fly to thee
Both odes seem an earnest effort to create to ecstatic beauty. The poet does preach any
philosophy or creed. If he wants it all it is the philosophy of life and existence.
Dissimilarity
The tone of “Ode to Nightingale” is pathetic and it is more subjective than “Ode on a
Grecian Urn”. The tone is joyous and objective in “Ode on a Grecian Urn”. The overall
tone of the poem is melancholic in “Ode to Nightingale”. The poem is also very
subjective, because it draws reference from Keats’ own life. The expressions “fever and
fret” the “spectre thin” etc clearly refer to the pathetic death of Keats’ brother. The poem
is written immediately after the death of his brother. On the other hand Keats’ tone in
“Ode to Grecian Urn” is very joyful. Here he celebrates the beauty of the Urn, the
joyfulness of the lovers and the excitement of the religious sacrifice. He uses the word
“happy” several times. More importantly unlike Nightingale it is not based on his
personal loss. The poem was written after one of his visits to the British museum.
In these Odes the speaker wants to go beyond the better realties of the world by a kind
of visionary imagination of the happy world. But when he comes to learn that the kind of
imagination he is pursuing is a false temptation, he rejects the visionary imagination and
comes back to harsh reality.
Conclusion
Keats is called least romantic of all the romantic poets. He uses all the elements of
romantic poetry like imagination, escape, love of the past, enjoyment of beauty, love of
picturesque, sensuality, spontaneous expression of feelings, experiment with form and
theme, subjectivity, depiction of nature, love of exotic, death wish, simplicity of language
and expression. Yet we find great care of a great classic poet in Keats’ poetry. His
balance is outstanding. Both odes carry all the qualities of classic art as well as romantic
art. It is this blend of romanticism and classicism which makes Keats’s poetry of
everlasting appeal. And this blend is nowhere so prominent in Keats’ poetry as we find
them in his great odes. This is the reason that critics say that Keats’ odes were enough
for his greatness.