Ode to a Nightingale: Key Poetic Devices

Allusion

An allusion (uh-LOO-zhun) is a passing reference to a literary or historical person, place, or event, often made without explicit identification. “Ode to a Nightingale” contains many allusions, most of which pertain to classical antiquity. For instance, while indulging in thoughts of oblivion, the speaker references “Lethe” (line 4), which is a river in Hades whose waters cause forgetfulness. In the second stanza, while discussing the lure of wine-fueled intoxication, the speaker expresses a desire to “tast[e] of Flora and the country green” (line 13). Flora is a Roman goddess of flowers, from which, presumably, wine may be made. The speaker then likens wine to the waters of “the blushful Hippocrene” (16), which is a fountain on Mount Helicon that’s associated with the muses and, therefore, with inspiration. In addition to these and other classical allusions, the speaker also references “the sad heart of Ruth” (line 66), a biblical widow famous for her loyalty to the kin of her deceased husband. This allusion to Ruth and her “sad heart” may be linked to Keats himself, who had recently lost his brother Tom. Keats obliquely references Tom’s decline and death in line 26: “Where youth grows pale, and spectre-thin, and dies.”

Assonance and Consonance

Assonance and consonance are sibling concepts, in that they both refer to the repetition of certain sounds in adjacent or nearby words. Assonance specifically refers to the repetition of vowel sounds, whereas consonance refers to the repetition of consonant sounds. Keats uses both techniques liberally, giving his language a uniquely sumptuous texture. Evidence of this texture occurs everywhere in the poem. To take just one example, consider lines 71–74:

Forlorn! the very word is like a bell
To toll me back from thee to my sole self!
Adieu! the fancy cannot cheat so well
As she is fam'd to do, deceiving elf.

The word “forlorn” is significant in this context, since the speaker repeats it here after first using it as the final word of the previous stanza. Keats subtly emphasizes the significance of this word by carrying two of its main sounds forward: the initial F sound and the long O sound. The F sound repeats once in each of the next lines: “from,” “fancy,” and “fam’d.” The long O sounds appears even more frequently—in “word,” “toll,” “sole,” and “so”—alongside several other O sounds. Keats also works in other examples of assonance and consonance. For example, “fancy cannot” combines both techniques in the repeating “-an-” sound. Two alliterative phrases also appear: “to toll” and “sole self.” Taken together, these sonic nuances contribute to the sensuousness of Keats’s language.

Repetition

Repetition plays a significant—though often subtle—role in “Ode to a Nightingale.” One important instance of repetition occurs in the first stanza, when the speaker insists that, despite appearances, they’re in a happy mood (lines 5–6):

'Tis not through envy of thy happy lot,
But being too happy in thine happiness

This brief passage features two types of repetition: diacope (die-ACK-uh-pee), which is where a word repeats with one or more other words between, and polyptoton (puh-LIP-tuh-tawn), which is where etymologically related words appear in different forms. These two types of repetition combine in the speaker’s triple use of “happy . . . happy . . . happiness.” Here, the speaker insists perhaps too much on their happiness, thus expressing the opposite of their intended meaning. Elsewhere, Keats uses repetition as a structural device, reusing key words at the end of one stanza and the beginning of the next as a transitional strategy. This strategy first occurs in the transition between stanzas 2 and 3, where the phrase “fade away” creates a link between two distinct thoughts (lines 20–21):

And with thee fade away into the forest dim:

Fade far away, dissolve, and quite forget

An even more powerful example facilitates the shift into the final stanza (lines 70–71):

Of perilous seas, in faery lands forlorn.

Forlorn! the very word is like a bell

Here, the speaker likens their own word, “forlorn,” to a tolling bell that calls them back to their earlier feeling of anxious confusion.

Simile and Metaphor

At various points in the poem, Keats makes effective use of two basic forms of figurative language: simile and metaphor. Recall that a simile (SIH-muh-lee) is a figure of speech that explicitly compares two unlike things to each other. A metaphor (MEH-tuh-for), by contrast, makes a more implicit comparison between two unlike things. One prominent simile appears near the poem’s end, in lines 71–72:

Forlorn! the very word is like a bell
To toll me back from thee to my sole self!

As the speaker moves into the final stanza, they reflect on their own word, “forlorn,” which they liken to a tolling “bell” that figuratively calls them back to themself. Perhaps more prominent than his use of simile is Keats’s masterful use of metaphor, which is often connected to classical allusion. For example, the speaker makes a passing reference to the nightingale as a kind of nymph—that is, a “light-winged Dryad of the trees” (line 7). Likewise, the speaker refers to a glass of wine as a “a beaker full of the warm South, / Full of the true, the blushful Hippocrene” (lines 15–16). The Hippocrene is a fountain associated with the muses, whose water has the power to inspire. The speaker hopes that wine will bring them similar inspiration.

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