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“Ode to a Nightingale” takes place outdoors on a night in late spring. Several details allow us to determine the poem’s nighttime setting. First, and most obvious, is the presence of the nightingale’s song, which tends only to be heard at night. Second, the speaker mentions darkness several times in the poem. And finally, the speaker describes “the Queen-Moon . . . on her throne, / Cluster’d around by all her starry Fays” (lines 36–37). Yet despite the presence of the moon, the speaker can’t see their surroundings and must use their other senses instead (lines 41–45):

     I cannot see what flowers are at my feet,
              Nor what soft incense hangs upon the boughs,
     But, in embalmed darkness, guess each sweet
              Wherewith the seasonable month endows
     The grass, the thicket, and the fruit-tree wild

Taken together, the references in these lines to flowers, trees, grass, and “the thicket” conjure the image of a meadow or a forest, or perhaps even a wild English garden. What’s more, the speaker mentions “the seasonable month,” which they later clarify as “mid-May” (line 48)—the month that stands as a harbinger for “dewy wine” and “summer eves” (lines 49 and 50). Yet for all these details that locate the poem in a particular time and place, the poem’s most important setting lies in the speaker’s mind. The nightingale’s song has a transporting effect on them, making them think about life, death, and the immortality of art.

Next section Themes

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