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The Nightingale’s Song

The nightingale is something of an absent presence in Keats’s poem, in the sense that the speaker hears it but cannot see it. For this reason, the speaker primarily associates the nightingale with its song, and the song of the nightingale plays an important symbolic role in the poem at large. Most importantly, the nightingale’s song symbolizes the linked arts of music and poetry. The speaker indicates as much in the fourth stanza, where they trade wine-fueled inebriation for the intoxication of poetry (lines 31–33):

     Away! away! for I will fly to thee,
              Not charioted by Bacchus and his pards,
     But on the viewless wings of Poesy

The phrase “viewless wings of Poesy” clearly references the nightingale’s song, which is seemingly detached from any body and hence takes flight solely upon the “wings” of its sound. What’s key here, though, is the way the speaker conflates the song of the nightingale with a more abstract notion of “Poesy.” In addition to being a stand-in for poetry, the nightingale’s song also symbolizes immortality (lines 61–64):

     Thou wast not born for death, immortal Bird!
              No hungry generations tread thee down;
     The voice I hear this passing night was heard
              In ancient days by emperor and clown

Here, the speaker speculates that the nightingale’s song has been heard throughout history in all places nightingales have lived. The speaker sees the survival of the song across time and space as a form of immortality.

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