Open AccessPoems about the Bird – A Comparative Study of Ode to a Nightingale and Sailing to Byzantium
Author(s) -
Sheng Xue
Publication year - 2013
Publication title -
english language and literature studies
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
eISSN - 1925-4776
pISSN - 1925-4768
DOI - 10.5539/ells.v3n4p22
Subject(s) - ode , ideal (ethics) , poetry , construct (python library) , object (grammar) , tone (literature) , literature , natural (archaeology) , history , art , computer science , philosophy , artificial intelligence , epistemology , programming language , archaeology
Ode to a Nightingale by John Keats in 1819 and Sailing to Byzantium by W. B. Yeats in 1928 both employ the image of a bird to express the poets’ longing for an ideal and immortal world. Yeats mirrors some tradition from Keats in writing the poem, but their disparate experiences construct varied descriptions about their ideal worlds. The nightingale, a natural bird, puts Keats in question—“do I wake or sleep” and delivers a tone of mournfulness; whereas the golden bird, an artificial object, guides Yeats through “what is past, or passing, or to come” and delivers a message of hope in the end.