THE ROMANTIC SELF: IDENTITY IN KEATS' ODE TO A NIGHTINGALE

Abstract

The purpose of this analysis is to study John Keats’ Ode to a Nightingale (1819) and investigate the ways in which the image richness, symbols, and other rhetorical devices enhance the treatment of the theme of identity. In this sense, it unveils the duality of the fleeting and the everlasting motivations and experiences of the various characters, as well as the differences between the abstractions of dreams and wakefulness, life and death. In tracing how the Romantic self is of Keats, it helps the reader to more fully enjoy Keats’ poetic stewardship and his romance. These aspects include Keats’ aesthetic concept of the nightingale as a symbol of everlasting youth and his meditation on the themes of life and death. The research explores the development of ideas about identity employed by Keats, analyzing how he uses poetic language to express these ideas within Ode to a Nightingale and situates the poem within the literary context of Romanticism. It is with this understanding of Keats’ work that the importance of this investigation into the representation of the Romantic self and the struggle towards transcendence is highlighted. Analyzing the Wanderings approach to the construction of the poetic self-proposed by Keats, in the context of the mould established by Wordsworth, Shelley, and other poets, the study examines various aspects of the Romantic self. Altogether, this research is valuable for the further development of the topic regarding the effects of Romantic literature and seems to provide further arguments in support of the importance and applicability of Keats’ poetry in modern society.