Comparison of The Raven and Ode to a Nightingale Poems - Research Paper Example

 “The Raven” versus “Ode to a Nightingale” “The Raven” by Edgar Allan Poe is a story of a young adult who has lost the woman he was in love with and is struggling cope. The story-teller compulsorily builds self-destructive understanding of his mourning in a raven’s constant 'Nevermore' reminder to him, until he eventually gives up about being reconnected with Lenore in the new world. On the other hand, John Keats’ “Ode to a Nightingale” is another interesting poem set in London, which tells the story of a nightingale that undergoes pain and suffering caused by a loss of human life but remains alive. Like in “the Raven” the latter the poem demonstrates clearly that pleasure is temporary and that human beings are mortal. This paper compares and contrasts “Ode to a Nightingale” with “The Raven” so as to establish the similarities and differences between literary styles and themes between the two poems. In the literary piece, Keats envisages the shortcomings of the physical environment and considers his own life gone when the nightingale song sets in. As such, the poet contrasts between the eternal nightingale and temporal life of human beings in an immensely imaginative way that integrates the primary factors affecting life including weather and natural aesthetics such as flower. Weather rejuvenates the power of the nightingales as evidenced in their covering of the heath (Fogle 81). Like “the Raven,” however, “Ode to a nightingale” shares the theme of human mortality, spirituality and kindness, and isolation among the bereaved. In addition, the form is somewhat similar in both poems. Poe’s “The Raven” is made up of eighteen six–line verses with seamlessly emphatic rhythm and rhymes. Using “I” narration to present the story, the literary piece conveys the persona’s transformation from a weary, painful condition to a disposition of nervous disintegration as he recalls his weird encounter with the furtive ebony bird (Graham 236). By contrast, “Nightingale” takes virtually all features of odes such as the use of ten-line stanzas. Nonetheless, unlike “the Raven,” “Nightingale” is metrically dynamic, albeit moderately. The initial seven stanzas of “the Raven” set the story and the persona’s melancholic, impressionable thinking. Weak, debilitated and suffering under the weight of grief, the narrator is determined to lessen the melancholic impacts on him by distracting his feelings with the stories contained in esoteric books. And when he is aroused at midnight by the raven’s sound near his chamber, he advances to the door to welcome a non-existent visitor in the dead of darkness. By contrast, the “Nightingale” in the first seven and concluding lines of each stanza, reveals an iambic pentameter. Each stanza has the eight lines inscribed in tri-meter, with three syllables substituting the usual five. "Nightingale" also shares some semblance with “the Raven” in the sense that both pieces of literature have similar rhymes throughout the stanzas. The same semblance applies in the theme of mortality and reassurance, though through a different, indirect approach. In “The Raven” the persona is apprehensive; he murmurs the name of his love Lenore and shuts the door. The tapping continues and when he thrusts the window open, a raven gains entry and perches on the Athena. At this point, the poet uses the bird to prove human mortality and the need for the bereaved to “get over” the painful circumstances that death brings. In stanza eight through eleven, for instance, the persona is enticed by the comical embodiment in the blackbird (Graham 237). He playfully enquires about the bird’s name in a reassuring way that signifies good luck to a bereaved soul. However, the raven’s “Nevermore” response shocks him. Despite the fact that the bird’s response clearly has little weight in terms of construal and may be dismissed by the average person, the persona is awed by the unexpected forlorn utterance. He immediately likens his painful experience to that of the owner of the bird, whom he imagines has undergone the impacts of unimaginable calamities possibly including death(s) of loved ones. As a consequence, the owner taught the raven to imitate a word that is not only reassuring, but healing to individuals who are in state of hopelessness. In paragraph’s 12 and 13 of “the Raven,” the persona sits on a cushion facing the bird and whimsically contemplates what it meant by restating a term, which accompanied thoughts of the fallen Lenore (Ljungquist 20). At this juncture, the mourning lover, in expectation of the bird’s sickening restatement of “Nevermore,” starts to ponder increasingly agonizing questions. It is also arguable that out of her immortal love for the persona, Lenore may have dispatched “the Raven” to deliver the message that death is real, and once a loved one has departed, they are gone forever (Colton 319). Yet, the symbolically rich raven could have been deployed by Lenore to reassure the persona that she still loves him even in death and thus, she is capable of manifesting in the form of a bird to keep him company and even converse with him in the dead of night when he is badly in need of company. As Fogle (81) said, in “Nightingale,” the temporary nature of human life replays, but unlike the apparently younger couple that is devastated by death in “the Raven”, “Nightingale” extends the tragedy to members of the older and younger generations. For instance, palsy loses grey hairs in a challenging and sad experience. The youth too become pale shadows of their former self and die, and like the raven story, the immortality of love is depicted here in the form of an enjoyable music. The story-teller in “Nightingale” echoes the drowsy impassiveness which he has gone through, but where a sense of lethargy is symbolized at the end of the suffering. In "Nightingale," the change is rich with messages: listening to the nightingale song puts the narrator in the same position as his opposite number in “the Raven”: in both cases, the speaker longs to depart from the physical world and join the symbolic characters in heaven in the afterlife (Park 23). His initial thoughts are to see things from the bird’s point of view by taking alcohol, which is rather a physical solution to the spiritual problem. In stanza two of “Nightingale,” for instance, the protagonist strives for something to bring him a whole new sense of understanding of the physical world. But after his reflection on the temporary nature of human life in the subsequent stanza, he refuses the concept of being corralled by the seemingly physical Bacchus and his elements (Lams Jr. 417). Bacchus was a spiritual power within the ancient Roman society known for authorizing wine-taking and was believed to have been riding on a chariot towed by leopards. As such, both poems tell the story of mortal human beings and the struggles that face the bereaved loved ones in their attempt to cope with the loss. Apart from mortality and the pain that it brings, spirituality and kindness also feature prominently in the two poems, though, in rather different ways. In the Raven, the readers are taken though the spiritual imagination of the narrator and his asking of the raven whether it had been sent by the merciful God to help him cope with the painful loss of Lenore. The inevitable reaction prompts the narrator to persuade the bird, now depicted as a wicked fortune-teller dispatched by the “Temptor,” to inform him about the existence of any heavenly soothing power for his melancholy. The bird’s predictable response prompts the bereaved lover, now nearly shaking with overwhelming frenzy, to enquire whether he would ever meet with his love Lenore in heaven, even if it will not physical. The raven then replies “Nevermore” in a way that seals the persona’s fate (Colton 319). The narrator is then distressed at the news and demands that the bird vacate his room in order to bring to an end the torturing news. Regardless, the raven’s painful answer pushes the bereaved man into deep despair, considering that it turns out to be an eternal part of the chambers and a symbolic continuance of the story-teller’s self-inflicted emotional and spiritual disintegration. On the other hand, “the Ode of the Nightingale” captures spirituality and kindness in an indirect way, but with rich symbolism featuring in almost all of the stanzas. Nightingale’s sense of art is made up of a consistently changeable music, which does not end. And in line with the narrator’s love for music, his semantics are sensually rich and works in preference of the spiritual sense over the sense of human sight and other physical attributes (Fogle 81). For instance, through (spiritual) imagination, he envisages the disposition and power of the moonlight, despite the non-existence of the light in the physical sense. Similarly, he is aware of being in the midst of flowers, but he has lost their physical meaning. At long last, the narrator realizes creative expression and imposed faith in it. However, that expression in the nightingale's song is impulsive, isolating and largely spiritual in nature. The setting of Poe’s “Raven” mirrors the state of physical and emotional isolation of the persona. The literary piece begins at the dead of night in December, which happens to be the last month of the year when one retraces their steps throughout the ending year; when the painful occurrences which were beyond the person in question return to haunt them (Pollin 65). As such, December is a month of social and emotional isolation created by thoughts of loved ones who have been lost throughout the year. The fireplace without fire, for instance, reflects the sad, deserted life and environment. In addition, the narrator’s lone sleeping chamber and his lack of company are also symbolic of loneliness and isolation (Lams Jr. 417). The storyteller cuts the image of a weak and troubled man, who appears stuck in his own prison where there is no sign of life around, but his. He hopes morning will come and bring with it the beauty of light and a social life, but in the meantime he has to endure the pains of isolation, more so from his departed Lenore. As Pollin (41) said, the ensuing story built around isolation is simple, persistent and tragic. The poem splits the characters and themes into two opposing worlds of dead darkness of isolation; and hope of a reunion by daybreak. The contrasting worlds of hope in light and despair in darkness substantially acquire extra symbolic meanings: they also symbolize life and decease, the narrator’s vain expectation of an after-life reunion with Lenore and the tragic physical vision of deep nothingness in isolation. By contrast, the “Nightingale” embodies the rapture of literary inspiration in the music, which may have been advisedly included in the work to break the tone of the narrator’s isolation with the bird in the thick forest (Lams Jr. 417). The delighting music even motivates the narrator to welcome his death because he is overwhelmed by negative impacts of isolation. The song claims the suffering may end in his afterlife. But when, following his meditation, he rediscovers himself and recognizes his real status by uttering the word "forlorn," the narrator abandons his illusory escape from the unavoidable, and like the narrator in the Raven, he feels unable to chart his destiny in the current state of isolation. In conclusion, “the Raven” and “Ode to a Nightingale” draw several thematic similarities from each another. However, small differences in their presentation approach exist. In each of the two poems, the narrator is troubled by the devastatingly painful experiences of human mortality. Interestingly, the departed souls show some kindness to their living kin and thus they communicate with them through spiritual powers and symbols. Regardless, whereas the narrator in “the Raven” encounters real spiritual embodiment in the bird, the narrator in “Nightingale” encounters a rather aloof symbolism of spirituality, but which temporarily blinds his physical abilities to see the flowers. In a nutshell, it is evident in both poems that death isolates humans from not only their departed loved ones, but the society in general and brings unfathomable pain, which is practically eternal. Works Cited Colton, Cullen B. George Hooker Colton and the Publication of "The Raven". American Literature, 10.3 (1938): 319. Fogle, Richard H. A note on Keats’ Ode to a Nightingale. Modern Language Quarterly, 8.1 (1947): 81. Graham, Jorie. Edgar Allan Poe's "The Raven." Paris Review, 42.154 (2000): 236-241. Lams Jr., Victor J. Ruth, Milton, and Keats's "Ode To A Nightingale". Modern Language Quarterly, 34.4 (1973): 417. Ljungquist, Kent P. Some unrecorded reprints of Poe's works. ANQ, 8.1 (1995): 20. Park, Charlsie Bray. Keats's Ode to a Nightingale. Explicator, 52.1 (1993): 23. Pollin, Burton R. The Pathway of Edgar Allan Poe Traced in the Works of Walter de la Mare. English Literature in Transition, 1880-1920, 42.1 (1999): 39-69. Srivastava, K.G. Keat's Ode to a Nightingale, Lines 71--74. Explicator, 40.3 (1982): 23. Read More