Question

John keats is haunted by the conflict between the ideal world and the real world." discuss this statement in relation to his poem "ode to a nightingale."

Answer 1

Answer and Explanation:

In "ode to a nightingale" Keats presents the confrontation between his perception of the real and the ideal world through the song that a roxinou intones. For the speaker, the song is so poetical and full of ephemerality that it throws him into an illusion about a world as poetical and beautiful as the song and the feelings it emanates. However, with the end of the song, the speaker wakes up from this feeling of illusion and is faced with the real world that does not have the same delicacy and poetry of the ideal world. At that moment, the speaker awakens to the real nature of himself and the world and feels like dying. This confrontation between the real world and the ideal world can be seen in the lines:

"Forlorn! the very word is like a bell/ To toll me back from thee to my sole self! / Adieu! the fancy cannot cheat so well."