Keats's concern with the inevitable precession of time and mutability is evident in all three poems: "Ode to a Nightingale", the ode "To Autumn" and the sonnet "Bright Star, I would like to be resolute like you". In his "Hymn to the Nightingale", the song of the bird becomes for Keats the symbol of a place impervious to human desperation and constant in its own eternal song; he wishes to escape first of realizing that it would cast him into a state of non-existence, whereby he recoils. Likewise, in his sonnet, "Bright Star, were I still as thou," Keats realizes that his adoration of an ideal world would deny the happiness he is experiencing, which leads him to reject his previous desires. “To Autumn”, however, is an unconditional celebration of Nature and change, suggesting the ultimate maturation of Keats's thought, whereby he ceases to desire the 'impossible, instead replacing his thinking with the recognition and acceptance that nature will continue to move forward, despite the fact that it will not be there to witness the flow of time. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an Original Essay “Hymn to the Nightingale” begins with a soporific heaviness, an intense description of the “drowsy torpor” and “[pain]” that invades this state despite its oxymoronic nature. This characterizes why Keats wishes to “fade into the darkness of the forest” with the Nightingale, whose “summer song in full voice” begins to represent another world for Keats, one in which the desperation of mankind is unknown, where “tiredness, fever and agitation” cease to exist. With richly explicit language of dissatisfaction, Keats creates a dark mood, which reinforces his longing for a “full glass of the warm South,” for “Provençal dance and song.” The South constitutes a geographical emblem of refuge from the harsh realities of winter, and French Provence is typically associated with luxury and enjoyment of life. Keats desires a “drink of vintage,” not for the sake of falling into a state of drunkenness, but as another portal of escape, through which he might be delivered into the world occupied by the Nightingale. Yet, in the fourth stanza, Keats rejects “Bacchus and his pards,” and thus rejects wine in favor of the “invisible wings of Poetry.” He recognizes that the "dull brain perplexes and delays", that analytical thinking distorts what might otherwise be purely felt, but he therefore reaffirms his own personal will and strength to reach that state of transcendence on his own terms, through "Poetry" which represents poetry and fantasy. However, once his imagination takes him there, he realizes that "there is no light here", a harbinger of his return to the light, because darkness can be seductive and "easy", but it is also a denial of existence, and therefore, of feeling. Keats states that darkness is "embalmed", which has two meanings, of fragrance and of preserved corpse. Therein lies the irony, for while the darkness may be nicely presented, it is essentially a trap all its own. The countermovement occurs in Keats's sensibility, in which he realizes that the Nightingale's "high requiem" will be in vain if he must die, and thus become an "asshole". The poet thus comes to the conclusion that the non-existence and therefore the inability to feel the ecstasy of the bird is counterproductive. The reverie is abandoned when the Nightingale flies away, leaving the poet with an inconclusive conclusion, the question marks underlining the fact that the ending of the poem is doubtful and unresolved. The sonnet "Bright star, were I steadfast as thou art," however, is more conclusive with its final lines. Keats wishes to be.