In "Ode to the Nightingale", John Keats uses nature and a nightingale as figures for an optimistic view of mortality and particularly the speaker's life. Throughout the poem, the nightingale itself is a figure of the beautiful and cyclical nature of life. The natural environment serves to illustrate the fertility and optimism that characterizes this natural cycle. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an Original Essay In the opening stanza of the poem, the speaker introduces the bird. He describes it with images of happiness and nature, thus conveying to the reader his appreciation for the natural world and the connection between human and animal life. The wording in this part of the poem and the use of vivid adjectives referencing fertility and prosperity serve to illustrate the author's optimistic view of the natural world: May you, light-winged dryad of the trees, In some melodious plot Of green beech, and shadows innumerable, Sing of summer with full ease. (7-10) The speaker's image of a "light-winged dryad" and trees as "green beech" emphasizes the youth and beauty of the bird. Dryads are mythical creatures typically associated with occasions involving music, dance, nature, and happiness; the allusion therefore characterizes not only the bird, but the speaker's current state of mind. He adds to this by describing the plot as "melodious" and then the bird's song as containing a quality of ease. The speaker suggests that his life, like that of the bird, is characterized by a carefree nature and an optimistic outlook. In the second and third stanzas there is a change in tone to express optimism for the future through acceptance of mortality. In the second stanza the poet asks the wine to alter his perception and enhance his understanding of mortality and existence in nature. His descriptions become much more typically romantic as he refers to the wine as "vintage subs" (11). This association between inebriation and nature gives the wine an almost mystical quality. The speaker describes the wine as "tasting flora and green countryside" (13), and his environment as one of "Provençal dance and song" (14). The suggestion is that the speaker uses wine to maintain his sense of optimism through the perfection and celebration that surrounds him. This wine resembles the nightingale in many ways as it also depicts summer, song and dance, an optimism that is accentuated in the next stanza of the poem, in which the speaker considers his fate as a mortal. However, through alcohol, the speaker believes he can glimpse the nightingale's immortality. Even in the face of disturbing and inescapable mortality, the speaker optimistically follows the path of the nightingale and through this discovers beauty in the darkness. . The poet, still optimistic in his belief in the nightingale, once again attempts to achieve peace, only this time with the "invisible wings of Poetry" (33). It is through this optimism that he discovers that the beauty of mother nature endures, even in the darkest moments. "Already with you! Tender is the night, And perhaps the Moon-Queen is on her throne, Gathered around by all her starry fairies" (35-37). Here, the speaker's emphasis is on the inherent strength and perfection of nature. The night is described as "tender" and the moon is idealized, depicted on a throne and surrounded by fairies. Nature is described in a very engaging style that suggests both the speaker's optimism about the natural world and the reader's optimism about his own destiny. The positive tone of this section is expanded through the subsequent description of the trees and their fruitful productivity: "But, in the embalmed darkness, guess every.