Creative Engagement: John Keats ♥ Shakespeare

As I was reading Sonnet 18 by Shakespeare, I found a striking thematic similarity between the sonnet and the poem "Ode to a Nightingale" by John Keats. In Sonnet 18, the woman described is seen as so beautiful that death could never claim her - she lives on through the narrators description. Similarly, in Keat's work the Nightingdale too is made immortal - it lives on through its song. Both author's references  could also be intended to suggest that, like the lady and her beauty & the bird and his song, a poet is made immortal by his poetry. Take a look for yourself!

John Keats. 1795–1821

624. Ode to a Nightingale

MY heart aches, and a drowsy numbness pains
My sense, as though of hemlock I had drunk,
Or emptied some dull opiate to the drains
One minute past, and Lethe-wards had sunk:
'Tis not through envy of thy happy lot,	5
But being too happy in thine happiness,
That thou, light-wingèd Dryad of the trees,
In some melodious plot
Of beechen green, and shadows numberless,
Singest of summer in full-throated ease.	10
O for a draught of vintage! that hath been
Cool'd a long age in the deep-delvèd earth,
Tasting of Flora and the country-green,
Dance, and Provençal song, and sunburnt mirth!
O for a beaker full of the warm South!	15
Full of the true, the blushful Hippocrene,
With beaded bubbles winking at the brim,
And purple-stainèd mouth;
That I might drink, and leave the world unseen,
And with thee fade away into the forest dim:	20
Fade far away, dissolve, and quite forget
What thou among the leaves hast never known,
The weariness, the fever, and the fret
Here, where men sit and hear each other groan;
Where palsy shakes a few, sad, last grey hairs,	25
Where youth grows pale, and spectre-thin, and dies;
Where but to think is to be full of sorrow
And leaden-eyed despairs;
Where beauty cannot keep her lustrous eyes,
Or new Love pine at them beyond to-morrow.	30
Away! away! for I will fly to thee,
Not charioted by Bacchus and his pards,
But on the viewless wings of Poesy,
Though the dull brain perplexes and retards:
Already with thee! tender is the night,	35
And haply the Queen-Moon is on her throne,
Cluster'd around by all her starry Fays
But here there is no light,
Save what from heaven is with the breezes blown
Through verdurous glooms and winding mossy ways.	40
I cannot see what flowers are at my feet,
Nor what soft incense hangs upon the boughs,
But, in embalmèd darkness, guess each sweet
Wherewith the seasonable month endows
The grass, the thicket, and the fruit-tree wild;	45
White hawthorn, and the pastoral eglantine;
Fast-fading violets cover'd up in leaves;
And mid-May's eldest child,
The coming musk-rose, full of dewy wine,
The murmurous haunt of flies on summer eves.	50
Darkling I listen; and, for many a time
I have been half in love with easeful Death,
Call'd him soft names in many a musèd rhyme,
To take into the air my quiet breath;
Now more than ever seems it rich to die,	55
To cease upon the midnight with no pain,
While thou art pouring forth thy soul abroad
In such an ecstasy!
Still wouldst thou sing, and I have ears in vain—
To thy high requiem become a sod.	60
Thou wast not born for death, immortal Bird!
No hungry generations tread thee down;
The voice I hear this passing night was heard
In ancient days by emperor and clown:
Perhaps the self-same song that found a path	65
Through the sad heart of Ruth, when, sick for home,
She stood in tears amid the alien corn;
The same that ofttimes hath
Charm'd magic casements, opening on the foam
Of perilous seas, in faery lands forlorn.	70
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
As she is famed to do, deceiving elf.
Adieu! adieu! thy plaintive anthem fades	75
Past the near meadows, over the still stream,
Up the hill-side; and now 'tis buried deep
In the next valley-glades:
Was it a vision, or a waking dream?
Fled is that music:—do I wake or sleep?

Creative Engagement - Sidney

Alright well I absolutely, 100% DID NOT write this myself. But I couldn't help reading it and muttering a silent "amen" to myself.

"What can I say? He loves her, or thinks he does. She tries to be kind, or at least he thinks she does. He pushes his luck--that he admits (in the Fourth Song). And she dumps him (in the Eleventh Song). If you see no ironic, self-mocking humor in his descriptions of his struggles with desire and reason, in his description of love's effect on his performance in combat (#41 and #53), in his claims about his poetic inspiration (#1 and #74), you aren't reading carefully enough. If these poems are read with no ear for that irony, "Astrophil" comes off as a pompous fool. If read with sensitivity, the cycle shows how the whole medieval doctrine of "courtly love" and the courtier's ability to rise to the stars by love (Bembo) may be appreciated even while it is subjected to an enormously entertaining and subtle critique. Perhaps love's "ladder" has agendas of its own, independent of its "climbers"? And what of the Beloved, in Bembo, that useful mortal starting point whose beauty soon is left behind by the Lover as he (always "he") rockets into union with the Divine? What does she get out of all of this? More importantly, what does it cost her?"



Anyway, I took this excerpt off of the following site from Goucher College:
http://faculty.goucher.edu/eng211/sir_philip_sidney_.htm

Take a look at it if you're interested!


I would have to agree with it entirely in the way that I percieved the entire text as somewhat ironic and almost . . . well, pathetic. :)

Lyrical Assignment: Usher - Confessions Album

One of the albums that I found to be an ideal lyrical album is "Confessions" by Usher where most of his songs deal with the experience of losing the love of his life. Like the album title says, most of the songs are confessions of an affair with other women and overall the album as a whole gives off the message of "please take me back". This idea of destroyed relationships and begging for forgiveness is also reflected in several of the music videos that accompany these songs where he often winces and drops to his knees as he lyrically recounts the incidents. At the start of the song "Confessions II" (one of the videos listed below) he almost comes to tears after finding out that his "girl on the side" is pregnant and his "girl at home" is inevitably going to realize his infidelity. The rest of the song is full of doubt, panic, and confusion over how to tell his girlfriend about the situation.




At the end of this video & song you see/hear glass shattering. This leads into the next couple songs, including "Burn" which follows the storyline. In this song, he talks about how their relationship can not come back from such a tragedy and that it must end. A later song, "Truth Hurts" continues this same theme of remorse.





These songs, as well as the rest of the album, parallel his life at the time. Months before this album was released, Usher underwent a very emotional breakup with a girlfriend that he had known since childhood. While some of the songs stray a bit from the truth (there were indeed other women in his life, but no pregnancy scares ;-) ) they still succeed in conveying his feelings about the breakup.

1	Intro	(0:46)
2	Yeah!	(4:10) Performed...
3	Throwback	(4:01) Lyrics - ...
4	Confessions [Interlude]	(1:15)
5	Confessions [Pt. 2]	(3:49) Lyrics - ...
6	Burn	(4:15) Lyrics - ...
7	Caught Up	(3:44) Lyrics - ...
8	Superstar [Interlude]	(1:04)
9	Superstar	(3:28) Lyrics - ...
10	Truth Hurts	(3:51) Lyrics - ...
11	Simple Things	(4:57) Lyrics - ...
12	Bad Girl	(4:21) Lyrics - ...
13	That's What It's Made For	(4:37) Lyrics - ...
14	Can U Handle It?	(5:45) Lyrics - ...
15	Do It to Me	(5:45) Lyrics - ...
16	Take Your Hand	(3:03) Lyrics - ...
17	Follow Me