In “Ode to a Nightingale,” John Keats uses nature and a nightingale as figures for an optimistic view of mortality, and the speaker's life in particular. Throughout the poem, the nightingale itself is a figure of the beautiful and cyclical nature of life. The natural environment illustrates the fertility and optimism that characterize this natural cycle. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on “Why Violent Video Games Should Not 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, thereby conveying to the reader his appreciation of the natural world and the connection between human and animal life. The wording of this part of the poem and the use of vivid adjectives referring to fertility and prosperity serve to illustrate the author's optimistic view of the natural world: May you, Dryad of the light-winged trees, In a melodious plot Of beech green, and countless shadows, Singest of summer in all simplicity. (7-10) The speaker's image of a "light-winged dryad" and "beech-green" trees emphasizes the youth and beauty of the bird. Dryads are mythical creatures usually associated with occasions involving music, dance, nature and happiness; the allusion thus 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 the bird, is light and optimistic in nature. In the second and third stanzas, there is a shift in tone to express optimism for the future through acceptance of mortality. In the second stanza, the poet calls for wine to change one's perception and improve one's understanding of mortality and existence in nature. His descriptions become much more typically romantic as he refers to wine as a “potion of the vintage” (11). This association between intoxication and nature gives the wine an almost mystical quality. The speaker describes the wine as a "tasting of Flora and greenery of the country" (13), and its environment as that of "Provencal dance and song" (14). The idea 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 represents summer, song, and dance, an optimism that is heightened in the poem's next stanza, in which the speaker considers his mortal fate. However, through alcohol, the speaker believes he can gain a glimpse of the nightingale's immortality. Even when faced with worrying and inevitable mortality, the speaker optimistically continues to follow the path of the nightingale and thus discovers beauty in the darkness. . The poet, still optimistic in his belief in the nightingale, attempts once again to achieve peace, but 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 times. "Already with you! tender is the night, And perhaps the Moon-Queen is on her throne, Gathered around all. her starry Fays" (35-37). Here the emphasis is on the inherent strength and perfection of nature. The night is described as “tender” and the moon is idealized, represented on a throne and surrounded by fairies. Nature is described in a very appealing way that suggests both the speaker's optimism about the natural world and the reader's optimism about their own destiny. The positive tone of this section is expanded through the subsequent description of the trees and their fruitful productivity: “But, in.