Publishing History, Keats' Ode to a Nightingale


Wentworth Place
Photo © Jonathan Brennan
Spring came earlier in 1819 and flocks of birds arrived in England some weeks before they normally do. Perhaps one was the nightingale which nested near Wentworth Place and helped inspire this great poem. It's believed to be the second of the five odes Keats composed that year, written most likely in May. His friend Charles Brown recalled that:
Video © Paul Hackett

"... Keats felt a tranquil and continual joy in her song; and one morning he took his chair from the breakfast-table to the grass plot under a plum-tree, where he sat for two or three hours."

Benjamin Haydon, another friend of Keats was given a copy, he shared it with the editor of The Annals of Fine Arts and it was published in July's edition, earning Keats a small sum.

It made a second appearance in 1820 but this time in book-format along with Lamia, Isabella, The Eve of St. Agnes, and other poems.


Sources

"Ode to a Nightingale." Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. N.p., n.d. Web. 3 June 2012. <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ode_to_a_Nightingale>.

"Ode to a Nightingale by John Keats." EnglishHistory.net. N.p., n.d. Web. 3 June 2012. <http://englishhistory.net/keats/poetry/odetoanightingale.html>.

Comments

JaneGS said…
For as long as I have loved this poem, I've never heard a nightingale before. It's so nice to think of the peace that watching this bird brought to Keats as described by Brown.

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