Recently on the Moodle website, Dr. H, a few classmates, and I discussed how much of poetry is interpreted based on the reader's experiences and how much can only be interpreted based on the author's experiences. Tonight, I realized that quite a bit of meaning is gleaned through the reader.
I read Keats' "Ode to a Nightingale" only this evening, and as I wrote up my response, realized that my vision of the speaker's situation almost mirrored my mental pH, so to speak. I'm in no way a dark, gloomy person, but since my early teen years, if not earlier, I have spent a lot of time mulling death and the afterlife. Most of this is due to my religious beliefs and curiosities - when I spend time reading Scripture, I am very interested in what God has to say about our eternal future - my eternal future.
Sometimes I take in the day's events around the world and feel claustrophobic. I mourn the fact that I am stuck in a world that experiences such pain and suffering. I get bogged down in fear and depression - I want out. I feel like I'm trapped in a very tight, very volatile box with a bunch of dangerous criminals and blood-thirsty radicals, and I want to run, flee, get away from it. Of course, I can't, so I get to feeling the way I thought Keats sounded - sad, gloomy, hopeless, and just ready to give up and let death swallow us.
But according to my God, I was not appointed to this fate ("Thou wast not born for death, immortal Bird!"). According to my God, I have a higher calling. I am NOT hopeless in this world, and I am certainly NOT helpless. I will not accept the fate that it sounds as if Keats was ready to accept, not willingly. I will be like the nightingale, "Still wouldst thou sing....Singest of summer in full-throated ease."
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What a wonderful introspection! I share your concerns about our world's state. I often have to remind myself that even though the world has all of this pain and suffering it is also a world of hope and love. My Lord said that "the poor will be with you always". The sad part is the experience of the truth of that statement.
Your final affirmation is inspirational! When you get to be my age you begin to doubt in the heart of the generation to follow. You have given me hope. Thank you.
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