KEATS

"Ode to a Nightingale"

1. What mood is the speaker in in the first stanza?

2. Comment on Keats' use of sound and rhythm in the first stanza.

3. Explain "and Lethe-ward had sunk...".

4. How does Keats achieve a lighter tone in the last two lines of this stanza?

5. How does the use of language in II contradict the speaker's expressed wish to "leave the world unseen"?

6. Comment on the images of sickness, death and unhappiness in III. Does the speaker really succeed in forgetting?

7. Describe the tone at the beginning of the fourth stanza.8. Why are the "wings of poesy" viewless?

9. What happens to the speaker's state of awareness in the middle of IV? How is this shown?

10. In what ways is this heightened awareness developed in V? Comment on the language used and the tone and mood created. In what ways is this stanza both the climax and the turning point of the poem?

11. Comment on the ambiguity contained in stanza six. Does the speaker really wish to die?

12. What happens to the speaker's mood at the end of this stanza? Why?

13.What is the tone of the next stanza? Why does the speaker address the nightingale again? Why did he stop addressing it in stanzas IV and V?

14. Compare and contrast the mood in the last with the mood in the first stanza. Do you think the speaker has progressed in any way? How?

"Bright Star..."

1. What device does the poem begin with?

2. What does the speaker wish for, and how does he qualify that wish? (lines 1-8)

3. What feelings and sensations are conveyed by the language and imagery of the first eight lines?

4. Why do you think the speaker does NOT wish for the kind of "steadfastness" described here?

5. Comment on the lines "Or gazing on the new soft-fallen mask/Of snow upon the mountains and the morrs - ".

6. In what ways are the language, tone and mood of the last six lines different from the poem's opening?

7. What do you think Keats is saying in his poem? What IS the kind of "steadfastness" he wishes for?

8. What evidence is there that this poem explores contradictory states of feeling?9. Do you think the poem succeeds in resolving them?

Ode: "To Autumn"

1. Discuss Keats' use of language in the poem's opening stanza.

2. What aspect of Autumn is stressed here?

3. Is Keats' use of apostrophe effective? Why?

4. Contrast the mood of the second stanza with that of the first. Examine the language used to show how Keats has achieved this contrast.5.

Why does Keats now personify Autumn? Comment on the different uses of this poetic device in this stanza.

6. What aspect of Autumn is stressed here?

7. What tone is introduced with the opening line of the third stanza?

8. How does Keats introduce the suggestion of approaching winter? What mood accompanies our feeling that winter is drawing near?

9. Comment on how Keats uses a description of the landscape to conclude the poem

10. The SUBJECT of this poem is Autumn - what do you think its theme is?

"Ode on a Grecian Urn"

1. Why is the Urn "unravished", a "bride of quietness", and a "foster-child of silence and slow time..."?

2. Explain "Sylvan historian".

3. Describe the feelings of the speaker.

4. Comment on the use of assonance and alliteration in this stanza. How does the language help us to enter into the speaker's perceptions and feelings?

5. What comment would you make on the scene described in the last lines of the first stanza?

6. Why is the unheard music of the Urn "sweeter"?

7. What idea is expressed in stanzas two and three?

8. Find examples of irony and paradox in these stanzas. In what ways do the language and imagery of these stanzas qualify or contradict?

"La Belle Dame sans Merci"

1. Why do you think this poem is written as a ballad?

2.Find some examples of Keats' use of archaisms.How do they contribute to the poem's tone and mood.

3. Why do you think Keats chooses to set the poem in a remote time?

4. Comment on the description of the knight and the landscape in the first three stanzas.

5. What would you infer about the knight's state of mind from this description?

6. Comment on the knight's description of the lady in stanza IV.

7. Briefly describe what happens, from his point of view.

8. Find examples of imagery and language in the poem which stress masculine and feminine aspects.

9. In what ways, if any, does the knight find himself disempowered?

10.Is this a poem about rejection in love, or something else?What is your interpretation?

"On first looking into Chapman's Homer"

1.Comment on the extended metaphor with which Keats opens the poem. What is being compared with what?

2. How would you describe the tone of the poem's first eight lines? How does Keats' use of rhythm and vocabulary contribute to this?

3. Comment on the description of Homer as "deep browed".

4. Why are Homer's works compared to a "wide expanse"?

5. How does Keats' vocabulary contribute to our sense of Homer as a poet?

6. In what way does the mood of the poem change in the last six lines?

7. Comment on the two similes Keats uses to describe his feelings? How effective do you think they are in conveying exactly what he feels?