In other words, by crying out to heaven, and speaking to the bird in the language of emotions and mythology, the Nightingale comes to speak for the poet's own heart and poetic persona, as the poet himself is heard speaking during the poem in open-mouthed cries that stress vowels rather than sharper consonant sounds. (Lancashire, 2002)

In this ode, Keats always focuses on immediate, concrete sensations rather than upon clever wordplay. The driving sense of the poem is its expression of the poetic emotions, "from which the reader can draw a conclusion" about the poet's "ambivalent response," to the joy and relief he feels at the sight of bird that reminds him of his own perceived inner ugliness. (Melani, 2002) In stanza four, this sense of the concrete comes to the forefront as the poet Keats moves from calling to heaven then to suddenly crying out to the bird itself....
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