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Death seems to be the main theme of "Ode To A Nightingale." As the song soothes the speaker like a drug (Hemlock), he ponders and yearns to forget the "weariness, the fever, and the fret" (line 23). These woes have become a part of his everyday life. He longs for death to remove him from his present misery.
Keats at this point in his life was battling Tuberculosis, the disease that had already claimed the life of his brother. Keats himself died on February 23, 1821 of the same disease. In line 26, Keats refers to the Spectre-thin youth that grows thin and dies. This might be an allusion to his brother who died of TB in December 1818. The symptoms of the disease include weight loss and loss of appetite; it literally eats away at you! |