NEGATIVE CAPABILITY IN “ODE TO A NIGHTINGALE”

John Keats introduced the term Negative Capability in a letter written in December 1817. In his own terms that is, “when a man is capable of being in uncertainties, mysteries, doubts without lany irritable reaching after fact and reasons”. According to M H Abrahams this can be taken to characterize an impersonal or objective author who maintains aesthetic distance as opposed to a subjective author who personally involved with the characters and actions represented in a work
of literature, and as opposed to an author who uses a literary work to present and to make persuasive his or her personal beliefs. John Keats himself characterized this quality of writing between Shakespeare and Coleridge. In simple terms negative capability is against the pursuit of logic and reason in favor of a sense of beauty and wonder.
In Keats’ poem Ode to a Nightingale an example of negative capability is visible. The poem deals with the poet’s musings on morality in a pessimistic manner. In the beginning the poet is being mesmerized by the nightingale’s song and he is in a state of intoxication. Later poet intends to join the bird by forgetting all the worldly difficulties by having high quality vine. But then the poet rejects this idea and by his “viewless wings of poesy” he can leave the sense. He believes his imagination will help him to forget all the pains of life. And he is already with the bird with his imagination. Towards the end poet believes that this is the most appropriate time to die because he can leave the world by listening to the immortal song of nightingale. When Keats concludes the poem he is in a state of confusion and says “was it a vision or dream?” He is in a state of internal conflict and never reaching for facts or reasons. In this instance we can find
element of negative capability in Ode to a Nightingale.