Timeline
John Keats - Ode To A Nightingale, published 1819
The nightingale is symbolic of the poetic imagination, the lyrical song, which transcends the earthly realm of human woe.
The poet, first wishing for sleep and forgetfulness, desires to leave behind the human world of sadness, sickness, age, and death "where men sit and hear each other groan". He is tempted by the material means of wine and "hemlock".
But he is only "half in love with easeful death". He recognises instead that the bird of poetry is immortal, has sung since "ancient" times, and represents a more permanent achievement of freedom which has the lasting value of singing to humanity through the ages.