Author Question: In light of the assumption made in the last two lines, why do you think thespeaker goes on writing? ... (Read 20 times)

nmorano1 · **on:** Jul 20, 2018

In light of the assumption made in the last two lines, why do you think thespeaker goes on writing?

What will be an ideal response?

Question 2

How would you interpret lines 1516?

What will be an ideal response?

fatboyy09 · **Reply #1 on:** Jul 20, 2018

Answer to Question 1

For the true artist, the creation of the workno matter who its intended audience may beis ultimately an end in itself and its own reward. And even if the lovers he seeks to console pay him no heed, it seems that it is only through the practice of his art that the speaker is able to find any consolation for his own griefs.

Answer to Question 2

Almost inevitably, the word nightingales calls to mind John Keatss Ode to a Nightingale, and perhaps even William Butler Yeatss Sailing to Byzantium, with its mechanical golden singing bird; both of these great poems pursue an end of suffering through things that transcend the humannot unlike the heaven that is exalted by psalms. Thus, the speaker might be seen here as standing apart from these towering dead poets and mystics who turned toward a peace beyond our human woes, and instead making common cause with the lovers who are helplessly enmeshed in lifes griefs.