Original Paragraph
The Romantic notion of transcendentalism is highly evident in John Keats’ “Ode to a Nightingale.” Keats wishes to transcend human reality on Earth just as the nightingale does in order to escape human suffering, “That I might drink, and leave the world unseen,/ And with thee (the nightingale) fade away into the forest dim (19-20).” Once he sees beyond reality, he will be able to understand what those involved only in human society can never understand, the part of the world that is beyond the realms of both science and imagination. In fact, it is beyond human comprehension. When he gains this divine understanding of the world, he will be able to look past his relatively insignificant human suffering. He knows that the nightingale escapes Earthly suffering because of its eternal joyful song,
While thou art pouring forth thy soul abroad
In such an ecstasy!
Still wouldst thou sing, and I have ears in vain (57-59)…
What thou among the leaves hast never known,
The weariness, the fever, and the fret
Here, where men sit and hear each other groan;
Where palsy shakes a few, sad, last gray hairs (22-25)
The nightingale sees beyond the problems with the world because it has a divine understanding that perhaps allows it to see the reasons for the problems. As a result, nothing is stopping it from forever singing in joy. Keats’ notion of transcendentalism in this poem is one of the most fundamental concepts of Romanticism.
Revision
The Romantic notion of transcendentalism is highly evident in John Keats’ “Ode to a Nightingale.” Keats wishes to transcend human reality on Earth just as the nightingale does in order to escape human suffering, “That I might drink, and leave the world unseen,/ And with thee (the nightingale) fade away into the forest dim (19-20).” Once he sees beyond reality, he will be able to understand what those involved only in human society can never understand, the part of the world that is beyond the realms of both science and imagination. In fact, it is beyond human comprehension. When he gains this divine understanding of the world, he will be able to look past his relatively insignificant human suffering. He knows that the nightingale escapes Earthly suffering because of its eternal joyful song,
While thou art pouring forth thy soul abroad
In such an ecstasy!
Still wouldst thou sing, and I have ears in vain (57-59)…
What thou among the leaves hast never known,
The weariness, the fever, and the fret
Here, where men sit and hear each other groan;
Where palsy shakes a few, sad, last gray hairs (22-25)
The nightingale sees beyond the problems with the world because it has a divine understanding that allows it to see the reasons for the problems. As a result, nothing is stopping it from forever singing in joy. Keats wants to have the same experience of divine realization and understanding that the nightingale does so that he can see the reasons for his natural suffering as a human being. Once he understands the reasons why humans must suffer and why he in particular must suffer, he will accept his role as a human being; he will know the end result that is meant to come from his suffering. Transcendentalism is a large part of many Romantic works. In "Ode to a Nightingale," John Keats uses a standout example of it.
Reasons for Revisions
In the new version fo the paragraph, I added more to the warrant for the second quotation. I tied the nightingale's experience back to Keats' experience in order to better prove the claim. I made it so that the explanations I added at the end finally tied back to the end of the claim. In other words, everything after the claim excpet for the concluding sentence broke down its parts and essentially restated them through explanation. I first broke down the general concept of transcendentalism as it applies to this poem, and then broke down Keats' reasons for using it.
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