Consider Ode to a Nightingale, Ode on a Grecian Urn, and Bright Star.
             Discuss the presentation of the mortal and immortal in these poems.
             In all three of these poems the ideals of mortality and immortality are compared and contrasted. As a human being Keats posses all the traits of humanity namely that which we call the human condition. He is subject to change, to time, and is susceptible to those desires and impulses which both support and hinders us. Further more, like everyone else he is ultimately at the mercy of death and it is this concept of man's frail mortality which evokes the vulnerability which he feels. Keats knows that 'Beauty cannot keep her lustrous eyes' and what makes Keats' pain more poignant is that there are creatures and objects which are not affected by such transience. They are able, simply by being who or what they are, to remain aloof from all human suffering and more significantly, stay permanent despite the effects of time. This is the status Keats wishes to obtain, that he might be capable of becoming a transcendental being like the Nightingale, Urn or the bright Star and thus 'tease (himself) out of thought as doth eternity'.
             For Keats mortality is painful since not only do we as human beings have physical and mental limitations which cannot be broken, but eventually we all succumb to these and die. While the majority of people merely accept this, Keats is unable to do so and thus Ode to a Nightingale speaks of his quest to discover some way to escape this universal obligation. He considers both drink and (in contrast to When I have fears...) suicide as potential routes which will allow him to 'leave this world unseen'. However, such acts are futile since they would not give him the eternal status of the Nightingale and it is this 'immortal bird' with its 'full throated ease' of song, that the poet aspires to emulate. For Keats, its ma...