After Wordsworth, Keats is my favorite English Romantic Poet. I like to use this poem to show students that one text can be interpreted in opposite ways. I think it's important to learn different sides of an issue especially for the current "millennial generation" of students who prefer to think things are black or white. Life, of course, is not that simple and a belief in absolutes can lead to intolerance. I also use pieces of artwork which give "painted" interpretations of the poem. It's interesting to note the variety of these "translations."
Keats was born in London, England in 1795. His father was the manager of a pub and died in a riding accident when Keats was eight. His mother died of tuberculosis when he was fourteen, as did one of his brothers, Thomas, eight years later. Keats had nursed them both. Keats himself died of the disease in 1821, eight months before his twenty-sixth birthday. He accomplished a great deal in his short life, though his poetry was not universally appreciated during his lifetime. One critic writing for Blackwoods Magazine coined the term "Cockney School" of poetry for his work. The real criticism of course was aimed at the fact that he was not "upper class." The movie Bright Star that came out a few years ago based on his love affair with Fanny Brawne is a good introduction to Keats. At the end of the film, during the credits, Ben Whishaw, who plays Keats, recites "Ode to a Nightingale." Sitting in the audience I felt that Keats was speaking the words of that very lovely poem.
Here is the link to "La Belle": http://www.poetryfoundation.org/poem/173740
And here are links to four Nineteenth Century paintings which interpret the poem:
Cowper: http://www.humanitiesweb.org/human.php?s=g&p=c&a=p&ID=75
Arthur Hughes: http://cgfa.acropolisinc.com/hughes/p-hughes19.htm
Waterhouse: http://cgfa.acropolisinc.com/waterhou/p-waterh48.htm
Frank Dicksee: http://cgfa.acropolisinc.com/d/p-dicksee1.htm
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