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Abstract
"Ode to a Nightingale" is a voyage of discovery by Keats' creative self, his longing for an imagination similar to Ruth's passions for her home, and his desire to be creative like his nightingale. To interpret this voyage, I resort to the symbolic approach because it helps readers to better understand and appreciate the depth of this ode. The poet tries to achieve immortality by joining the nightingale in the forest. The back ground of the poem is nature, where the romantic poet can find himself in an environment that reflects and represents him perfectly. The singing of the nightingale is a symbol of poetic creativity and immortality. One of the factors that helps the poet transcend himself and reach the level of the nightingale, which embodies imagination, is escaping from his familiar reality to the world of the nightingale. However, the death mentioned in the poem is not just related to physical death, but rather to the imagination and its fulfillment. In "Ode to a Nightingale," there is a movement of elements that arouses the poet's creativity in an attempt to gain immortality. Finally, this movement reaches its climax in the poet's revelation during which he asks an open-ended question about his waking dream, showing that he realizes that he is immersed in a vision and a holy dream.