LANGUAGE IN INDIA

Strength for Today and Bright Hope for Tomorrow

Volume 11 : 12 December 2011
ISSN 1930-2940

Managing Editor: M. S. Thirumalai, Ph.D.
Editors: B. Mallikarjun, Ph.D.
         Sam Mohanlal, Ph.D.
         B. A. Sharada, Ph.D.
         A. R. Fatihi, Ph.D.
         Lakhan Gusain, Ph.D.
         Jennifer Marie Bayer, Ph.D.
         S. M. Ravichandran, Ph.D.
         G. Baskaran, Ph.D.
         L. Ramamoorthy, Ph.D.

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M. S. Thirumalai
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Bird Imagery in Keats’s “Ode to a Nightingale” and
Yeats’s “The Wild Swans at Coole”
A Comparative Study

Sujata Rana, Ph.D.
Pooja Dhankhar, M.A.

Images of Birds in Literature

The images of birds are quite common in literature since medieval period. According to Beryl Rowland, author of Birds with Human Soul, birds represent the immortal soul. Discussing the general pattern of bird symbolism in literature she remarks: “The idea that the bird represented the soul as opposed to the body, the spiritual in contrast to the earthly, seems to have been universal” (1). They have been used as symbol of new life and procreation in literature. In medieval art birds are often shown as inhabitants of paradise or the garden of earthly delights. There are numerous descriptions of Christ clutching a bird in his hand or holding a bird, both suggesting the idea of soul incarnated in body.

Providing Deeper Meaning

Reference to a particular bird in literature may give a deeper meaning to a text. For example, Chaucer characterises his Squire through the nightingale, which in his ‘The General Prologue’ to The Canterbury Tales becomes a traditional symbol for lust and sexual love:

So hoote he lovede that by nyghtertale.
He sleep namoore than doth a nyghtyngale. (2)

This is only the beginning part of the article. PLEASE CLICK HERE TO READ THE ARTICLE IN PRINTER-FRIENDLY VERSION.

Sujata Rana, Ph.D.
Associate Professor (English)
Department of Humanities
DCR University of Science & Technology
Murthal (Sonepat)131039
Haryana, India
sujju69rana@yahoo.co.in

Pooja Dhankhar, M.A. Research Scholar
Department of Humanities
DCR University of Science & Technology
Murthal (Sonepat)131039
Haryana, India
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