Fugue in Ode to a Nightingale and La Belle Dans sans MerciThe two poems, Ode to a Nightingale and La Belle Dans sans Merci, clearly describe the treatment of Keats's idea of ​​escape. Both poems construct vivid illusions but insist on their bleak failure. In Ode to a Nightingale it is interesting that Keats chooses to use the nightingale as the main vehicle for his idea of ​​escape. It is through comparison with the life of the nightingale that all other forms of escape become evident in this work. In the opening lines of the first verse, we are introduced to the escape that can occur through alcohol and drugs. But I think what we're seeing here is the fantasy of escape rather than the escape itself. for the idea of ​​escape is the nightingale. The nightingale has no experience of "human life" and is all the better for it. At this point the common idea that one must have known sadness to appreciate what happiness really is along the way falls away, even if very little is known about the perception of a bird. Hence Keats's explanation of his envy: "It is not from envy of your happy lot, but from being too happy in your happiness, -" "..happy lot.." implies a certain contentment that fate has reserved, while the nightingale seems to have something unique in his life as he is enveloped in happiness. You feel like there's something so simplistic about it all that I think is confirmed by the following quote: "Sing summer with all its ease." I think "ease" is the key word here. He identifies with the total freedom from passing... middle of paper ...... but his mouth instead remains wide open, because he is shocked by the loveless situation. It is also interesting that Keats turned this scene into a battlefield scene and the knight lost badly. I think it's interesting how the last verse answers the question of the first verse, and yet is almost the same in its use of words. Here, I think Keats is showing that nothing has changed. Poetry is static and you end as you begin. So maybe the escape wasn't worth much. Works Cited Keats, John. "Hymn to the Nightingale." The world masterpieces of the Norton Anthology: the Western tradition. vol. 2. Ed. Sarah Lawall, Maynard Mack. 500th Fifth Avenue, New York: W. W. Norton & Company, Inc., 1999. 606-608.Keats, John. “La Belle Dame Sans Merci.” 100 most loved poems. Ed. By Philip Smith. New York: Dover Publications. 1995. 47-48. Press.