“Ode to a Nightingale” stands as one of the five now-classic odes John Keats penned in the summer of 1819. The poem follows the thoughts of the speaker as he struggles with the burden of mortality, seeking different strategies to cope with it: oblivion, revelry, poetic bliss. Accompanying and inspiring his thoughts is the singing nightingale, who appears as a messenger from some other, better world. Keats uses a variety of rich, often allusive metaphors to convey the speaker’s flights of imagination and storms of emotion.

Skills: analysis, drawing inferences from text, close reading, identifying the relationship between words

About This Document

The Owl Eyes Analyzing Metaphor activity gives students an opportunity to practice examining and analyzing metaphors. Students will engage with specific selections of the text and work collaboratively to identify the vehicle, tenor, and implications of each metaphor. The main components include the following:

• A brief introduction to the text
• A detailed handout on metaphor types
• A step-by-step guide to activity procedure
• A detailed answer key for teachers

In completing this worksheet, students will learn to classify and analyze different kinds of metaphors in order to develop close reading skills and draw deeper inferences from the text.