Volume IV: Society, Culture, and Local Ecological Wisdom

Mystical Yearning and Poetic Ecstasy: A Sufi Hermeneutic Reading of John Keats’ Poem “Ode to a Nightingale”

  • Dian Nurrachman UIN Sunan Gunung Djati Bandung, Indonesia
  • Asep Achmad Hidayat UIN Sunan Gunung Djati Bandung, Indonesia
  • Bambang Qamaruzaman UIN Sunan Gunung Djati Bandung, Indonesia
  • Dedi Sulaeman UIN Sunan Gunung Djati Bandung, Indonesia

Keywords

mystical yearning, sufistic spirituality, poetic ecstassy, John Keats.

Abstract

This study examines the poetic articulation of spiritual longing, beauty, and transcendence in John Keats’s Ode to a Nightingale through a Sufi-oriented interpretive framework. Focusing exclusively on the poem as the primary object of analysis, the research explores how metaphorical expressions and poetic imagery function not merely as aesthetic devices but as vehicles of spiritual experience. Drawing on a qualitative, interpretive methodology, the study identifies structural parallels between the poem’s imaginative movement and key Sufi concepts such as mahabbah (divine love), jamāl (beauty), and fanā (annihilation of the self). The findings reveal that the nightingale operates as a symbolic mediator between the temporal and the eternal, enabling the poetic speaker to momentarily transcend the limitations of mortal existence. This transcendence is not achieved through rational cognition but through an intensification of imaginative consciousness, reflecting a mode of knowing comparable to Sufi intuitive insight. The poem’s rich metaphoric network constructs a trajectory of inward journeying that culminates in a fragile experience of unity, followed by a return to fragmented self-awareness. Moreover, the study argues that Keats’s notion of negative capability resonates with the Sufi practice of self- emptying, wherein the dissolution of ego becomes a prerequisite for encountering a higher reality. Ultimately, this research demonstrates that Ode to a Nightingale embodies a form of poetic spirituality that transcends cultural boundaries, offering a nuanced vision of human longing for the infinite. It contributes to interdisciplinary scholarship by highlighting the convergence between Romantic poetics and mystical epistemologies.

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