Bonus: Explication of Keats's "To one who has been long in city pent"

"To one who has been long in city pent,
'Tis very sweet to look into the fair
And open face of heaven, -- to breathe a prayer
Full in the smile of the blue firmament.
Who is more happy, when, with heart's content,
Fatigued he sinks into some pleasant lair
Of wavy grass, and reads a debonair
And gentle tale of love and languishment?
Returning home at evening, with an ear
Catching the notes of Philomel, -- an eye
Watching the sailing cloudlet's bright career,
He mourns that day so soon has glided by:
E'en like the passage of an angel's tear
That falls through the clear ether silently."
- John Keats

     John Keats's poem "To one who has been long in city pent" is a sonnet in which the speaker, in this case the poet himself, extols the virtues of nature over those of the city. The speaker finds a worshipful kind of peace when he is able to escape to the country and reaffirm the joys of existence in a natural setting. The audience the speaker intends seems to be anyone who is receptive to the influence of nature upon human sensibilities, and who would thus be sympathetic to both his feeling of confinement in the city and his exultation in a natural setting. In order to communicate that message of affinity for nature to his intended audience, the poet used a number of specific strategies throughout the body of the poem.
     The poem as a whole is in the form of a Petrarchan sonnet, in which the rhyme scheme is as follows: abbaabba for the first eight lines, and cdcdcd for the last six. This specific rhyme scheme is accompanied by the use of iambic pentameter throughout the poem's entirety, excepting the third line which contains eleven syllables. This line marks a shift in the poem's theme as it moves from purely secular descriptions of being in "city pent" and finding joy in looking at nature to such religious references as heaven and prayer. Indeed, it is the two syllables of the word "prayer" which end the third line and push the syllable count to eleven; this leads the reader to especially note the speaker's worshipful tone while out in nature.
     As the speaker continues to enlarge upon nature's virtues in such lines as the fifth and sixth in which he questions "who is more happy, when, with hearts content, fatigued he sinks into some pleasant lair," he also utilizes alternation between end-stopped and enjambed lines to highlight the lines which bring with them a sense of completion and peace. For example, the seventh line continues the above description of the "pleasant lair" as grassy and introduces a "debonair tale" with an enjambed line, while the eighth completes the four-line question (from line five to line eight) with a specific description of the book. This technique lends the poem a balance in which the reader tranquilly follows the progression of the speaker's mind toward peace as he relates the pleasures of the natural world.
     The language of the poem also lends itself to a balanced tone as it consists of both simple and elevated diction. For example, the only word which stands out as particularly elevated in the first four lines is the reference to the "firmanent" in the fourth, which is in place mostly to ground the comparison of nature with a place of worship. Later, the speaker describes the tale as "debonair" and makes an elevated reference to "Philomel," or the nightingale from Ovid's Metamorphoses, but those are the only notable uses of exalted or exclusive language. Overall, the poet's mixture of common and elevated words strikes the perfect balance of approachability and exclusivity which is likely to appeal to the widest ranging audience.
     The balanced word choice is offset by the deft use of metaphor and personification which lends itself to the peaceful flow of the poem from start to finish. For example, in the first four lines heaven is personified as having a "fair and open face" and a "smile" as well; this figure of speech is followed very fluidly by the simile in the last three lines comparing the quickness of the day to "the passage of an angel's tear." This very fluidity results from the poet's adherence to the overall theme of comparing nature to religious concepts; thus, the different figures of speech are not jarring in their presentation but flow smoothly from the concept of heaven to the related description of the angel. This results in a cohesive poem whose deft use of figurative language borders on the utilization of an extended metaphor throughout the whole text.
     Overall, all of the above referenced strategies result in a poem whose message as to the peaceful joys to be found in nature is supported by a structure with just the sort of balance and serenity that the theme espouses. The speaker's journey from confinement in the city, to contentment in the meadows, and finally to nostalgia in the wake of a beautiful day is echoed by every poetic device and resounds all the more fully as a result.