To The Nile

John Keats

Son of the old Moon-mountains African!Chief of the Pyramid and

Crocodile!We call thee fruitful, and that very whileA desert fills our
seeing's inward span:Nurse of swart nations since the world
began,Art thou so fruitful? or dost thou beguileSuch men to
honour thee, who, worn with toil,Rest for a space 'twixt Cairo and
Decan?O may dark fancies err! They surely do;'Tis ignorance that
makes a barren wasteOf all beyond itself. Thou dost bedewGreen
rushes like our rivers, and dost tasteThe pleasant sunrise. Green
isles hast thou too,And to the sea as happily dost haste.

To The Nile Analysis

Son of the Old Moon-Mountains African!

The sonnet, To The Nile, by John Keats begins with

the line “Son of the Old Moon-Mountains African!”
Through this line, the poet characterizes the Nile
River as the “son” of the old African Moon-
Mountains. That is to say, The Nile has its origin
from the Moon Mountains quite like the River
Mahaweli has its origin from the Sri Pada or the
Adams Peak Mountain.

In this line, the poet uses the poetic technique of

inversion wherein the word order is inverted or
changed. Here you can see the inverted position of
the adjective “African”. Grammatically, an adjective
normally comes before the main noun, here it is,
Moon-Mountains.

Besides, the poet also uses another technique of

personification, that is; the river here is personified
as the son of the Moon-Mountains which are like
parents.

Chief of the Pyramid and Crocodile

In the next line, the Nile is called as the Chief of the

Pyramid and Crocodile. The mention of Pyramid and
Crocodile relates to the ancient Egyptians who had
built pyramids as tombs for their kings and queens.
They built these tombs with huge blocks of stones
and transported them through the Nile River in
barges to the pyramid sites. It might not have been
possible otherwise to carry these stone blocks
through the rugged desert lands spread hundreds of
miles. Thus, the poet rightly calls the Nile, the Chief
of the pyramids. If there was not the river Nile, no
pyramids might be there.

Now let’s talk about the crocodiles, It is the longest

river in the [Link] is known as the Oasis of African
continent . you might know that there is world’s
largest species of crocodiles in River Nile, especially
its banks which abound these huge crocodiles.
These crocodiles are also considered to be the God
Osiris legends. Though it isn’t clear if the poet has
used hyperbole or exaggeration in this line, he
certainly has used the technique of contrast, for
example the Pyramids, which are non-living things
whereas the crocodiles are living things.

We call thee fruitful, and that very while

In the third line of this sonnet, the poet calls the Nile
fruitful as the river is said to sustain life in the Nile
Valley not just through food from fishing and
agriculture but also by giving them a kind of
transport and also by working as a playground for
water sports. The Nile itself is a symbol of fertility
and prosperity.

A desert fills our seeing’s inward span:

The third line says same as the fourth line. The poet
through this line refers to his imagination which is
filled with a desert. Imagination is at times called the
“third eye” but the poet here refers it to “seeing’s
inward span”. In fact this line indicates that our
imagination consists of a desert whereas we are
awe-struck at the fruitfulness of the river. So,
barrenness and fruitfulness are correlated. They are
in fact considered to be another wonder of nature.

Nurse of swart nations since the world began,

Through the next line, the poet means that the river
Nile, since time immemorial, has been nourishing
and providing food to the dark nations or the
Africans. Not only has The Nile River provided life to
one country but to a number of countries whereby it
flows.

Art thou so fruitful? or dost thou beguile

Such men to honour thee, who, worn with
toil,
Rest for a space ‘twixt Cairo and Decan?
The next line of this sonnet begins with a rhetorical
question which is also followed by another rhetorical
question. Here the poet perhaps refers to temples
built for Osiris which are stretched along the banks
of the River.

The poet here wonders if the river Nile, through her

magical charm, can make people believe and regard
it as a holy river, such as the Ganges River in India.
The poet also says that the river has a rest between
Cairo and Decan. Where in Cairo the river ends in
Decan it begins.

Keats, So far (in the octave), has reverently or

respectfully treated the Nile. However, as the line
number 9 begins with the sestet, we notice a ‘volta’
or a turn in the line of thought: The poet’s outlook to
the Nile River gets changed from one of reverence
to a realistic one.

O may dark fancies err! They surely do;

Through this line, the poet says that imagination or
fancy can mislead us. Here we find Keats criticizing
his own habit of day-dreaming or ‘negative
capability’. So, the poet now starts doubting his
“dark fancies” or his romantic fancy which carried
him to the exotic lands of ancient Egypt of Pyramids,
Pharaohs and the great Nile steeped in legends. The
poet now becomes more ‘down-to-earth’ and starts
exploring the River from an aesthetic or artistic
viewpoint.

‘Tis ignorance that makes a barren waste

Of all beyond itself…’

In the above line, the poet wonders at his own

ignorance or the ignorance of the Europeans whose
‘dark fancies’ about Africa mainly contained giant
pyramids and long-stretched deserts. The poet,
through the same line, even asks: “Art thou so
fruitful?” Keats says his obsession with desert is as a
result of the ‘ignorance’ of Nile valley’s fertility. He
believes that the landscape is so fertile that it was
claimed to have given birth to the first human
civilization.

Thou dost bedew

Green rushes like our rivers, and dost taste
The pleasant sunrise. Green isles hast thou
too,
And to the sea as happily dost haste.

The poet, in these lines, starts viewing the River in

all its splendid beauty when it majestically journeys
or flows from its home to the sea. Here he likens the
Nile to “our rivers” whose plants with long leaves or
green rushes have been beautifully decked up with
drops and dew of mist This beautiful visual image
appeals to our eyes. The river also tastes ‘pleasant
sunrise’. This is a blend of gustatory and visual
images. The river also consists of “green isles”. The
poet repeatedly uses ‘green’ to bring about an effect
of lush greenery which is quite contrary to the
repeated term of ‘desert’ in the octave.

The sonnet suitably ends with the line:

And to the sea as happily dost haste.
Though Keats wrote this poem in a very friendly
sonnet, it is beautifully penned down with elevated
language that is not only rich in meaning but in style,
as well.