Ode To A Nightingale

Originally Aired: April 7, 1941 Cavalcade of America #221, "Ode To A Nightingale," playwright Maxwell Anderson crafts an intimate portrait of poet John Keats in the formative years before his literary immortality. In 1809 London, fourteen-year-old John keeps vigil at his dying mother's bedside, promising to watch over his younger siblings Tom, George, and Fanny. As the years pass, John struggles between his training as a surgeon and his burning ambition to become a great poet—not a "medium-run poet like Byron," but one who writes "words that burn like fire." While his skilled hands work in the surgery, his mind dances off on sunbeams, and he confesses to his brothers his desperate dream of leaving behind a vision that Englishmen will never let die. The narrative takes a poignant turn when George announces his plan to marry young Georgiana and emigrate to America in search of new opportunities. As George and his bride float down the Ohio River toward an uncertain future, contemplating steamboats and settlements in the wilderness, the episode explores the parallel dreams of two brothers—one venturing to the New World seeking fortune, the other remaining in London pursuing poetic greatness, both risking everything on a single throw.