How we cite our quotes: (line)
Quote #1
That thou, light-wingèd Dryad of the trees,
In some melodious plot (lines 7-8)
Nature has some seriously magical qualities in this poem. Here, the nightingale is compared with a spirit of the woods, a "dryad." Nature casts a big magic spell on the imagination, and this idea will develop throughout the poem.
Quote #2
O for a draught of vintage! that hath been
Cool'd a long age in the deep-delvèd earth,
Tasting of Flora and the country-green, (line 13)
Wouldn't it be awesome if you just found a random bottle buried in the dirt in your backyard, and when you drank it you felt like you were partying on the Mediterranean? That's kind of the feeling that the speaker wants to have in these lines. For him, nature is an intoxicant that blows regular wine out of the water.
Quote #3
And haply the Queen-Moon is on her throne,
Cluster'd around by all her starry Fays
But here there is no light,
Save what from heaven is with the breezes blown
Through verdurous glooms and winding mossy ways. (lines 36-40)
As soon as the speaker enters the nightingale's world, the images of magic return. A fay, like a Dryad, is a small magical being, a fairy. The moon and stars turn into a heavenly fairy kingdom, and the forest is a dark, lush, mysterious wonderland.
Quote #4
Charm'd magic casements, opening on the foam
Of perilous seas, in faery lands forlorn. (lines 69-70)
Near the end of the poem, the speaker gets kind of carried away and leaves normal reality behind altogether. The natural world is no longer natural – it has become sheer fantasy. He imagines the nightingale flying out of magic windows in another fairy kingdom. His imagination is kicked into overdrive, and this is a sign that he's about to have a rude awakening.
Quote #5
Past the near meadows, over the still stream,
Up the hill-side; and now 'tis buried deep
In the next valley-glades: (lines 76-78)
Like the magic bottle of wine from line 13 that is buried in the earth, the nightingale "buries" itself in the next valley. It quite literally flies in the face of the speaker's attempts to turn nature into his own private fantasy. The distance between the speaker and nature is reestablished.