John KeatsODE ON MELANCHOLY

In "Ode on Melancholy" Keats accepts the truth he sees: joy and pain are inseparable

and to experience joy fully we must experience sadness or melancholy fully.

It differs significantly from "Ode to a Nightingale" and "Ode on a Grecian Urn," in which the poet-dreamer attempts to escape from reality into the ideal and unchanging

world of the nightingale and the urn.

ABOUT THE POEM

This poem has a logical structure or progression. Stanza I urges us not try to escape pain.

Stanza II tells us what to do instead--embrace the transient beauty and joy both of nature and of human experience, which contain pain and

death. Stanza III makes clear that in order to

experience joy we must experience the sorrow that beauty dies, joy evaporates.

No, no, go not to Lethe, neither twist Wolf's-bane, tight-rooted, for its poisonous wine;

Nor suffer thy pale forehead to be kiss'd By nightshade, ruby grape of Proserpine;

He is urging people not to consider suicide when depressed as an escape.

Lethe: in Gk myth soul drank from the river to forget their past lives.

Wolf’s bane & nightshade: poisonous plants that contain sedative

Prosperine: queen of Underworld , daughter of Demeter.

STANZA 1

Make not your rosary of yew-berries, Nor let the beetle, nor the death-moth be

Your mournful Psyche,

He stops from contemplating on images of death.Rosary: string of beads

Yew-berries: symbol of mourningBeetle: image of death; the sacred scarab

worshipped by the Egyptians as a symbol of resurrection of soul

and placed in coffins with the dead. Seals and stamps were created in the shape of scarab.Death-moth: it carried pattern resembling

skull on its body – in classical myth soul was symbolized as the butterfly.

Psyche: goddess of beauty loved by Cupid; in Gk the word means ‘soul’ or ‘breath of life’

Cupid: in Gk means ‘desire’; god of love

nor the downy owl A partner in your sorrow's mysteries;

For shade to shade will come too drowsily,

And drown the wakeful anguish of the soul.

Downy owl: ranks with rats & spiders as most celebrated of Halloween creatures.Poet says that Melancholy will drown all

your anguish.

But when the melancholy fit shall fall Sudden from heaven like a weeping cloud,

That fosters the droop-headed flowers all, And hides the green hill in an April shroud;

Melancholy will come as sudden as cloud and nourish your soul like unexpected rain revives

flowers.Cloud and April are personified.

STANZA 2

Then glut thy sorrow on a morning rose, Or on the rainbow of the salt sand-wave,

Or on the wealth of globed peonies;

Glut: to your fullestMorning rose: lasts a short time i.e. the melancholic

experience is transitorySand-wave: the rainbow produced by the wave too is

shortlived.Globed: description of the round shape of the flowers.

Or if thy mistress some rich anger shows,

Emprison her soft hand, and let her rave,

And feed deep, deep upon her peerless eyes.

Poet turns from nature to people.Peerless eyes: beautiful

Melancholy becomes part of and nourishes the individual – the lover is asked to enjoy

her beauty even when she is angry.

She dwells with Beauty—Beauty that must die;

And Joy, whose hand is ever at his lips Bidding adieu; and aching Pleasure nigh,

Turning to poison while the bee-mouth sips:

Keats’ philosophy that Beauty, Joy & Pleasure are temporary but adds that suffering is necessary for

happiness.She: refers to Melancholy

STANZA 3

Aching pleasure: keatsian oxymoron, pleasure is painful

Bee-mouth sips: as the bee sips nectar, the nectar turns to poison.

Keats tries to show the mixed nature of life: how happiness and sorrow are

inextricably linked.

STANZA 3

Ay, in the very temple of Delight Veil'd Melancholy has her sovran

shrine,

Delight & Melancholy are personified; Melancholy lives in the temple of DelightVeil’d Melancholy: Melancholy is veiled as

it is hidden from us during Pleasure.

Though seen of none save him whose strenuous tongue

Can burst Joy's grape against his palate fine;

His soul shalt taste the sadness of her might,

And be among her cloudy trophies hung.

Only those who understand that the two are inseparable can taste real happiness.

Describes the physical act of eating of grapes with the spiritual joy of soul.

Joy and sorrow and connected.

Those who embrace melancholy will always be happy.

THEMES

Reaction to changes in society, to urbanization & industrialization.

Reaction to “enlightenment” or so-called intellectualism

Reaction against rigid social structures: American & French revolutions

Reaction against materialism of age

ROMANTICISM

Defined new role for poet, distinguished by intensity of perception & imagination

Emphasis on emotion rather than reasonmystery rather than clarity

individual rather than societyrebellion rather than acceptance

Role of nature in transformation of character

ROMANTICISM

Wordsworth: Nature for man’s intellectual and spiritual growth

Coleridge: supernatural aspect of Nature & role of poet’s imagination (imagery)

Shelley: Nature as inspiration for change and reforms (‘poet is the author of

revolutions in opinion’)Keats: Nature as a means to escape from

this world, his negative capability.

ROMANTIC POETS