ODE ON MELANCHOLY

John Keats

ABOUT THE POEM

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.

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.

STANZA 1

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.
Wolfs bane & nightshade: poisonous plants that contain
sedative
Prosperine: queen of Underworld , daughter of Demeter.

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 mourning
Beetle: 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

STANZA 2

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.

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 fullest
Morning rose: lasts a short time i.e. the melancholic
experience is transitory
Sand-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

STANZA 3

She dwells with BeautyBeauty 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.

Ay, in the very temple of Delight

Veil'd Melancholy has her sovran
shrine,
Delight & Melancholy are personified;
Melancholy lives in the temple of Delight
Veild 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.

THEMES

Joy and sorrow and connected.

Those who embrace melancholy will always be happy.

ROMANTICISM

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 reason
mystery rather than clarity
individual rather than society
rebellion rather than acceptance
Role of nature in transformation of character

ROMANTIC POETS

Wordsworth: Nature for mans intellectual

and spiritual growth
Coleridge: supernatural aspect of Nature &
role of poets 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.