Ode on Melancholy (1819) Flashcards
“Ode on Melancholy” is one of five odes composed by English poet John Keats in the spring of 1819
along with “Ode on a Grecian Urn”, “Ode to a Nightingale”, “Ode on Indolence”, and “Ode to Psyche
structure
three stanzas with ten lines each.
because the poem has fewer stanzas than “Ode on Indolence” and “Ode on a Grecian Urn”, the rhyme scheme appears less elaborate, with the first and second stanzas sharing a rhyme scheme of: ABABCDECDE, while the third takes on one of its own: ABABCDEDCE.
as with “Ode on a Grecian Urn”, “Ode on Indolence”, and “To Autumn”, each stanza begins with an ABAB rhyme scheme then finishes with a Miltonic sestet.
The general meter of the poem is iambic pentameter.
It is written in iambic pentameter with the rhyme scheme ABABCDECDE for the first two stanzas and ABABCDEDCE (with the rhyming of second- and third-to-last lines switched) for the third stanza.
Melancholy, Joy, Beauty, Delight, and Pleasure are capitalized and personified, brought to life as active characters as though they have wills of their own. The readers’ role is thus, in a sense subverted, controlled by these emotions and qualities.
Structure of “Ode on Melancholy”
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.
Ours is a world of change, of flux; the "pure wine / Of happiness" (Keats's phrase) does not exist. Melancholy has her shrine in the temple of delight precisely because melancholy and delight are unseparable.
The more intensely we feel happiness, the more subject we are to melancholy.
Unless we immerse ourselves in process (which I have also called flux and change), our sensitivity to life and our ability to experience life fully will be deadened.
Lethe
river in the underworld Hades in which souls about to be reborn bathed to forget the past; hence, river of forgetfulness.
wolf’s-bane & nightshade
poison
Proserpine
the queen of the underworld. Prosperpine was kidnapped by Pluto and taken to Hades, his kingdom.
Her mother Demeter, the goddess of fertility and grain, grieved for her loss and the earth became sterile.
Proserpine was returned to her mother for six months each year when Demester’s joy is reflected in fertility and crops.
Proserpine’s story, with its connection to the change of the seasons, is appropriate for this poem.
yew-berries
symbol of mourning. The yew is traditionally associated with mourning.
beetle
The Egyptians regarded the beetle as sacred; as a symbol of resurrection, a jewel-beetle or scarab was placed in tombs.
death-moth
the death’s head moth, so called because its markings resemble a human skull.
Psyche
in Greek, the soul or mind as well as butterfly (used as its emblem).
mysteries
secret rites
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;
Make not your rosary of yew-berries,
Nor let the beetle, nor the death-moth be
Your mournful Psyche, 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.
The poet’s passionate outcry not to reject melancholy is presented negatively–“no,” “not,” “neither,” “nor.” Moreover, three of the first four words of the poem are negative. The poet is using grammar to parallel his meaning and thereby reinforce it. The first two words, “No, no,” are both accented, emphasizing them; their forcefulness expresses convincingly the speaker’s passionate state. The degree of pain that melancholy may cause is implied by the “remedies” or ways to avoid it, oblivion and death (i.e., Lethe and poisons).
With the last two lines of the stanza, Keats specifies the consequences of seeking escape from pain--a deadening ("drowning") of the soul or consciousness. The anguish is "wakeful," because the sufferer still feels and so still has the capacity to experience joy, though this fact will not become clear till later in the poem.
And once more came they by:—alas! wherefore?
My sleep had been embroider’d with dim dreams;
My soul had been a lawn besprinkled o’er
With flowers, and stirring shades, and baffled beams:
The morn was clouded, but no shower fell,
Tho’ in her lids hung the sweet tears of May;
The open casement press’d a new-leaved vine,
The possible intensity, unpredictability, and inescapableness of melancholy is suggested by “fit.” Think of your associations with this word.
Since he uses a rain image, "heaven" as the source of melancholy is natural, but doesn't heaven have other meanings or associations? Could Keats be saying something else about melancholy here? Is there an anticipation of melancholy as a goddess in stanza III? Is there irony ?
Lines 1-4 describe the physical circumstances literally and the emotional circumstances figuratively. The clouds are "weeping," an appropriate action for melancholy. But is it surprising, even startling perhaps, to find that these weeping clouds (a negative image) "foster" (or nurture) the flower? Doesn't the reference to flowers call up positive images? However, the flowers are"droop-headed," a phrase having a double application. (1) On a literal level, the rain has caused them to droop. (2) On a figurative level, "droop-headed" connotes sadness, grief.
The flowers are more specifically described in lines 5 and 7. The rain temporarily hides the view or hill (remember all these nature images are descriptions of melancholy); however the hill is green, connoting fertility, lushness, beauty, aliveness, and it retains these qualities whether we can see them at a particular moment or not. The rain which cuts visibility is called a “shroud,” an obvious death reference, but the month is April, a time when nature renews itself, comes alive after winter’s barrenness and harshness. Is there a suggestion that melancholy is or may be fruitful?
Let in the budding warmth and throstle’s lay;
O Shadows! ’twas a time to bid farewell!
Upon your skirts had fallen no tears of mine.
The rest of the stanza advises what to do in these circumstances: enjoy as fully as possible the beauties of this world and thereby welcome melancholy. To “glut” sorrow is to gorge or to experience to the fullest. The rose is beautiful, but as a “morning” rose it lasts a short time, i.e., the experience is transitory. Similarly the rainbow produced by the wave is beautiful and shortlived (think about how long a wave lasts) Is it relevant that waves keep coming? The beauty of the peonies (“globed” describes their round shape) is “wealth”; is “wealth” a positive or a negative value here?
The last four lines turn from nature to people. The imagery of wealth (her anger is "rich") and eating intently ("feed deep") tie the natural and the human worlds and the two divisions of the stanza together. The words "glut," "feed deep," and "Emprison" imply passionate involvement in experience; also the eating imagery suggests that melancholy is incorporated into, becomes part of and nourishes the individual. The food imagery is continued in stanza III. The lover, while the object of her angry raving, also enjoys her beauty ("peerless eyes").
So, ye three Ghosts, adieu! Ye cannot raise
My head cool-bedded in the flowery grass;
For I would not be dieted with praise,
A pet-lamb in a sentimental farce!
Fade softly from my eyes, and be once more
In masque-like figures on the dreamy urn;
Farewell! I yet have visions for the night,
And for the day faint visions there is store;
Vanish, ye Phantoms! from my idle spright,
Into the clouds, and never more return!
It is important to recognize that “She” refers both to the beloved of stanza II and to melancholy. Lines 1-3 explain the basis for the advice of stanza II; beauty dies, joy is brief (while we are experiencing joy, it is saying goodbye to us), and pleasure is painful (“aching pleasure” is a characteristic Keatsian oxymoron). Line 4 offers a specific example of the abstractions of lines 1-3; as the bee sips nectar (a pleasurable activity), the nectar turns to poison. Having shown the inextricably mixed nature of life, Keats moves on to talk about melancholy explicitly.
Where can melancholy be found? As has been implied, it is found in pleasure, in delight. Melancholy is "Veil'd" because it is hidden from us during pleasure, which is generally what we are aware of and are absorbed in. However there are those who see melancholy-in-delight. They live intensely, vigorously; the language reflects their exuberance and power, "strenuous" and "burst." Their sensitivity to life is of the highest quality, "palate fine."
In the end of this poem, we see the reward of the "wakeful anguish of the soul" of stanza I. The possessor of the wakeful soul shall taste melancholy's sadness (note the synaesthesia of tasting a feeling). The change of tense, from present pleasure to future melancholy, expresses their relationship--one is part of and inevitably follows the other. Keats concludes that the wakeful soul will be the "trophy" or prize gained or won from melancholy. Trophy is described as "cloudy," which has negative overtones. Does this negative touch suggest any ambivalence on the poet's part? or is it the an absolute statement of the inextricably mixed nature of pleasure and melancholy?
Another way of asking this question: is Keats’s affirming, without any qualifications, doubt, or hesitation, the inseparable nature of opposites in life?
