ode on meloncholy Flashcards
(23 cards)
what did john keats write to fanny brawne in july 1819
‘i ahve two luxuries to brood over in my walks, your loveliness and the hour of my death. O that i could have possesion of them both in teh same minute’
emotional pain
waht does the poem adress?
how to deal with melancholy
what is the first stanza about?
what the sufferer should not do, they should not ‘go to leth’ and try and foegt tehir feelings. Suicide is also no solution or become obsessed with symbols iof death such as the beetle, also these will only deaden not confront pain. rather the suffer should be as alert to their own suffering as possible.
the second stanza
then turns to what the suffer should do. They should emerse themselves in the natural beauty, drinking t in friom nature and the eyes of the beloved.
the final stanza
the explanation of teh advice that the poet gives-pleasure and pain are cloesly linked, all things on this earth are doomed to fade and die, the shrine of melonocoly is in the ‘temple of delight’ however it is only visble to people with imagination and senstivity as they can penertrate the mysteries of melonocholy and how it is central to joy and one who is capable shall ‘taste the sadness of meloncholys might’ and shall be hung as a trophy in melonholys temple.
context
keats has been reading burtons ‘the anatomy of meloncholy’ shortly before he wrte the poem in 1819. it deals with the symptoms of meloncholy as well as its cures and the sepcific melononcholies that result from loeva nd religion. this was given to him by charles brown. however in his ode keats dismmeses the traditional cyres burton lists.
coldridge
belived drugs tio be a solution-keats rejected this rather he thinks the sould must keep itself awake, the sufferer must remian focused in the enjoyment of symbols of beauty such as ‘the rainbow of salt sand-wave’
the mansion of many apartments
this is a metaphor he expressed in a letter to John Reynolds in 1818. ‘i compare huamn life to a large mansion of many apartments’ ‘the first we step into we call the infant and thoughtless chamber’ ‘we remain there a long while and notwithstanding the doors to the second chamber that remin wide open’ the second chamber is the ‘champer of Miaden-thought’ it starts being filled with light however whne we find the wolrd is full of misery, heartbreak and pain it becomes gradually darkned’ ‘at the same time on all sides of it many doors are set open-but all dark’
What is keats suggesting by the manion of many aprtments?
people are capable of different levels f toouht and do not cosndier the world atiudn them remin in the througjltess chamber
tone
less personal than the one in nightingale as the wolrd ‘i’ does not appear in the poem, the tone is ore didactic and more intractional than ode ona. grecian urn.
imperatives in the first stanza
negative ‘go not’ ‘nor suffer’ ‘make not’ ‘nor let’ the secnd stanza continues with this ‘then glut’ emprison’ ‘let’ ‘feed’
the poems tone is generated by a paradoxixal nature
the image of the aprul showr is ‘weeping’ like a ‘shroud’ at the sae time as it reviltaises the wilting flowers is sumilar to teh way ‘glut; usually assocaited with green is attaches to ‘morningt rose’ and ‘rainbow’
structure
three-stanza form. shortest ode keats wrote. It has a regular form each stanza being 10 lines long and wrotten in iambic pentometerthe first two follow the same ababcdecde ryme and the thrid being slightly differt ababcdedce. the initial quatrins present the stanzas tehme and fisnal sestets develop each idea
‘lethe’
refers to the waters of forgetfullness in hades-prospering is the wife of pluto and thus the queen of teh underworld
‘nightshade’ ‘wolfs-bane’
posionous plants
‘yew’
funeareal-looking plants as it is suually planted in chruchyards diue to its longevity and supposed mystical power
what imagery is there at the start of the peom?
death
what imagery is tehre in teh second stanza
beauty-images either have a fleeting quality ‘rainbow’ ‘cloud’ ‘sand-wave’ ‘anger’ or dark assocaitions ‘April shround’ thus images of beuaty are intermixed with meloncholy
personification in final stanza
personification of meloncholy as a dodess who dwells alonhside beauty joya nd pleasure each of these have both positive connotations and negative assocaiations. Melononoly is personified in the man of ‘palate fine’ the image keats ises here is a connisour of fine wine through wich he discrimates the wonders of life itself in all its transcitaory glory.
‘sovran shrine’
sacrifice demanded by meloncony as a trochy delineating her power
‘beauty.. must die’
this is not to be forgotten by the drinking from water if lethe and truning our eyes away from reality but instead celebrated as the esence of life. The awareness of morality shoudl make us more appeareciative of fleeting beauty rather than les
what is keats urging in the poem
to avoid the two extremes-escaping melonchology (immature) it is better to embrace the ebauties if art and nature these are soirces of joy hwoeevr not solutions
waht does keats realise?
the contrast between the rela and the dieal is deeply painful, but imagination and sensitivity are qualities true artists must have in abundance lead to suffering. If he loved beuaty less he would care less that he coild not hold on to it for as long
