Keats Ode on Melancholy
Keats’ Ode on MelancholyA Literary Analysis of “Ode on Melancholy”
“Ode on Melancholy” by John Keats deals with the subject of melancholy, defined as the feeling of sadness or deep depression and how to cope with this sadness. Being the shortest of Keat’s odes, it is written in a very regular form that outlines the shape or structure of the poem. The stanzas serve the purpose of offering advice to the sufferer by following the same rhyme scheme. Keats offers this advice by using extreme paradox in order to behold the attention of the reader and make clear the connection between pain and pleasure.
“Ode on Melancholy” is made up of three stanzas, which consist of ten lines each. It is metered in a relatively precise iambic pentameter. The first two stanzas offer advice to the sufferer in a specific rhyme scheme: ABABCDE. The third, final stanza explains this advice and varies the ending slightly with the rhyme scheme following ABABCDEDCE. It varies the scheme so that the rhymes of the eight and the ninth line are reversed.
“Ode on Melancholy” in comparison “To Autumn”, follows the pattern of a two-part rhyme scheme of each stanza. Each stanza consists of one group of AB rhymes and one group of CDE rhymes, which creates a sense of two-part thematic structure. The first four lines of each stanza define the stanza’s subject while the last six lines of every stanza help to develop the subject.
The first stanza of “Ode on Melancholy” advises the sufferer what not to do as opposed to later stanzas. The speaker suggests through empathy not to do things that will make the feeling of melancholy worse such as “go not to the Lethe” (1. 1). In Greek Mythology the Lethe symbolizes the river of forgetfulness. One can conclude that instant gratification of forgetting the suffering will not benefit in the end therefore the sufferer should not forget his or her sadness. It can also be inferred that the speaker is talking the sufferer out of committing suicide. For example “By nightshade, a ruby grape of Proserpine;” (1. 4). Proserpine is the mythological queen of the underworld and the grape of Proserpine symbolizes a poison. The speaker next suggests not becoming obsessed with negative images such as, death and misery. The beetle, the death-moth, and the downy owl represent negative images of death, misery, and darkness. The overall advice to the sufferer is to remain aware and alert to the depths of his suffering, but not to get lost within the anguish or pain.
In the second stanza, the speaker tells the sufferer what do to in place of things he forbade in the first stanza. The sufferer when presented with “the melancholy fit” (2. 11) should instead overcome his sorrow with natural beauty. The speaker suggests this through more positive images. Unlike stanza one images of the beetle or death-moth he suggests in stanza two images of “a morning rose” (2. 15) or “on the rainbow of the salt sand-wave” (2. 16).
“Ode on Melancholy” in the third stanza explains these injunctions, saying that pleasure and pain are inextricable. Keats uses this paradoxical composition in several examples: beauty must die, joy is fleeting, and the flower of pleasure is forever “turning to poison while the bee-mouth sips” (3. 24). The apparent contradictions of beauty dying and joy fleeting show how pain and pleasure are intertwined. The narrator says the shrine of melancholy is located inside the “temple of Delight” (3. 25). This enlightenment is only visible if one can overwhelm oneself. Achieving this joy will then reveal its center of sadness, by “burst Joy’s grape against his palate fine” (3. 29). Once one has tasted the sadness of “her might” (3. 29), they will “be among her cloudy trophies hung” (3. 30). Here the speaker reveals the ultimate secret to overcome such pain. One must taste the goddess of melancholy in order to accomplish victory.
John Keats’ “Ode on Melancholy” is different primarily from any other of his odes for two specific reasons. It is different because of its style and it is the only ode not to be written in the first person. “Melancholy” finds the speaker advising the sufferer or reader of melancholy in the imperative mode. His advice or empathy is the result of his own hard-won experience. Throughout the ode the speaker explores the nature of transience and the connection between pleasure and pain. The speaker urges action rather than passive contemplation, a main reason why I picked this particular piece.
In conclusion “Ode on Melancholy” is the speaker’s expression of convincing synthesis of melancholy and joy, in a way that takes in the tragic mortality that life has to offer. In the end the theme portrayed is that joy will come to an end and that is what makes the experience of joy such a ravishing one. Once a friend had given me a quote in a time of despair: “Relish in the pain and let it conquer you and the most joy will follow.” Being naïve I did not appreciate such a quote, I thought to relish in the pain was the worst thing to do. As Keats suggests in “Ode on Melancholy” the best way to achieve victory or overcome such pain is to taste the goddess of Melancholy (let it conquer you) and then and only then can one move on to feel joy.