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Drd. Ramona-Paula Filimon, IB

Alexandra Bacalu Chinese-English, group 7
Seminar of British Literature

John Keats

|Ode on Melancholy| General information

-the shortest of Keats five great odes;
-the only one not to be written in the 1st person;
Definition -addresses the issue of how to deal with
melancholy;
Ode a formal, often ceremonious lyric poem -a less impersonal tone (compared to his other
Odes);
that addresses and often celebrates a person,
place, thing, or idea. 1

the Romantic ode vs. the Ancient Greek ode

-addresses an intense emotion at the onset -serious tone;
of a personal crisis -celebrates an event/
(see S.T. Coleridges Dejection: An Ode); praises an individual;
-addresses an intense emotion or celebrates -intended to be sung;
an object or image that leads to revelation
(see J. Keats Ode on a Grecian Urn,
Ode to a Nightingale and To Autumn) 1

Structure
cultural history of melancholy
-medieval medicine- melancholy = a pathological
-three 10-line stanzas;
condition; -rhyme scheme: (1st stz.) ABABCDECDE, (2nd
-Renaissance - considered a carefully cultivated stz.) ABABCDECDE, (3rd stz.) ABABCDEDCE
sadness ~ linked to creativity; -iambic parameter (Unstressed+stressed syllable);
*Anatomy of Melancholy , 1612 (Robert Burton)
encyclopedic investigation of the causes, Or on the rainbow of the salt sand-wave (16)
symptoms, cures for melancholy; - / - / - / - / - /
**Burton M. = to be avoided;
***Keats considers remedies for M., but eventually
dismisses them.
-a cancelled first
Glossary2
stanza;
Lethe (1): one of the rivers of
hell, whose watershad the
-the effect = abruptness; the abrupt opening of the poem = sudden power of making [the dead]
forget whatever they had done,
strike of melancholy; seen, or heard before.

1st stanza Wolfs bane (2): a plant of the

genus Aconitum with dull
yellow flowers, occurring in
-what the sufferer should not do; mountainous regions in
-the reader is urged not to choose solutions to his sorrow that would Europe

eventually be fatal; nightshade (4): deadly

(-the river Lethe; nightshade, or belladonna, has
poisonous berries
-the poisonous Wolfs bane;
-deadly nightshade ~ associated with Proserpine; Proserpine (4): the Greek
goddess of the underworld
(daughter of Ceres and Jupiter)

1. http://www.poetryfoundation.org/resources/learning/glossary-terms/detail/ode
2. Keats, John. The Poems. London: David Campbell Publishers Ltd., 1999
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-yew-berries;
-the beetle and the death-moth suggesting death;) yew-berries: are
-the last 2 lines explanation why one should not yield oneself to poisonous; the tree often
grows in graveyards and is
melancholy = these remedies are deadening to the Psyche [ski] associated with death
(soul) and will drown its wakeful anguish (10);
-several references to death: Lethe, Wolfs bane, nightshade, beetle, death-moth: has
markings on its wings that
death-moth, mournful, owl; resemble a human skull;
Psyche, or the soul, was
often represented as a
2nd stanza butterfly ;

-melancholy should be embraced instead;

-when melancholy strikes, it comes suddenly, from heaven like a weeping cloud (12)

-the sufferer should immerse themselves in the beautiful things around them the morning rose
(15), the rainbow of the salt sand-wave (16), globd peonies (17) ~transience~

-more references to death: shroud (14);

-also, the sufferer should also glut on the beautiful eyes of their angry lover;

3rd stanza
-the pronoun she double meaning Melancholy;

the mistress from the previous stanza;

-series of personifications- the mistress dwells with Beauty (21), beauty that will undoubtedly fade
in time; Joy is forever bidding goodbye; Pleasure turns to poison; Delight- the shrine of
Melancholy;

** all dwell together as an inseparable and essential group 3= wakeful anguish ;

-not everyone can see Melancholy in the very temple of Delight(25)

-Melancholy and Joy = inseparable;

Imagery
-contrast between each stanzas imagery;
-the opening stanza death imagery;
-the second one images of beauty (rainbow, globd peonies) mixed with those of death (April
shroud);
-the final stanza- Melancholy as a goddess;
-throughout the poem connections between images
eg. weeping cloud (12) cloudy trophies (30);
poisonous ruby grape of Proserpine (4) Joys grape (28)

3. Hebron, Stephen. An introduction to Ode on Melancholy . 9 May 2016 <http://www.bl.uk/romantics-and-victorians/articles/an-introduction-to-

ode-on-melancholy>
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Keats on Imagination and the role of the poet

The poet :
Imagination
-privileged position;
-a teacher (hence the didactic tone of the -not just a luxury, but an absolute
poem); necessity as well5;
-a worshipper (also in Ode to Psyche); -a way to escape reality;
-regarding the nature of the poet Keats: -only truth to be found in;
the poet has in fact no nature (he looses
himself in his work no character of his
is present in the writing )
- the poetical Character = has no self -
it is every thing and nothing - It has no
character - it enjoys light and shade; it
lives in gusto, be it foul or fair, high or
low, rich or poor, mean or elevated 4

Negative Capability

-Keats famous doctrine;

-prizes intuition and uncertainty above reason and knowledge 6
-the term- only appears once in a letter to a friend;
- humans are capable of transcending intellectual or social constraints and far exceed, creatively or
intellectually, what human nature is thought to allow7

Bibliography

Keats, John. The Poems. London: David Campbell Publishers Ltd., 1999
The Letters of John Keats, ed. by H E Rollins, 2 vols (Cambridge: Cambridge University
Press, 1958), i, pp. 386-7
Hebron, Stephen. An introduction to Ode on Melancholy . 9 May 2016
<http://www.bl.uk/romantics-and-victorians/articles/an-introduction-to-ode-on-melancholy>
Hebron, Stephen. John Keats and negative capability . 22 May 2016
<http://www.bl.uk/romantics-and-victorians/articles/john-keats-and-negative-capability>
http://www.biography.com/people/john-keats-9361568#recovering-poet
http://www.deepeningwoods.net/RIAK.html
http://www.poetryfoundation.org/resources/learning/glossary-terms/detail/ode

4. The Letters of John Keats, ed. by H E Rollins, 2 vols (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1958), i, pp. 386-7
5. http://www.deepeningwoods.net/RIAK.html
6. Hebron, Stephen. John Keats and negative capability . 22 May 2016 <http://www.bl.uk/romantics-and-victorians/articles/john-keats-and-
negative-capability>
7. http://www.biography.com/people/john-keats-9361568#recovering-poet