Ode on Melancholy

John Keats
L.O. revising tools needed to make yourself say sensible
things about poems you haven’t seen before &
understanding Keats’ ode.

Task to do as you enter the

classroom:
Write down one of the titles
of the 8 poems we studied
during the first half term of
poetry.
 Before we get to Keats…
• What did we discuss / learn / practise in the
very first half term?
 This half term…
• We work even harder to ensure we know how to
write an effective poetry analysis, PEA style and
with insightful comments on language and effect.
• We cover the final 7 poems we need study for
IGCSE literature paper 1.
• We practise an unseen text to find out how good
we are at spontaneous poetry analysis. WHY??
Because literature paper 4 is an exam that offers
a choice of two texts (one poem, one prose) that
you will never have seen before
 Ode on Melancholy
• Before we read the poem for the first time…
• What is melancholy???
Unseen advice #1: don’t write about a poem if you don’t
understand the title!
• According to Google it is: a feeling of pensive sadness, typically
with no obvious cause.
• That seems like good stuff to write poems on 
• Let’s find out what Keats has to say about it.
• Read the poem and write down what you think about the
poem & what the man is trying to tell us.
Unseen advice #2: ALWAYS comment on effect so write down
your first impression of a poem to help you.
John Keats (1795-1821)
What do you know about this poet?
Google him and give me some info in 5 mins!
• Born into a lower middle class family in
London
• Studied medicine but eventually
devoted himself solely to poetry
• His poetry was badly received by critics and he never received
widespread recognition for his work during his lifetime 
• Now viewed as one of the most important figures of early
nineteenth century Romanticism
• Keats often wrote in traditional forms (like the ode and
sonnet), but he wrote his poems about deeply felt passions
and emotions, not about historical events.
 According to medieval medicine, melancholy
was one of the four ‘humours’ or bodily fluids
Ode on Melancholy which had an important effect on a person’s
character and mood.

Keats had been reading Burton’s The Anatomy of Melancholy shortly

before he wrote this poem in 1819. That work, published in 1621,
deals with the causes and symptoms of melancholy as well as its cures
and the specific melancholies resulting from love and religion. Keats’
friend Charles Brown had given him a two-volume edition of the work.

However, in his ode Keats dismisses the traditional cures which Burton
lists. What advice does he give to the sufferer of melancholy?

Unlike the Coleridge, Keats vehemently rejects drugs as a solution.

Rather, he thinks that the soul must keep itself awake in order to
accept its anguish. When ‘the melancholy fit shall fall’, the sufferer
must remain focused on everything around them and take an extra
enjoyment in symbols of beauty such as the rose, the peony and
‘the rainbow of salt sand-wave’.
Ode on Melancholy

• Briefly summarise each stanza of the poem – what is the

focus of stanzas 1, 2 and 3?
• Look at the use of imperatives in stanzas 1 and 2 – how do
these affect the tone?
• Do you notice any images or uses of language that seem
paradoxical? Look in particular in stanza 2. What is the effect?
• Why do you think there is so much death imagery at the
beginning of the poem?
• How does the second stanza mix images of beauty and
melancholy? What is the effect of this mixing?
Ode on Melancholy

Exploring structure
• Some readers have felt that the structure of the poem
suggests the testing and resolution of an argument.
Do you think this is a valid view? If so, what part does
each stanza play in the exposition, development and
resolution of the argument?
• The poem deals with contradictions. Are they
reconciled at the end – or is the ode open-ended?
Ode on Melancholy

Key concepts
• The themes of the poem bring together feelings of
pleasure and the ways in which they are intermingled
with pain and sorrow. How does this yoking together
of opposites compare with Keats’ other poems?
• Why is it that the person who has the greatest
capacity for joy is most open to melancholy thoughts?
• What is Keats’ final message/realisation?
 Plenary
• If one of your friends had a tendency to give in
to melancholy, what advice would you give
them? Use Keats’ advice in your answer!

Painting:
Melancholy
By Edvard Munch