Analysis of Ode on Melancholy by John Keats

Résumé du document

Ode on Melancholy is an example of a Pindaric ode, i.e., it is composed in iambic pentameter (we have some occasional spondees too), while the rhyme scheme is a b a b c d e c d e for the first two stanzas and a b a b c d e d c e for the third and last one. We have three stanzas, the first one called the strophe, the second – the antistrophe and the third – epode. We also have eight run-on lines and two hemistichs ( two times a caesura in the middle of a line ) but they are in the last stanza of the poem. Normally, Pindaric ode is used in less personal works but here, apparently, we have an exception.

What immediately attracts the attention of the reader is the fact that the first stanza contains words of Latin origin, refering to mythology : “Lethe”, which is the river of oblivion and suggests death (river in the underworld of Hades in which souls about to be reborn bathed to forget their past lives. Hence, it is the river of forgetfulness); “Proserpine”, who is the goddess of the underworld and in Greek mythology symbolizes the cycle of the seasons and more broad passage of time; “Psyche”, who often represents the human soul.

Extraits

[...] This is further supported by the idea that melancholy and pain are also transient and that in order to fully enjoy beauty and joy, one has to fully experience them too. Life, then, must be vigorous and intense. Every human being must live it as if the present day was his last, with all the pain and joy that this realisation entails. This «aching pleasure» is probably the characteristic of the Keatsian oxymoron and also of his whole work. The intensity of feeling, the constantly intervening melancholy are both very Romantic attitudes. [...]

[...] Go not» and «neither twist». That is why, we have chosen to stress those first in the scansion of the poem. They should express the poet's feelings. They stand for a deep rejection of suffering and should underline tha fact that the poet wants to warn the reader in some way. It is interesting and equally revealing to note that in the first stanza we never come upon the word «melancholy». However, there are many ways in which it is suggested. [...]

[...] She wept and her salty tears made the earth sterile. Pluto, then, decided to take Proserpine back to her mother for six months every year. Thus, Demester's joy brough fertility and crops for six months (this myth reflects very well the changes of the climate in some parts around the Eastern Mediterranean). Proserpine's story, because of its connection to the change of the seasons, is all the more appropriate for the poem. The use of «ruby grape of Proserpine» is important because it is a reference to the myth. [...]

[...] Also, a rosary made of yew would carry the same connotation as a wreath placed on a grave or a coffin. This theme of death is recurrent in Keats and could be partially explained by the fact that very young, he saw his mother and brother die. He himself suffered from consumption and wrote many of his poems, knowing that he will die young. But now let us come back to the poem. The use of words charged with negative meaning is strongly reinforced by the frequent use of many other negative forms. [...]

[...] On one (literal) level, the salty rain (as if falling from Demester's eyes) caused the flowers to droop. But on another level, the adjective «droop-headed» connotes sadness and grief, making those flowers as much alive as the clouds are. All natural imagery here seems to stand as an expression of melancholy. It is the sould of the world that is melancholy. The flowers are further described in lines 5 and 7 where even though the rain veils the world with melancholy, the hill remains green (which connotes fertility). [...]