General Comments
Circumstances are like Clouds continually gathering and bursting--while we are laughing the seed of
some trouble is put into the wide arable land of events--while we are laughing it sprouts it grows and
suddenly bears a poison fruit which we must pluck.
(Keats, letter to his brother and sister, spring
1819)
In "Ode on Melancholy" Keats accepts the truth he sees: joy and pain are inseparable and to experience
joy fully we must experience sadness or melancholy fully. This ode expresses Keats's view
wholeheartedly; it differs significantly from "Ode to a Nightingale" and "Ode on a Grecian Urn," in which the
poet-dreamer attempts to escape from reality into the ideal and unchanging world of the nightingale and
the urn. Keats valued intensity of emotion, intensity of thought, and intensity of experience; fulfillment comes
from living and thinking passionately. Keats does not shrink from the implication that feeling
intensely means that grief or depression may well cause anguish and torment.
Structure of "Ode on Melancholy"
This poem has a logical structure or progression. Stanza I urges us not try to escape pain. Stanza II tells
us what to do instead--embrace the transient beauty and joy of the nature and human experience, which contain pain and death. Stanza III makes clear that in order to experience
joy we must experience the sorrow that beauty dies, joy evaporates.
Ours is a world of change, of flux; the "pure wine / Of happiness" (Keats's phrase) does not exist.
Melancholy has her shrine in the temple of delight precisely because melancholy and delight are
unseparable. The more intensely we feel happiness, the more subject we are to melancholy. Unless we
immerse ourselves in process (which I have also called flux and change), our sensitivity to life and our ability
to experience life fully will be deadened.
Analysis
Much of the effectiveness of this poem derives from the concrete imagery. Throughout the poem, Keats yokes or joins elements
which are ordinarily regarded as incompatible or as opposites. How is this technique appropriate for the
theme of this poem? How, in fact, does this technique illustrate that theme?
Stanza I
The poet's passionate outcry not to reject melancholy is presented negatively--"no," "not," "neither,"
"nor." Moreover, three of the first four words of the poem are negative. The poet is using grammar to parallel his
meaning and thereby reinforce it. The first two words, "No, no," are both accented, emphasizing them;
their forcefulness expresses convincingly the speaker's passionate state. The degree of pain that melancholy
may cause is implied by the "remedies" or ways to avoid it, oblivion and death (i.e., Lethe and poisons).
With the last two lines of the stanza, Keats specifies the consequences of seeking escape from pain--a
deadening ("drowning") of the soul or consciousness. The anguish is "wakeful," because the sufferer
still feels and so still has the capacity to experience joy, though this fact will not become clear till later
in the poem.
Stanza II
The possible intensity, unpredictability, and inescapableness of melancholy is suggested by "fit." Think
of your associations with this word.
Since he uses a rain image, "heaven" as the source of
melancholy is natural, but doesn't heaven have other meanings or associations? Could Keats be saying
something else about melancholy here? Is there an anticipation of melancholy as a goddess in stanza III?
Is there irony ?
Lines 1-4 describe the physical circumstances literally and the emotional circumstances figuratively. The
clouds are "weeping," an appropriate action for melancholy. But is it surprising, even startling perhaps,
to find that these weeping clouds (a negative image) "foster" (or nurture) the flower? Doesn't the
reference to flowers call up positive images? However, the flowers are"droop-headed," a phrase having
a double application. (1) On a literal level, the rain has caused them to droop. (2) On a figurative level,
"droop-headed" connotes sadness, grief. The flowers are more specifically described in lines 5 and 7.
The rain temporarily hides the view or hill (remember all these nature images are descriptions of melancholy);
however the hill is green, connoting fertility, lushness, beauty, aliveness, and it retains these qualities
whether we can see them at a particular moment or not. The rain which cuts visibility is called a "shroud,"
an obvious death reference, but the month is April, a time when nature renews itself, comes alive after
winter's barrenness and harshness. Is there a suggestion that melancholy is or may be fruitful?
The rest of the stanza advises what to do in these circumstances: enjoy as fully as possible the beauties
of this world and thereby welcome melancholy. To "glut" sorrow is to gorge or to experience to the
fullest. The rose is beautiful, but as a "morning" rose it lasts a short time, i.e., the experience is
transitory. Similarly the rainbow produced by the wave is beautiful and shortlived (think about how long a wave
lasts) Is it relevant that waves keep coming? The beauty of the peonies ("globed" describes their round
shape) is "wealth"; is "wealth" a positive or a negative value here?
The last four lines turn from nature to people. The imagery of wealth (her anger is "rich") and eating
intently ("feed deep") tie the natural and the human worlds and the two divisions of the stanza together. The words "glut,"
"feed deep," and "Emprison" imply passionate involvement in experience; also the eating imagery suggests that
melancholy is incorporated into, becomes part of and nourishes the individual. The food imagery is
continued in stanza III. The lover, while the object of her angry raving, also enjoys her beauty ("peerless
eyes").
Stanza III
It is important to recognize that "She" refers both to the beloved of stanza II and to melancholy. Lines
1-3 explain the basis for the advice of stanza II; beauty dies, joy is brief (while we are experiencing joy, it is saying
goodbye to us), and pleasure is painful ("aching pleasure" is a characteristic Keatsian oxymoron). Line 4 offers a specific example of the
abstractions of lines 1-3; as the bee sips nectar (a pleasurable activity), the nectar turns to poison. Having
shown the inextricably mixed nature of life, Keats moves on to talk about melancholy explicitly.
Where can melancholy be found? As has been implied, it is found in pleasure, in delight. Melancholy
is "Veil'd" because it is hidden from us during pleasure, which is generally what we are aware of and are
absorbed in. However there are those who see melancholy-in-delight. They live intensely, vigorously;
the language reflects their exuberance and power, "strenuous" and "burst." Their sensitivity to life is
of the highest quality, "palate fine."
In the end of this poem, we see the reward of the "wakeful anguish of the soul" of stanza I. The possessor of the wakeful soul shall
taste melancholy's sadness (note the synaesthesia of tasting a
feeling). The change of tense, from present pleasure to future melancholy, expresses their
relationship--one is part of and inevitably follows the other. Keats concludes that the wakeful soul will be the "trophy"
or prize gained or won from melancholy. Trophy is described as "cloudy," which has negative overtones.
Does this negative touch suggest any ambivalence on the poet's part? or is it the an absolute statement of
the inextricably mixed nature of pleasure and melancholy?
Another way of asking this question: is Keats's affirming, without any qualifications, doubt, or hesitation,
the inseparable nature of opposites in life?
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