Ode on Melancholy

Ode on Melancholy

After the first read, the phrase that stuck in my mind was "Sudden from the heaven like a weeping cloud". This comparison of it to a natural phenomenon makes it more mundane. Melancholy as something that has to be embraced, a feeling, a circumstance that must be dealt with.

Exploring Images with Images

Stanza 1



Proserpine and the ruby grape. "By nightshade, ruby grape of Proserpine", this image, referring to the Greek myth of Proserpine who ate the grape and sentenced herself to eternity in the underworld; is trying to tell  the reader that he should not sentence himself to death when melancholy falls.



In the first stanza the speaker is trying to warn the reader of what he should not do when melancholy comes, it shouldn't be linked to death, to autoflagellation; as religion does.



"Sudden from heaven like a weeping cloud". Melancholy comes, as a natural phenomenon, as a paradoxical phenomenon as well, since rain means "bad weather" but it really gives life to nature.

This paradox is later seen in the oximoron "April shroud", April referring the start of Spring (life), and shroud referring to death. These little hints of contradiction are throughout the whole poem, but in the last stanza this is clarified.





"Emprison her soft hand", This image is again talking about how Melancholy should be embraced, her "soft hand" should be "emprisoned". Again a contradicting term "emprison" and "soft" are two terms oppose each other, yet that is exactly what the speaker wants to transmit: opposing feelings that go together, that are connected.



"

Veil'd Melancholy has her sovran shrine,
Though seen of none save him whose strenuous tongue
Can burst Joy's grape against his palate fine;" This long, extended, image is the essence of the third stanza and the poem. It basically suggests that those who truly unveil melancholy, those who truly see her as for what she really is, are the ones who are capable of bursting Joy's grape. It makes me think that the juice of Joy's grape is melancholy, that only when you've bursted the grape, is when you will be able to taste melancholy's joy. Again, a contradicting idea. The whole poem is an extended paradox, overwrought with oximorons and synaesthetic images.

Why all the references to catholicism?

The Catholic religion implies suffering (flagelation), passion, sorrow in the stories. Temptation is a big player in catholic religion as well. "Sovran shrine", "Make not your rosary of yew-berries", these lines have a connection to religion, where melancholic passion is shrined. The speaker is trying to warn the reader, the addressee, that melancholy shouldnt be linked/combined to death, it should be embraced.

Ode on Melancholy

NO, no! go not to Lethe, neither twist
Wolf's-bane, tight-rooted, for its poisonous wine;
Nor suffer thy pale forehead to be kist
By nightshade, ruby grape of Proserpine;
Make not your rosary of yew-berries,	5
Nor let the beetle, nor the death-moth be
Your mournful Psyche, nor the downy owl
A partner in your sorrow's mysteries;
For shade to shade will come too drowsily,
And drown the wakeful anguish of the soul.	10
FIRST STANZA: What we should NOT do when Melancholy falls. We should not fall into self-indulgence, into the common-drawn connection with Death.
But when the melancholy fit shall fall
Sudden from heaven like a weeping cloud,
That fosters the droop-headed flowers all,
And hides the green hill in an April shroud;
Then glut thy sorrow on a morning rose,	15
Or on the rainbow of the salt sand-wave,
Or on the wealth of globèd peonies;
Or if thy mistress some rich anger shows,
Emprison her soft hand, and let her rave,
And feed deep, deep upon her peerless eyes. SECOND STANZA: What we should DO when Melancholy falls. It should be embraced, as something as natural as a “weeping cloud”. Your sorrow should be “glut…on a morning rose”.	20
She dwells with Beauty—Beauty that must die;
And Joy, whose hand is ever at his lips
Bidding adieu; and aching Pleasure nigh,
Turning to poison while the bee-mouth sips:
Ay, in the very temple of Delight	25
Veil'd Melancholy has her sovran shrine,
Though seen of none save him whose strenuous tongue
Can burst Joy's grape against his palate fine;
His soul shall taste the sadness of her might,
And be among her cloudy trophies hung. THIRD STANZA: Paradox between the joy of melancholy and the suffering that it comes with.	30

		Extra Questions on Ode on Melancholy 1) What first strikes me when thinking about "Ode on Melancholy" in the light of an unhealthy and decadent poem, I think about putting the narrator's "advice" into practice, and what would happen. If everyone would embrace melancholy as something daily and normal, then results could be, maybe, falling into a CONSTANT melancholy, in a state of never-ending sadness, turning into an unhealthy pratice. This, would exponentially take the human state of mind to a steady decline, given by the fact that melancholy and all that it implies would simply be considered as something as normal that comes as "Sudden from heaven like a weeping cloud". This would eventually be destructive and twisted, since melancholy would be embraced as normally as any common, regular situation. A last point that could suggest that the poem is unhealthy maybe the fact that Keats links pain (melancholy) with joy, in the last stanza; turning these two into one (typical Keats), could be considered as controversial and bold, in my opinion, its simply a suggestion, a proposal, something new to be experienced. 2) 3) Strong imagery is used throughout the poem, abundant with metaphors that have to do with tasting, or eating, feeding, glutting. These often refer to temptation, to things that appear to be nice but in fact are dangerous: "Wolf's-bane, tight-rooted, for its poisonous wine", or "By nightshade, ruby grape of Proserpine;". This helps illustrate the idea that melancholy must be fed, it must me endured and even nourished by beautiful things, such as rose or eyes of your lover.  4)