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flowers. The use of the "droop-headed flowers" (line 13) to describe the onset of an ill-temper, according to Bloom, represents a "passionate" attempt by the poet to describe the proper reaction to melancholy. In the original first stanza, the "Gothicizing" of the ideal of melancholy strikes Bloom as more ironical and humorous, but with the removal of that text, the image of the "droop-headed flowers" loses the irony it would otherwise contain, and in doing so subverts the
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273:, Thomas McFarland suggests that Keats's beautiful words and images attempt to combine the non-beautiful subject of melancholy with the beauty inherent in the form of the ode. He too writes that the images of the bursting grape and the "globèd peonies" show an intention by the poet to bring the subject of sexuality into the discussion on melancholy.
247:" and lets the final stanza push the main themes on its own. By removing unnecessary information such as the reason the poet suggests the trip to Lethe, Keats allows the reader to avoid the "fancy" aspects that would have appeared in the first line and were not sustained throughout the rest of the text.
174:
appears less elaborate, with the first and second stanzas sharing a rhyme scheme of: ABABCDECDE, while the third takes on one of its own: ABABCDEDCE. As with "Ode on a
Grecian Urn", "Ode on Indolence", and "To Autumn", each stanza begins with an ABAB rhyme scheme then finishes with a Miltonic sestet.
264:
The height of the joy, the moment when the world can improve no further, is both the end of joy and the beginning of melancholy. A climax implies a dénouement, and 'bursting Joy's grape' involves both the experience of ultimate satisfaction, with the powerful image of the juice bursting forth from a
242:
which he suggests supplies the ultimate case of a negative relationship because it suggests that the only true beauty is one that will die. But Thomas McFarland, while acknowledging the importance of the original first stanza to Keats's endeavor, openly praises the removal of the lines as an act of
213:
is implemented with words such as 'Joy', 'Beauty', 'Delight', and 'Pleasure' allowing the poet to create characters out of ideals and emotions as he describes his thoughts and reactions to feelings of melancholy. The difference between the personification of these words and those in the other odes
120:", the speaker of "Ode on Melancholy" speaks directly to the reader rather than to an object or an emotion. With only three stanzas, the poem is the shortest of the odes Keats wrote in 1819; however, the original first stanza of the poem was removed before the poem's publication in 1820. It was:
229:
appears subtly in "Ode on
Melancholy" according to Harold Bloom, who describes the negatives in the poem as being the result of a carefully crafted ironies that first become truly evident as the poet describes the onset of melancholy through an allegorical image of April rains supplying life to
214:
Keats wrote in 1819 comes from the fact that while the poet describes them as human, he declines to interact with them. Keats himself fails to appear in the poem, which creates what Andrew
Bennett describes as a separation between the author, the poet, and the reader. In
259:
Murray suggests that the poem instructs the reader to approach melancholy in a manner that will result in the most pleasurable outcome for the reader. The words "burst Joy's Grape" in line 28 lead Daniel Brass to state:
222:
reaffirms
Bennett's assertion that Keats's voice never appears in the poem itself when he says, "For all the florid staginess of his conceits, there is, in short, no mention of writing, of the melancholic as a writer."
158:, one can presume that the "harmony was threatened if fully half of was concerned with the useless quest after "The Melancholy". Despite its adjusted length, Keats thought the poem to be of a higher quality than "
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seen in "Ode to a
Nightingale", yet Bloom states that the true negativity becomes clear in the final stanza's discussion of Beauty. The final stanza begins:
170:"Ode on Melancholy" consists of three stanzas with ten lines each. Because the poem has fewer stanzas than "Ode on Indolence" and "Ode on a Grecian Urn", the
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Although the poem contains no overt sexual references, allegations of a hidden sexuality in the poem's text appear in
Christopher John Murray's
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what he calls "compression". McFarland believes that the poem's strength lies in its ability to avoid the "Seemingly endless wordage of "
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came from the translations into
English. "Ode on Melancholy" contains references to classical themes, characters, and places such as
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in its description of melancholy, as allusions to
Grecian art and literature were common among the "five great odes".
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discourse between the poet and the reader, along with the introduction to
Ancient Grecian characters and ideals.
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While studying at
Enfield, Keats attempted to gain a knowledge of Grecian art from translations of Tooke's
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Portrait of John Keats by William Hilton, after Joseph Severn (National Portrait Gallery, London)
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338: And feed deep, deep upon her peerless eyes.
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308: And drown the wakeful anguish of the soul.
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299: Your mournful Psyche, nor the downy owl
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368: And be among her cloudy trophies hung.
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Gaillard. Theodore L., Jr. "Keats's Ode on Melancholy." The Explicator. Sept 22, 1994.
293: Make not your rosary of yew-berries,
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387:. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 1963. pp. 25-26
329: Or on the wealth of globed peonies;
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362: Can burst Joy's grape against his palate fine;
400:(RES New Series Vol. XLII, No. 165). Oxford University Press (1991)
320: And hides the green hill in an April shroud;
350: Turning to poison while the bee-mouth sips:
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305: For shade to shade will come too drowsily,
131: To fill it out, blood-stained and aghast;
335: Emprison her soft hand, and let her rave,
296: Nor let the beetle, nor the death-moth be
135: Long sever'd, yet still hard with agony,
57:". The narrative of the poem describes the poet's perception of
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356: Veil'd Melancholy has her sovran shrine,
326: Or on the rainbow of the salt sand-wave,
314: Sudden from heaven like a weeping cloud,
290: By nightshade, ruby grape of Proserpine;
344: And Joy, whose hand is ever at his lips
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127: And rear a phantom gibbet for a mast,
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And Never Know the Joy: Sex and the Erotic in English Poetry
162:", which was not published until 1848, after Keats's death.
450:
The Visionary Company: A Reading of English Romantic Poetry
141: To find the Melancholy—whether she
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Daniel Brass. "Bursting Joy's Grape in Keats's Odes" in
465:. Cambridge: Harvard University Press. (1983). pp. 20,66
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She dwells with Beauty— Beauty that must die (line 21)
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Though you should build a bark of dead men's bones,
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129:Stitch shrouds together for a sail, with groans
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771:Bright star, would I were stedfast as thou art
341:She dwells with Beauty—Beauty that must die;
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491:University of California Press (1990). p. 172
489:Reading Voices: Literature and the Phonotext.
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743:On Sitting Down to Read King Lear Once Again
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317:That fosters the droop-headed flowers all,
265:burst grape, and the beginning of a decline.
520:Encyclopedia of the Romantic Era: 1760-1850
416:. Cambridge University Press (1994). p. 133
332:Or if thy mistress some rich anger shows,
287:Nor suffer thy pale forehead to be kiss'd
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347:Bidding adieu; and aching Pleasure nigh,
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323:Then glut thy sorrow on a morning rose,
750:When I have Fears that I may Cease to Be
509:Oxford University Press, pp. 94–96
311:But when the melancholy fit shall fall
281:No, no, go not to Lethe, neither twist
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452:Cornell University Press (1971). p. 413
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302:A partner in your sorrow's mysteries;
133:Although your rudder be a dragon's tail
89:, the majority of his understanding of
574:An omnibus collection of Keats' poetry
722:On First Looking into Chapman's Homer
139:Of bald Medusa, certes you would fail
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583:Poetry Foundation, Ode on Melancholy
398:A Greek Eco in Ode on a Grecian Urn.
85:. Although Keats attempted to learn
41:in the spring of 1819, along with "
545:Foundation, Poetry (27 June 2024).
353:Ay, in the very temple of Delight
736:You say you love; but with a voice
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547:"Ode on Melancholy by John Keats"
522:Taylor and Francis (2004). p. 723
478:. London: Heinemann, 1968. p. 300
257:Encyclopedia of the Romantic Era.
175:The general meter of the poem is
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1:
837:The Fall of Hyperion: A Dream
805:Isabella, or the Pot of Basil
414:Keats, Narrative and Audience
183:Themes and critical responses
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518:Murray, Christopher John.
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37:composed by English poet
764:La Belle Dame sans Merci
535:Ed. C.C. Barfoot. p. 218
985:Works about melancholia
870:Charles Wentworth Dilke
633:John Keats bibliography
108:Unlike the speaker of "
16:1819 poem by John Keats
890:John Hamilton Reynolds
860:Charles Armitage Brown
463:The Odes of John Keats
383:Bate, Walter Jackson.
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865:Charles Cowden Clarke
757:The Eve of Saint Mark
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206:", c. 1816–1820
198:, an illustration to
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149:(original lines 1-10)
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980:Poetry by John Keats
900:Percy Bysshe Shelley
829:The Eve of St. Agnes
688:Ode to a Nightingale
667:Ode on a Grecian Urn
114:Ode to a Nightingale
110:Ode on a Grecian Urn
79:Classical Dictionary
47:Ode to a Nightingale
43:Ode on a Grecian Urn
939:negative capability
505:.McFarland, Thomas
232:negative capability
227:Negative capability
651:Poetry collections
507:The Masks of Keats
487:Stewart, Garrett.
474:Gittings, Robert.
271:The Masks of Keats
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551:Poetry Foundation
412:Bennett, Andrew.
396:John B. Gleason.
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990:Proserpina
975:1819 poems
969:Categories
880:Leigh Hunt
781:Long poems
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476:John Keats
385:John Keats
372:References
196:Melancholy
103:Proserpine
69:Background
61:through a
59:melancholy
39:John Keats
702:To Autumn
659:1819 odes
166:Structure
83:Polymetis
35:five odes
813:Hyperion
797:Endymion
773:" (1820)
766:" (1819)
759:" (1819)
752:" (1818)
745:" (1818)
738:" (1817)
731:" (1816)
724:" (1815)
245:Endymion
147:—
116:", and "
75:Pantheon
53:", and "
921:Related
905:Adonais
662:(1819)
556:28 June
848:People
840:(1819)
832:(1819)
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816:(1818)
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800:(1817)
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200:Milton
101:, and
95:Psyche
821:Lamia
99:Lethe
63:lyric
558:2024
277:Text
202:'s "
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