John Keats · first published 1820
Ode on Melancholy
Meaning, complete text, stanza guide, vocabulary, techniques and an explained quiz.
What the poem means
The ode argues that melancholy should be experienced awake and through beautiful, temporary things rather than numbed by fantasies of death.
After rejecting oblivion, the speaker prescribes intense attention to roses, waves, peonies and a beloved's eyes, then locates sadness inside delight itself. Melancholy's hidden shrine makes the capacity for joy inseparable from knowing that joy will pass.
The poem
Spelling and punctuation follow the checked source edition. Stanza links connect the text to the guide and quiz.
Stanza 1. No, no, go not to Lethe, neither twist Wolf's-bane, tight-rooted, for its poisonous wine; Nor suffer thy pale forehead to be kiss'd By nightshade, ruby grape of Proserpine; Make not your rosary of yew-berries, 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.
Stanza 2. 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, Or on the rainbow of the salt sand-wave, Or on the wealth of globed 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.
Stanza 3. 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 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 shalt taste the sadness of her might, And be among her cloudy trophies hung.
Stanza guide
Stanzas 1–3
The three stanzas form prohibition, practice and explanation. Mythic poisons give way to immediate sensation, and the final personifications of Beauty, Joy, Pleasure and Melancholy turn an emotional claim into a crowded temple scene.
Return to stanza 1 ↑Vocabulary
- Lethe
- the mythological river whose water causes forgetfulness
- rosary
- a string of beads used in prayer
- sovran
- an older spelling of sovereign, meaning supreme
Literary techniques
Imperative voice
“go not” and “glut thy sorrow”
Commands make the poem sound like urgent counsel to a sufferer.
Personification
Joy bids farewell and Melancholy has a shrine
Abstract feelings act like figures in a ritual drama.
Paradox
Melancholy lives in Delight
The apparent contradiction expresses how loss is contained in temporary pleasure.
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