19 pages • 38 minutes read
Ode on Melancholy
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Further Reading & Resources
Related Poems
“Ode to a Nightingale” by John Keats (1819)
This ode, written at the same time as “Ode on Melancholy,” echoes similar imagery of poison and the underworld. The speaker feels numb, “as though of hemlock I had drunk, / Or emptied some dull opiate to the drains / One minute past, and Lethe-wards had sunk” (Lines 2-4). The poem similarly considers the paradoxical nature of beauty and sorrow. Despite the beauty of the world, the speaker wrestles with their pain, since “to think is to be full of sorrow / and leaden-eyed despairs” (Lines 27-28).
“The day is gone, and all its sweets are gone!” by John Keats (1819)
This Shakespearean sonnet, written after completion of the odes, is generally believed to be about a parting with Fanny Brawne, although it can be read as Keats’s commentary on the end of the “day,” or life. The sense of loss is similar to that in “Ode on Melancholy,” as is the tempered optimism that because “I’ve read love’s missal through to-day, / [Night will] let me sleep, seeing I fast and pray” (Lines 13-14).
“La Belle Dame sans Merci: A Ballad” by John Keats (1819)
This ballad, written prior to the odes, centers on a haunted knight seduced by the titular Beautiful Lady Without Mercy. In a dream, he realizes he is one of many men captivated by her. This causes him to wander in a quasi-dead state. Imagery in the poem is echoed in “Ode on Melancholy,” especially the mythic first stanza. The lady’s persona resembles a poison, causing the knight’s paleness, filling his “brow / with anguish moist and fever-dew” (Lines 9-10).
Further Literary Resources
“Letter on Negative Capability” by John Keats (1817)
In this letter to his brothers George and Tom, Keats coins the term “negative capability” and describes it, alluding to the works of Shakespeare and Wordsworth’s contemporary, Samuel Taylor Coleridge. The concept can be applied to the theme of “Ode on Melancholy.” The rest of the letter contains some allusions to Keats’s dislike of judgmental behavior by upper class acquaintances.
“Cloudy Trophies” by Adam Kirsch (2008)
Writing for The New Yorker, this review of Stanley Plumly’s book, Posthumous Keats, discusses Keats’s “obsession with fame and death” and briefly analyzes “Ode on Melancholy,” which posits that to “be defeated by sorrow, in this poem, is to triumph over it.” Kirsch suggests that since Keats “became posthumous while he was still alive [...] because he knew that he was dying long before death arrived,” this exacerbates Keats’s ability to hold beauty next to sadness.
“‘I May Overwhelm Myself in Poesy’: John Keats’ Sensory Transcendence From Melancholy” by Ellen Vrana (2023)
In this blog entry for The Examined Life, Vrana connects Keats’s poem to the work of singer-songwriter Patti Smith, poet Mary Oliver, novelist Toni Morrison, and psychologist Rollo May. She mentions Robert Burton’s Anatomy of Melancholy, published in 1621 and republished in 1800, as an inspiration for Keats’ composition. Vrana argues that the poem “seeks to extend beyond our embodied self […] It is a blessed thing, stepping out from the weeping cloud of melancholy, into a consummate oneness with something more significant.”
The Odes of John Keats by Helen Vendler (1983)
This book offers an extensive look at the great odes. In the chapter on “Ode on Melancholy” (153-190), Vendler discusses Keats’s excised first stanza, the relation of the poem to the other odes, and the connection of love-melancholy to Fanny Brawne. Vendler also discusses the poem’s structure, particularly its parallelism of imagery, as well as its emphasis and development of metaphor.
Listen to Poem
For the 200th anniversary of Keats’s death, actor Matthew Coulton reads several poems for the Keats Foundation.
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By John Keats
