Explore the ways un which melancholy is presented in Ode on Melancholy by John Keats and one other poem.

Comparative Poem

Stanza Written in Dejection, near Naples (Percy Shelley)

What is ‘Ode on Melancholy’ About?

• the poem is about how to deal—and how not to deal—with deep sadness

• The speaker comes across as a kind of advisor who warns against turning to intoxication or death for relief from melancholy

• Instead, the speaker agues that melancholy should be embraced.

• The poem also establishes a link between the good things in life and melancholy

• Because anything good is doomed to end, the poem suggests that all beauty is suffused with a kind of poignant sadness.

What is ‘Stanza Written in Dejection, near Naples’ About?

• is about isolation, alienation, and the vast, enduring beauty of the natural world

• The poem depicts a lovely day by the Italian seaside that the speaker, despairing and alone, is too disheartened to appreciate

• nature's loveliness seems only to highlight the depth of the speaker's lonely suffering, which he views as a kind of insult toward's nature's splendour

• Eventually the speaker does seem to feel somewhat consoled and soothed by his surroundings, suggesting nature's power to put human troubles in perspective

Thesis

• Both Keats and Shelley explore melancholy through its transcendental link to beauty, suggesting all beauty is inherently suffused with a poignant sadness.

• In ‘Ode on Melancholy’, Keats emphasises the acceptance of melancholy through nature, warning against artificial escape from the feeling

• While in ‘Stanza’s Written in Dejection, near Naples’, Shelley emphasises succumbing to isolation and despair, suggesting nature’s loveliness seems to only highlight the depth of suffering.

Para 1 = Both - Thesis

Both Keats and Shelley presents the link between melancholy and beauty through natural imagery.

Para 1 = Both - Keats ‘Ode on Melancholy’

• Thesis

• AO1

  • “droop-headed flowers”

  • “morning rose”

  • “globed peonies”

  • “green hill in an April shroud”

  • “rainbow of the salt sand-wave”

  • “joy’s grape”

  • “rosary of yew-berries”

• AO2

  • natural imagery

  • semantic field of melancholy

• AO3

  • negative capability

  • sublime

  • romantic views on nature

“droop-headed flowers”

oxymoron = suggesting the happiness and sadness coexist

“morning rose”

“globed peonies”

Keats uses this imagery to illustrate the rich, fleeting beauty of nature that one should experience to embrace, not overcome, melancholy

“green hill in an April shroud”

• uses the oxymoron of an "April shroud" to represent how sadness or melancholy can temporarily hide beauty and joy, just as a mist ("shroud") can conceal a vibrant green hill in the spring

• This imagery highlights the transient nature of happiness and the way a melancholy mood can make one feel that beauty is obscured or even dead

• “green hill” symbolism

“rainbow of the salt sand-wave”

• A rainbow is a beautiful but temporary sight

• It requires rain (melancholy) to appear, symbolizing that beauty and joy can only exist alongside sadness and pain

• The "salt sand-wave" refers to the ocean waves, which constantly crash on the shore, a powerful and endless cycle of nature

• The rainbow appears within this dynamic and ever-changing element, showing that beauty exists even in powerful, uncontrollable forces

“joy’s grape”

The "grape" symbolizes pleasure, and "bursting" it signifies its consumption or intense experience, much like drinking wine

AO3

negative capability = embrace uncertainty and true contrasting things can exist at the same time

Para 1 = Both - Shelley ‘Stanzas Written in Dejection, near Naples’

• Thesis

• AO1

  • “the sun is warm, the sky is clear”

  • “waves are dancing”

  • “the breath if the moist earth is light”

  • “like many a voice of one delight”

  • “like light dissolved in star-showers, thrown”

  • “blue isles and snowy mountains”

  • “the purple noon’s transparent might”

  • “warm air”

• AO2

  • natural imagery

  • lack of caesura

• AO3

  • sublime

  • romantic views on nature

“the sun is warm, the sky is clear”

• the poem opens with parallelism - creating a sense of unity amongst nature and he juxtaposes himself with this

• description of a beautiful, idyllic scenes that serves as a stark contrast to speaker’s internal state

“waves are dancing”

• the poem personifies nature with verbs like “dancing”, presenting it as a living, vibrant force, unlike the speaker who feels listless

• the description contributes o the lexical field of optimism, using words like “arm”, “clear” and “bright” - cresting a vivid image of a world bursting with life and beauty

“the breath if the moist earth is light”

• personification evokes a delicate, ethereal mist of humidity in the warm air, suggesting a sense of ease and natural harmony

• the “unexpanded buds” symbolise unrealised potential growth , and future hope within nature’s cycle

“like many a voice of one delight”

“like light dissolved in star-showers, thrown”

• simile vividly compared the reflection of sunlight on the sea waves to a shower of falling stars

• represents the intense beauty

• sibilance creates a soft, hissing sound, mimicking the waves

“blue isles and snowy mountains”

symbolism of blue snd snowy vs the beauty of nature

“the purple noon’s transparent might”

Lack of Caesura

AO3

• sublime = a feeling of awe, terror, and wonder inspired by experiences with overwhelming power through nature, that pushes beyond rational thought

• nature was a central theme, seen as a source of spiritual renewal, a refuge from industrialization, and a powerful force capable of evoking deep emotion

• industrial revolution?

Para 2 - Keats ‘Ode on Melancholy’

• Thesis

• AO1

  • “no, no, go not to Lethe”

  • “wolf’s bane”

  • “poisonous wine”

  • “nightshade, ruby grape of prosperine”

  • “rosary of yew-berries”

  • “drown”

  • “death-moth”

  • “downy owl”

  • “temple of Delight”

  • “veil’d melancholy”

  • “sovran shrine”

  • “then glut they sorrow on a morning rose”

• AO2

  • semantic field of poison

  • religious imagery

• AO3

  • negative capability

  • romantic views on nature

“no, no, go not to Lethe”

• begins with a repeat of the negative commands

• a powerful warning against seeking oblivion and self destruction as a response to sadness

• Lethe is a river in Greek mythology associated with forgetting - if you drink from it you forget everything about your earthly life

“wolf’s bane”

• Wolf's-bane is presented as a potent poison, symbolising a desire to numb or end the pain of melancholy permanently

• wolf’s bane refers to a toxic plant historically used as poison

“poisonous wine”

• semantic field of poison created

• historically, poisonous substances have been mixed with wine intended to murder

• wine is also alcohol which tends to numb the senses

• symbolising a false or destructive escape from sorrow

“nightshade, ruby grape of prosperine”

• a classical allusion to the Roman myth of Prosephine

  • It evokes the myth of Persephone's descent into the underworld after eating pomegranate seeds, a symbolic act of becoming bound to the underworld and therefore an apt metaphor for death.

  • she is associated with death and plants (paradoxically life and death)

• like “wolf’s bane” and “yew-berries” nightshade is a poisonous plant

• synecdoche = “grape” is used to stand for the entire poisonous wine

“rosary of yew-berries”

• metaphor = yew berries are highly poisonous so this suggests almost a prayer to intoxication

• religious imagery = rosaries are used in catholicism to pray

• by telling the reader to “make not” a prayer of this poison, Keats is rejecting the unhealthy way of dealing with sadness that resembles religious devotion

“drown”

• the consequence of allowing death to be your guide is to “drown” you experiences and emotions

• even though they are negative he does not want you to diminished or numb your human experience

“death-moth”

• warns us not to let death become your spiritual guide

• animals associated with darkness

“downy owl”

• warns us not to let death become your spiritual guide

• animals associated with darkness

“temple of Delight veril’d melancholy” “sovran shrine”

• temple = your body

• despite joy melancholy is persistent - melancholy is a shrine within joy

• captures the nature of their relationship - hidden melancholy but still worthy of worship and acknowledgement as joy is

• "Melancholy": Personified as a goddess or queen who rules over life's most joyful and beautiful experiences.

“then glut they sorrow on a morning rose”

• metaphor = means to treat your sorrow on a morning rose

• cure yourself with the power of nature - substitution for poisoning or intoxication of the previous stanza

Para 3 - Shelley ‘Stanzas Written in Dejection, near Naples’

• Thesis

• AO1

  • “nor hope nor health nor peace nor calm”

  • “nor that content surpassing wealth”

  • “nor fame, nor power, mor love, nor leisure”

  • “that cup has been dealt in another measure”

  • “lie down like a tired child”

  • “death like sleep might steak in me”

  • “hear the sea breath o’er my dying brain its last monotony”

  • “my lost heat, too soon grown old insults with this untimely moan”

• AO2

  • imagery of death

  • caesura and end stop lines

  • anaphora

  • repetition

  • juxtaposition

  • iambic tetrameter

• AO3

  • Shelley’s financial problems and personal griefs

“lie down like a tired child”

• simile represents the submission to depression - death will be a reprieve

• the comparison highlights the overwhelming and exhausting nature of his sorrow

• allusion to his daughter

“death like sleep might steal on me”

• euphemism for death as the speaker imagines a gentle, peaceful passing

• the use if “steal” suggests a quiet, unresisted takeover

“hear the sea breath o’er my dying brain its last monotony”

• the sea is personified

• “dying brain” refers to his mind’s inability to experience the present moment due to his intense dejection

• “last monotony” of the sea is a metaphor for the final, unchanging rhythm of life as the speaker approaches death

“my lost heat, too soon grown old insults with this untimely moan”

• the heart is personified having “grown old” prematurely and actively “insult[ing]” the beautiful day

• “untimely moan” = metaphor for the pain and sorrow - he is conscious that his dejection out of place amidst nature’s splendour

“that cup has been dealt in another measure”

• isolates himself from others

• juxtaposes himself with those who “call life a pleasure” which is reinforced by the end stop line

• perhaps some religious allusions

  • Jesus begged God to take this “cup” away from him, so he wouldn’t have to die

  • the speakers sees others have been given the cup of life and he has been given sadness and death like Jesus

  • this is ironic given that fact that he was atheist = shows how his melancholy is so deep it now turns him to religion

Repetition

“nor”

• emphasises his health and loss of his daughter

• emphasises his poor financial situation

• emphasises his isolation, that melancholy has engulfed him

caesura and end stop lines

“how sweet!”, “alas!”, “call life pleasure; to me”

• continuously separates themselves from the beauty of life and nature

• juxtaposes the unity of nature and sea

Anaphora

• Anaphoric ‘I’ continues the theme of isolation by emphasising the speaker as separate from the beauty of the nature elements

• reflects romantic emphasis on the individual and nature

Iambic Tetrameter

• creates a monotonous tone which parallels the tone of dejection and sadness throughout the poem

• mimics a heartbeat slowing down - like a dying heart

AO3 = Shelley

• Shelley was extremely depressed whilst in Naples

• he was in poor health and his young daughter Clara had died in September of that year

• he had financial problems, friends had turned against him, and his poetry was not received well

AO3 = Death

• Romantics view death as a peaceful liberation from a miserable existence

• a way to becomes one with nature

• the act of dying was often depicted as a return to nature, which was seen as a manifestation of the divine