Ode on Melancholy
Ode on Melancholy
Original Text
John Keats, Lamia, Isabella, The Eve of St. Agnes, and Other Poems (1820). Facs. edn.: Scolar Press, 1970. PR 4830 E20AB Fisher Rare Book Library (Toronto).
2 Wolf's-bane, tight-rooted, for its poisonous wine;
3Nor suffer thy pale forehead to be kiss'd
4 By nightshade, ruby grape of Proserpine;
5 Make not your rosary of yew-berries,
7 Your mournful Psyche, nor the downy owl
8A partner in your sorrow's mysteries;
9 For shade to shade will come too drowsily,
10 And drown the wakeful anguish of the soul.
11But when the melancholy fit shall fall
12 Sudden from heaven like a weeping cloud,
13That fosters the droop-headed flowers all,
14 And hides the green hill in an April shroud;
15Then glut thy sorrow on a morning rose,
16 Or on the rainbow of the salt sand-wave,
17 Or on the wealth of globed peonies;
18Or if thy mistress some rich anger shows,
19 Emprison her soft hand, and let her rave,
20 And feed deep, deep upon her peerless eyes.
21She dwells with Beauty--Beauty that must die;
22 And Joy, whose hand is ever at his lips
23Bidding adieu; and aching Pleasure nigh,
24 Turning to poison while the bee-mouth sips:
25Ay, in the very temple of Delight
26 Veil'd Melancholy has her sovran shrine,
27 Though seen of none save him whose strenuous tongue
28 Can burst Joy's grape against his palate fine;
29His soul shalt taste the sadness of her might,
30 And be among her cloudy trophies hung.
Notes
1] The original first stanza of the poem, suppressed before publication ended: "you would fail/To find the Melancholy--whether she/Dreameth in any isle of Lethe dull." Back to Line
6] death moth: the Death's-head moth. Back to Line
Publication Start Year
1820
RPO poem Editors
J. R. MacGillivray
RPO Edition
3RP 2.652.
Rhyme
Form