19 pages • 38 minutes read
Ode on Melancholy
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Symbols & Motifs
Poisonous Plants
When one is feeling sadness, grief, or discomfort, it is understandable to want that feeling to subside. However, according to the poem’s speaker, pushing down an uncomfortable emotion is not always an ideal option, nor does suicidal ideation present beneficial solutions. To clarify this, the speaker calls on the addressee to stop imagining ingesting specific plants.
The speaker urges the listener not to “twist / Wolf’s bane, tight-rooted, for its poison” (Lines 1-2). Wolf’s-bane is a highly toxic member of the tuber family; its poison, which has deleterious effects on heart rate, was used in ancient Rome to dress the tips of arrowheads and swords. The man should also not “suffer […] to be kissed / By nightshade” (Lines 3-4). This toxic plant, which causes hallucinations and drowsiness as it numbs nerves, was also used by assassins, though in lower doses, it was used medicinally for melancholy and tuberculosis (sometimes with deadly results). Finally, “yew-berries” (Line 5) are also not an answered prayer, as their poison stops the functioning of the heart.
Using these references to poisonous plants shows that while it seems the sublimation of melancholy is desirable, seeking final and irrevocable obliteration is not the solution the addressee might assume it to be.
References to Greek Mythology
References to the Greco-Roman underworld—also known as Hades—abound in the first stanza of the poem. “Lethe” (Line 1) is the River of Forgetfulness. Upon arrival, the newly dead drink its water to lose the memories of their earthly existence. Persephone, or “Proserpine” (Line 4), is the queen of the underworld. The daughter of the harvest goddess Demeter/Ceres, she was kidnapped by Hades/Pluto and now spends six months of each year in the underworld—a term that echoes the six pomegranate seeds she ate there (the ingestion of grapes, seeds, and other plants is prominent in the poem as well). The six missing seeds were reported by Ascalaphus, the guardian of Hades’ garden, who is changed by Demeter/Ceres into a “owl” (Line 7).
The poem also references “Psyche,” (Line 7), who on a quest to win back Eros, falls into a deep sleep after being given a box of Persephone’s beauty in the underworld.
Even the poisonous plants mentioned are tied to this mythos. Wolf’s-bane sprouted from the drool of Cerberus, the three-headed hound of Hades. Nightshade is linked with both the cult of Dionysus and the Fate named Atropa, who cuts the string of a person’s life. Yew is associated with Hecate, the goddess of witchcraft and death. This fixation on death and mythology sets up a deep contrast with the second stanza’s everyday world and relationships.
Hanging Trophies
The final lines of the poem suggest that those who fully experience pleasure also experience sorrow and will “be among [Melancholy’s] cloudy trophies hung” (Line 30). This suggests that a shrine to Melancholy has been made out of human souls who have experienced any kind of happiness. The word “trophy” comes from the Greek word tropaion, which is a monument erected to commemorate a victory over one’s enemies, which would have featured the armor and weapons of the defeated. Here, Melancholy’s monument celebrates her victory over the mind of the addressee: “His soul shalt taste the sadness of her might” (Line 29) after he has “burst Joy’s grape against his palate” (Line 28). By relishing such happiness—the life-affirming goodness of the grape—he must also embrace its destruction, accepting its passing and feeling sadness. Thus he hangs up his weapons—perhaps the aforementioned poisons of “wolf’s-bane” (Line 2) and “nightshade” (Line 4) traditionally used in battles. He is symbolically defeated by Melancholy, and offers his soul as a tribute.
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By John Keats
