Ode on Melancholy Essays

Ode on Melancholy Essays Ode on Melancholy Paper Ode on Melancholy Paper The differences highlighted between Ode to a nightingale and To Autumn is, their way of accepting is based on different concepts. To Autumn does so in a positive way whilst Ode to a Nightingale does not. To Autumn can be related to Ode on Melancholy; their ideas on life are similar. Ode on Melancholys theme is based on the idea that melancholy cannot be felt without feeling joy. Keats presents this through the view of Joy being unable to feel melancholy, save him whose strenuous tongue / Can burst Joys grape against his palate fine. The grape metaphorically presents the feeling of happiness and that it needs to burst and be fully tasted in order for melancholy to be completely felt or understood. To Autumn is similar in the sense that Keats understands that life and death come with each other, you cannot experience spring without experiencing the robin red breast in winter. To Autumn also makes the distinction between life and death and how they cannot be without each other when he says full-grown lamb. Lamb presents new birth and the idea of a full life ahead, whereas full-grown presents old and near death. This use of synaesthesia of the bee-mouth is able to show how quickly joy and pleasure can turn into melancholy. Sometimes there are no warning signs. It is precisely the fact that joy will come to an end that makes the experience of joy such a ravishing one; the fact that beauty dies makes the experience of beauty sharper and more thrilling. However, there are many contrasts as beauty is represented but also taken away by melancholic imagery. Like a weeping cloud is a very significant simile as nature is represented negatively although it is a common action, rain. However, weeping represents the idea of sadness and grief. Rain is not generally a negative aspect of nature. The contrast to the weeping cloud is made when this rain is able to foster the droop-headed flowers showing melancholy is also nourishing like the rain which revives the drooping flowers. Here Keats has built up an extended metaphor. The rain is very significant as it also hides the green hill showing melancholy to cover up natures finer aspects. The colour imagery of green suggests fertility, beauty and aliveness; this is the contrast of joy and melancholy. Rain and sadness are able to hide natures beauties. This contrast is almost made in April shroud which has oxymoronic ideas as April is the month of natures renewal, a pleasant setting and shroud is a cloth used for death. This portrays the idea of the mutability of life. Sadness needs to be accepted in order to enjoy lifes pleasures. Nature is a source of melancholy and like some aspects of nature, such as rainbows and waves, melancholy is not always long lasting. It is meant to be temporary, as life has many emotions through the human world as well as the natural world.