Ode on Melancholy Summary

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48. Ode on Melancholy | | | 1. NO, no, go not to Lethe, neither twist | | Wolfs-bane, tight-rooted, for its poisonous wine; | | Nor suffer thy pale forehead to be kiss’d | | By nightshade, ruby grape of Proserpine; | | Make not your rosary of yew-berries, | 5 | Nor let the beetle, nor the death-moth be | | Your mournful Psyche, nor the downy owl | | A partner in your sorrow’s mysteries; | | For shade to shade will come too drowsily, | | And drown the wakeful anguish of the soul. | 10 | | | 2. But when the melancholy fit shall fall | | Sudden from heaven like a weeping cloud, | | That fosters the droop-headed flowers all, | | And hides the green hill in an April shroud; | | Then glut thy sorrow on a morning rose, | 15 | Or on the rainbow of the salt sand-wave, | | Or on the wealth of globed peonies; | | Or if thy mistress some rich anger shows, | | Emprison her soft hand, and let her rave, | | And feed deep, deep upon her peerless eyes. | 20 | | | 3. She dwells with Beauty—Beauty that must die; | | And Joy, whose hand is ever at his lips | | Bidding adieu; and aching Pleasure nigh, | | Turning to poison while the bee-mouth sips: | | Ay, in the very temple of Delight | 25 | Veil’d Melancholy has her sovran shrine, | | Though seen of none save him whose strenuous tongue | | Can burst Joy’s grape against his palate fine; | | His soul shall taste the sadness of her might, | | And be among her cloudy trophies hung. | 30 | | Ode on Melancholy → Summary The three stanzas of the “Ode on Melancholy” address the subject of how to cope with sadness. The first stanza tells what not to do: The sufferer should not “go to Lethe,” or forget their sadness (Lethe is the river
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