 Hello and welcome to our video summarizing everything you need to know about the songs of ourselves volume 1 part 2 anthology. My name is Barbara and this is the 9th of a 15 part video series where we examine all 15 poems in this anthology. Do make sure that you come back for video number 10 because every day we will release a video examining each of the poems in detail. So let's carry on with the next poem in this collection which is Ode on Melancholy by John Keats. Now in order to fully analyse this poem you must first understand that melancholy in other words sadness was viewed for the longest time as an illness. It was an imbalance according to a lot of people especially in Keats' time in the body's humours specifically in overabundance of what they called black bile that led to ill temperament in other words depression, mood swings, anger and a brooding disposition. And this for the discerning reader might have very well been the categorisation of the entire romantic period. Do remember that John Keats who lived in the 1700s was seen as a romantic poet now contrary to what you might think with the word romantic it's not to do with love it's more to do with the association of nature and nature being seen as the highest manifestation of innocence and what everyone should aspire to and everything to do with the city as being associated with the corruption. Now John Keats as a junior doctor would have most likely come into the definition and the treatment of melancholy during his training as a doctor which is why this particular poem Ode on Melancholy is so interesting when it comes to his writing. Now this was written in the spring of 1819 as part of the famous Great Odes and it differs slightly from the others in the fact that it addresses the reader rather than an object or emotion. It's also one of the shortest of the Odes with only three stanzas of ten lines each a total of 200 words and it's packed with Greek mythology and imagery that Keats no doubt gleaned from his studies at Enfield and also from his interest in the classics and classics literature. Now this Ode whilst not amongst most lauded or well known of the Odes is still perhaps maybe the most uplifting and hopeful of all of Keats's Odes whereas his other Odes dwell on the injustice and misery of life. In Ode on Melancholy Keats addresses the reader a sufferer of melancholy in other words a sufferer of depression or maybe sadness and tells this reader not to worry that beauty and pain are intertwined in the world and that both offer a fuller view of life when occurring in tandem. Melancholy which is a notoriously unbeautiful subject has actually turned really beautiful by Keats's flowing words and his fond address. Now it's worth pointing out that Keats originally had written this as a four stanza poem. The first stanza was removed just before it was published and the missing stanza is as follows as you can see beneath here and it states that you should build a bark of dead men's bones and rear a phantom gibbet for a mast stitch creeds together for a cell with groans to fill it out bloodstained in a ghast although your rather be a dragon's tail long severed yet still hard with agony your cordage large uprooting some of the skull of bored medusa sirtees you would fail to find the melancholy whether she deemeth in any aleath doll. Now of course this stanza was removed and Harold Bloom stated that should the first stanza have been published with this Ode it would have to set the delicate balance of the entire poem which is at its heart and acceptance of the state of melancholy and an embrace of misery that resonates with the reader in its simplicity. Now when it comes to analyzing the poem specifically Leith the Greek goddess of the underworld river of oblivion features in another poem called Ode on a Nightingale. Now in the first stanza Keats lists what not to do when be set by melancholy. There's also perhaps why the earlier first stanza was rejected by using a heavy amount of negative words no nor not. Keats actually manages to drive his message further considering that he's speaking about the idea of melancholy and bad temperament. Now the negative grammar helps to reinforce the idea that melancholy is actually a part of life one can't escape it by praying for oblivion or drinking wolf's bane. Also it's not the intertwining of death within the phrase it was well known for melancholy to cause a brooding temperament and a wish for death however Keats's masterful imagery within this poem and his dreamy invocations bring to the forefront the infamous dream world that's glimpsed throughout all of his work. In Keats's world and in Keatsian poems the world is made up of myth and legend this is also the case in melancholy where imagery is made up solely of almost religious motifs and Greek myth and the splash of colour for instance ruby grape which helps to ironically bring ode on melancholy to life. Now in the second stanza of this poem Keats moves on from what not to do when beset by melancholy to what one can actually do. He notes the idea of melancholy suddenly appearing in detail which he mentioned in a letter to his sister and brother as being debilitating almost changing the world. Reading it with a modern perspective one can clearly draw illusions to depression the way that Keats describes the sudden fall of melancholy the way that the imagery suffers for it and turns droop-headed flowers and hides a green hill in April shout to quote from the poem however what becomes evidence to reader is the beauty of this imagery. Now it's not only the beauty of Keatsian poetry of John Keats putting a pen to paper and delivering a journey of half a myth half pleasure it's also the beauty inherent in melancholy a sort of preciousness that Keats attributed to sadness is helping him appreciate life further although sadness has its pains according to Keats it actually helps one understand the scale and scope of happiness in life. In other words what's life without measure of sadness so that one can accurately see how happy one is thus Keats suggests enjoy the bursts of melancholy that come across and to quote from the poem he states then glut thy sorrow on a morning rose or on the rainbow of the salt sand wave or on the wealth of globed peonies or if they mistress some rich anger shows imprison her soft hand and let her rave and feed deep deep upon her pairless eyes. Now in the final stanza Keats shows the importance of melancholy and shows that melancholy is entwined with so much of the higher and most beautiful forms of life it's entwined with beauty and to quote from the poem beauty must die and joy whose hand is ever to his lips bidding adieu. Therefore it's impossible to have a complete life according to this poem without melancholy it's also impossible to live with only half emotions in other words with only just happiness and this sense of contradiction to mixing in the happiness with the sadness actually helps strengthen the ideas that Keats wishes to express to us as readers and he does this through contradicting but effective imagery such as the example of April so for example April is a sad and rainy month but it's also beautiful in its own way and it leads to the blooming of those droop headed flowers that he mentions a morning rose although fleetingly alive has a broody that brightens during April. So that's all if you found this summary useful do give this video a thumbs up and consider subscribing to our youtube channel but also make sure you visit our website which is www.firstreadcheaters.com there you will find plenty of English revision model essays but also online courses that you can help you can use rather to help you improve when it comes to your essay writing technique and your understanding of different topics within English. Thank you so much for listening and make sure you come back for video 10 where we look at the following poem in this anthology.