Finding Joy in the Simple Things

Excerpt from Ode on Melancholy

By John Keats

 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,

       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.

 

To start off with I am not a reader of poetry because I have a hard time knowing what poets are trying to get across. From my point of view a good poet is one who can write a poem that is somewhat understandable the first time you read it. When you have to analyze it to death it takes away the joy that poetry can be. When I read Keats Ode to Melancholy I was immediately struck by his beautiful word usage, imagery, and his message. I chose the second stanza because it has a truly simplistic meaning. Keats wrote that when overwhelmed with an awful and seemingly inescapable sorrow look to the simple things in life.

Ode to Melancholy has beautiful imagery throughout the poem, but in the second stanza it is breathtaking. I happen to love flowers and when he wrote, “Or on the wealth of globed peonies” I saw a beautiful garden filled with peonies. For those who don’t what a peony looks like I found a photo that does them a great justice. Keats imagery is spectacular because he allows the human imagination to picture something beautiful without writing something obscure in elevated diction.

 

 

The first four lines of this stanza describe how sadness falls upon an individual. Keats uses nature to describe the feeling of melancholy. Even though he compares melancholy to a “weeping cloud” or a drooping flower which are two things that are not human like at all, I immediately understood the metaphor. I like everyone else have had those moments when life goes to heck in a hand basket and your world is gloomy and dark. All optimistic views are hidden from your sight. By taking Keats advice we can escape melancholy by looking for a tiny light at the end of the dark and gloomy tunnel.

Last fall I took a speech class in the morning and everyone in the class myself included often had the state of mind of, “I am tired and I do not want to be here!” So my professor would have us stand up and say, “I feel great!” about five times, each time getting louder. Though I felt completely silly doing this, saying the words, “I feel great!” helped change my tired and grumpy disposition to that of a still tired college student with a happier outlook on life.Keats poem does the same thing. Keats wrote, “Then glut thy sorrow on a morning rose.” The word glut means an excessively abundant supply of something. A person can throw all the sorrow on the beauty around them. Whether it be on the beauty of the mountains or beauty of loved one it makes us feel better.

Keats poem calls us all to action. Instead wallowing in gloom and self-pity, find the beauty around us and focus all our attention on that thing. Eventually the fading light at the end of the tunnel will become a giant beam of light that nearly blinds you with joy. And all because you focused on the beautiful things of life. =)