Some content of this work is from sparknotes.com. This was reported in European Literature course in Technological Institute of the Philippines.

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Ode to Psych
John Keats
1795–1821

2. Ode
John Keats
Ode to Psyche
Romantic Period

3. the theory, practice, and style
of the romantic art, music, and
literature of the late18th and
early 19th centuries, usually
opposed to classicism
ROMANTIC PERIOD
September 23, 2013
more
Romanticism
MJPU. Classical Period - Tragedy;
Romanticism - Lyrical Ballad

4. THREE ROMANTICISTS:
- JOHN KEATS (English)
- PERCY BYSSHE SHELLEY (English)
- LORD BYRON (British)
ROMANTIC PERIOD
John Keats

5. John Keats was born on 31
October 1795 in Moorgate,
London, England. He’s first
childborn to Frances
Jennings and Thomas
Keats.
John Keats

6. Famous 1819 Odes:
Ode to Psyche
Ode on a Grecian Urn
Ode on Indolence
Ode on Melancholy
Ode to a Nightingale
To Autumn
John Keats
Ode

7. Ode
Ceremonious lyric poem on an
occasion of dignity in which
personal emotion and universal
themes are united. The form is
usually marked by exalted or high
moral and intellectual value of
feeling and style, varying line
length, and complex stanza
forms.
Ode to Psyche

8. The four stanzas vary in number of lines (irregularity)
First stanza– 23 lines
Second stanza – 12 lines
Third stanza – 14 lines
Fourth – 18 lines
Rhyme scheme, and metrical scheme are also irregular in form.
Lines are iambic, but vary from dimeter to pentameter;
The most common rhymes are in ABAB
However, there are unrhymed lines.
(―Hours,‖ at the end of line ten in the third stanza, is an
example.)
Freely written ode of John Keats. Theme is love and worship.
Ode to Psyche

9. O Goddess! hear these tuneless numbers, wrung
By sweet enforcement and remembrance dear,
And pardon that thy secrets should be sung
Even into thine own soft-conched ear:
Surely I dreamt to-day, or did I see
The winged Psyche with awaken'd eyes?
I wander'd in a forest thoughtlessly,
And, on the sudden, fainting with surprise,
Saw two fair creatures, couched side by side
In deepest grass, beneath the whisp'ring roof
Of leaves and trembled blossoms, where there ran
A brooklet, scarce espied:
Ode to Psyche
First Stanza
ABAB CDCD EFGEEGH IIJJ KIKI
Wrung – to twist forcibly
Brooklet – a small, natural stream of fresh water.
Espied – to see at a distance; catch sight of.

10. Hushed – to be silent
Tyrian – ancient Tyre purple.
Pinion – terminal segment of a wing.
Bade – command
Adieu – goodbye
Slumber – To be asleep or inactivity
Aurorean – belonging to dawn
Mid hush'd, cool-rooted flowers, fragrant-eyed,
Blue, silver-white, and budded Tyrian,
They lay calm-breathing, on the bedded grass;
Their arms embraced, and their pinions too;
Their lips touch'd not, but had not bade adieu,
As if disjoined by soft-handed slumber,
And ready still past kisses to outnumber
At tender eye-dawn of aurorean love:
The winged boy I knew;
But who wast thou, O happy, happy dove?
His Psyche true!
Ode to Psyche
First Stanza
ABAB CDCD EFGEEGH IIJJ KIKI

11. In the first stanza, every line is written in iambic
pentameter except lines 12, 21, and 23.
Line 12 - A brook/let, scarce/ es/pied (iambic trimeter)
Line 21 - The winged/ boy I/ knew; (iambic trimeter)
Line 23 - His Psy/che true! (iambic dimeter)
The full rhyme scheme is ABAB CDCD EFGEEGH IIJJ KIKI.
Analysis:
Ode to Psyche

12. The speaker opens the poem with an address to
the goddess Psyche, urging her to hear his words, and
asking that she forgive him for singing to her, her own
secrets. He says that while wandering through the forest
that very day, he stumbled upon ―two fair creatures‖ lying
side by side in the grass, beneath a ―whisp’ring roof‖ of
leaves, surrounded by flowers.
They embraced one another with both their arms
and wings. The speaker says he knew the winged boy,
but asks who the girl was. He answers his own question:
She was Psyche.
Ode to Psyche

13. O latest born and loveliest vision far
Of all Olympus' faded hierarchy!
Fairer than Phoebe's sapphire-region'd star,
Or Vesper, amorous glow-worm of the sky;
Fairer than these, though temple thou hast none,
Nor altar heap'd with flowers;
Nor virgin-choir to make delicious moan
Upon the midnight hours;
No voice, no lute, no pipe, no incense sweet
From chain-swung censer teeming;
No shrine, no grove, no oracle, no heat
Of pale-mouth'd prophet dreaming.
Ode to Psyche
Second Stanza
ABAB CDCD EFEF
Phoebe – a Titan, daughter of Uranus and Gaea
Vesper – the evening star, especially Venus; Hesper

14. The second stanza follows strictly an alternating
rhyme scheme: ABAB CDCD EFEF.
The only irregularities are lines 6 and 8.
Nor al/tar heap'd/ with flo/wers; (iambic trimeter)
Upon /the mid/night hours; (iambic trimeter)
The result is that the CDCD section of this stanza differs slightly from
the others; the D-lines are shorter.
Analysis:
Ode to Psyche

15. In the second stanza, the speaker addresses
Psyche again, describing her as the youngest and most
beautiful of all the Olympian gods and goddesses. He
believes this, he says, despite the fact that, unlike other
divinities, Psyche has none of the trappings of worship:
She has no temples, no altars, no choir to sing for her,
and so on.
Ode to Psyche

16. Lucent – shining; transparent
Pieties – reverence for God or devout fulfillment of religious obligations
O brightest! though too late for antique vows,
Too, too late for the fond believing lyre,
When holy were the haunted forest boughs,
Holy the air, the water, and the fire;
Yet even in these days so far retir'd
From happy pieties, thy lucent fans,
Fluttering among the faint Olympians,
I see, and sing, by my own eyes inspir'd.
So let me be thy choir, and make a moan
Upon the midnight hours;
Thy voice, thy lute, thy pipe, thy incense sweet
From swinged censer teeming;
Thy shrine, thy grove, thy oracle, thy heat
Of pale-mouth'd prophet dreaming.
Ode to Psyche
Third Stanza
ABAB CDDCEF GHGH

17. Lines are iambic pentameter except:
Upon/ the mid/night hours; (trimeter)
From swinged/ censer/ teeming; (trimeter)
Of pale/-mouth'd pro/phet dream/ing. (trimeter)
Its rhyme scheme is ABAB CDDCEF GHGH.
The 9th and 10th ―moan‖ (E) and ―hours‖ (F) do not have
precise matches to any other lines.
Ode to Psyche
Third Stanza
ABAB CDDCEF GHGH

18. In the third stanza, the speaker attributes this lack
to Psyche’s youth; she has come into the world too late
for ―antique vows‖ and the ―fond believing lyre.‖ But the
speaker says that even in the fallen days of his own time,
he would like to pay homage to Psyche and become her
choir, her music, and her oracle.
Ode to Psyche

19. Fane – church
Untrodden – in the same path
Zepher – a gentle, mild breeze
Dryads – mythological nymph of the woods
Yes, I will be thy priest, and build a fane
In some untrodden region of my mind,
Where branched thoughts, new grown with pleasant pain,
Instead of pines shall murmur in the wind:
Far, far around shall those dark-cluster'd trees
Fledge the wild-ridged mountains steep by steep;
And there by zephyrs, streams, and birds, and bees,
The moss-lain Dryads shall be lull'd to sleep;
And in the midst of this wide quietness
A rosy sanctuary will I dress
With the wreath'd trellis of a working brain,
With buds, and bells, and stars without a name,
With all the gardener Fancy e'er could feign,
Who breeding flowers, will never breed the same:
And there shall be for thee all soft delight
That shadowy thought can win,
A bright torch, and a casement open at night,
To let the warm Love in!
Ode to Psyche
Fourth Stanza
ABAB CDCD EE FGFG HIHI

20. Line 16 That shad/owy thought / can win, (trimeter)
Line 18 To let/ the warm/ Love in! (trimeter)
Couplet EE lines - 9 and 10.
Ode to Psyche
Fourth Stanza
ABAB CDCD EE FGFG HIHI

21. In the fourth stanza, he continues with these declarations,
saying he will become Psyche’s priest and build her a temple in an
―untrodden region‖ of his own mind, a region surrounded by thought
that resemble the beauty of nature and tended by ―the gardener
Fancy,‖ or imagination. He promises Psyche ―all soft delight‖ and
says that the window of her new abode will be left open at night, so
that her winged boy—‖the warm Love‖—can come in.
Ode to Psyche