ode on indolence

Ode on Indolence

·         The poem is an example of Keats's break from the structure of the classical form.

·         Rhyme scheme ABABCDECED-> it is in fixed form however stanzas 5 and 6 are different – the changes in the rhyming scheme shows and is a representation of the changing in Keats’ mood/ indolence.

·         ten-line stanzas, in a relatively precise iambic pentameter.

·         “Ode on Indolence” was probably the second ode.

·         It was composed in the spring of 1819, after “Ode on Melancholy” and a few months before “To Autumn.

·         On 19 March Keats wrote of his ‘sort of temper indolent’ in a letter to his brother George and sister-in-law Georgiana. And on 9 June, he told one Miss Jeffrey that ‘the thing I have most enjoyed this year has been writing an ode to Indolence’.

·         The ode was first published in 1848.

·         In the letter to George and Georgiana, Keats described his indolence: ‘This is the only happiness; and is a rare instance of advantage in the body overpowering the Mind.’

·         Most critics consider it the least accomplished of the group

·         The romantic ode evolved from the ancient Greek ode, written in a serious tone to celebrate an event or to praise an individual. The Greek ode was intended to be sung by a chorus or by one person. The odes of the Greek poet Pindar (circa 518-438 BC) frequently extolled athletes who participated in games at Olympus, Delphi, the Isthmus of Corinth, and Nemea. Bacchylides, a contemporary of Pindar, also wrote odes praising athletes.

·         Poem stems from Keats' own struggles and conflicting impulses

·         Keats was influenced by James Thomson’s ‘The castle of indolence’ – this poem depicts indolence as a place of luxury and the weakening of both the body and soul- there was also a sense of wasting powers and the potentialities of life.

Analysis

·         The epigraph of the poem ‘They toil not, neither do they spin’- is from the bible, from the gospel of Mathew.

·         Addressee of the poem is: Love, Ambition and Poetry.

·         ‘One Morn’ – morning is the beginning- time when people start their days- it has connotations to new starts.

·         ‘bowed necks and joined hands, side faced’ – the action of the figures are related to one praying, immediately readers begin to question/become curious. Keats is creating suspense- are the figures angel Or have religious relevance?- ‘bowed neck’ also shows a sense of defeat and guilt

·         The point above is reinforced by the semantic field of spirituality in the first stanza: ‘serene’, ‘white’, ‘graced’

·         ‘white robes’ and ‘placid sandals (open)’ hints that there is purity and honesty in these 3 figures

·         There is a sense of gracefulness because of the iambic pentameter.

·         In Lines 5-8, there is an image of figures rotating on the urn creating a cyclic movement ‘They came again’, ‘the first seen shades return’- there is a sense of repetition and monotony that is a result. Monotony of life maybe the representation that Keats wants to portray and the cause of this is indolence.

·         The references to the ‘Marble urn’ has similarities to Keats’ ‘ode on a Grecian Urn’ that was written later.

·         Sibilance runs through the first stanza of the poem, it highlights the supernatural sense of the figures that he is dreaming about, it also adds to the gracefulness.

·         Stanza 2 begins with rhetorical questions and the anaphora of ‘How’ 

·         The figures have changes to ‘shadows’- shadows are

·         ‘Ripe was the drowsy hours’ ripeness has connotation to sweetness. His laziness is luxury for him, its effects are sweet.

·         the speaker describes his existence prior to the figures’ appearance.  Here the language is warmly sensuous, characterised by long vowel sounds and soft consonants, as in:

Ripe was the drowsy hour;

The blissful cloud of summer-indolence

Benumbed my eyes;

·         However, the descriptions above can also be of death: ‘pulse grew less’, ‘Pleasure’s wreaths no flowers’ ‘Pain had no sting’ -> the indolence that he is going though is having a negative effect. Keats knew of him impending death at this point.

·         Stanza one consisted of a lethargic syntax but in stanza to there is more of an emotionally perturbed syntax due to the increase in punctuation- the punctuation breaks up the natural flow of the line -> this is a symbolism to his emotion – anger toward the 3 figures for ‘stealing away’ ‘idle days’.

·         Last 2 lines are stressed on ‘vanish’ and ‘fade’ this results in a trochee meter-> it disrupts the iambic pentameter.

·         There is an inherent need for Keats to feel and be ‘nothingness’- to not feel: ‘benumb’d’

·         The figures of his mind have disturbed the poet and his idle dream in the ‘morn’, they have ‘muffled’ and is distracting him.

Stanza 3

·         ‘to follow them I burn’d and ached for wings’ – there is a need to follow the 3 figures in his dreams now . to burn, is a form of destruction, Keats’ feels that leaving this state of laziness will evoke feelings that will eventually destroy him.

·         Plosive sounds and the alliterations are harsh.

·         He breaks the meter as he realises the figures of his dreams, there is an irregular meter.

·         ‘Love her name’ – Love is personified as a ‘fair maid’- maid= servant love and ambition aere given fairly positive comparisons, however Poetry is describes to be ‘demon’.

·         Gender of the 3 figures are women. Are women associated with the Arts more than men or some would say that- women destroy men’s sense of happiness and laziness?

·         He is most attracted to ‘maiden unmeek’

·         ‘Demon Poesy’- use of 2 nouns, without the separation of punctuation, indicates the Poesy is the personification of Keats’s demon rather than a synonym

·         In stanza 5, the disappearance of the 3 figures in Keats’ dream results in frustration and anxiety- ‘O Folly!’ and the repeated rhetorical question as well as he caesura reinforces it. The poet is confused at this point.

·         His indolence is gains describes as ‘sweet’ and ‘evening steep’d in honied indolence’- seen as lustrous is comparison to his greatest love ‘poesy’

·         Imagery used to describe Keats’s state of mind: sleep embroider’d with dim dreams’ ‘soul…lawn besprinkled’ ‘baffles beams’- sense of light and growth in his life- there is a change in attitude from the indolence that surrounded his life.

·         ‘open casement’ – freshness from the wind. More of an openness in life?- to face and feel his problems than staying in a state of indolence?

·         However in the final stanza : thee does not seem to be a resolution to the poem. Keats want to stay in him ‘idle spright’ with his ‘head cool-embedded in the flowery grass’ (rather than in love’s bosoms like Phorphyro in ‘Eve of St. Agnes’

·         Indolence is constantly compared to a cloud- e.g. metaphor: ‘The blissful cloud of summer-indolence’

Keats was to stay in an immutable state of pure relaxation and that is what the poem is about overall.  The overall strict form structure of the poem that addresses a opic like indolence shows that conflicts in Keats’s mind that lasts throughout the poem.