Ode on Melancholy

poetry by Keats

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Article History

Ode on Melancholy, poem in three stanzas by John Keats, published in Lamia, Isabella, The Eve of St. Agnes, and Other Poems in 1820. It speaks of the transience of joy and desire and acknowledges that sadness is the inevitable accompaniment of human passion and happiness.

In the work’s first two stanzas the poet urges the reader not to give in to death “when the melancholy fit shall fall” but to “glut thy sorrow” and revel in the emotion. The final stanza personifies melancholy as a mysterious goddess who lives in “the very temple of Delight,” among the transitory deities of Beauty, Joy, and Pleasure.

This article was most recently revised and updated by Kathleen Kuiper.