John Keats

John Keats lived a short but remarkably full life. Though he only lived to be in his twenties, he managed to experience a wide variety of events and emotions. The idea that he was able to produce several influential works at such a young age is hard to believe. I enjoyed reading Keats because his writings were personal and revealing, and I felt I could take a bit of advice from many of them. This thought is especially evident when readings his Odes. Though his entire Ode’s were captivating and beautifully written, it was his shortest which struck me the most. In Keats “Ode to Melancholy”, he captures in thirty lines the whole emotion of sadness and provides his readers with a way to cope.
Keats separates the poem into three stanzas, each deal with sadness and depression. The first stanza provides a lesson on what not to do in times of misery. His most adamant advice is how he opens the poem; do not simply forget about your depression. He uses the metaphor of the Lethe which was known as the “river of forgetfulness” to say that you can not simply forget about your troubles, because that will do nothing to make them disappear. However, you also must be careful not to become obsessed with your sadness turning your thoughts to suicide or death. Obsessing is just as bad as forgetting, that too is not a solution to your problems. Dwelling on your misery will just lead you further into depression.
What Keats suggests in response to his first stanza is a very simple answer which most romantics would agree with. Simply surround yourself with nature’s beauty and simplicity. Many of the Romantic writers were very fixated on natural beauty and nature as a subject matter. We have seen that in nearly all the romantic authors we have studied thus far and Keats is no different. He suggests that when you are feeling hopeless you just need to emerge yourself with the beauty around you.

“But when the melancholy fit shall fall…
Then glut thy sorrow on a morning rose,
O on the rainbow of the sand-wave,
Or on the wealth of globed peonies”

Keats tells readers to turn to the simplistic beauty of the flowers and the calmness of the ocean to regain peace of mind and to help recover from sadness. This is advice that I actually can relate to, and know from experience it is relevant. Growing up in South Florida I have always known the beach to be a get away. When things are going wrong or my life is filled with stress I have always gone and sat on the sand and listened to the waves as a way to regroup and feel peace.
What was most memorable and powerful about this poem was the third stanza where Keats proves how sadness and happiness are dependent on each other. This is an idea that is explored immensely by later philosophers who suggest that you can not have the good without the bad, and that you can’t feel pleasure without experiencing pain. This is an idea I whole heartedly agree with.

“She dwells with beauty – beauty that must die;
And joy whose hand is ever at his lips
Bidding adieu; and aching pleasure nigh,
Turning to poison while the bee-mouths sips:
Ay, in the very temple of delight”

These lines show how Keats views sadness and happiness as being intertwined. He suggests that depression is the found in the same “temple of delight”. In other words in order to understand happiness you have to suffer through this misery. At the core of any happy person is a soul who has experienced and overcome tragedy. Keats was a brilliant mind who was far ahead of his time. Readers can not help but wonder what else he would have created if he had lived longer…