Ode to Psyche - John Keats

Ode to Psyche

                                                      (click on the image for more poems)

       Ode to psyche is a poem which expresses the beauty of Psyche from the perspective of a worshipper of beauty Keats. First the poet has expressed the beauty of psyche and then he worships her because she was a neglected goddess. It is connected with the myth of psyche.

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:

       In the very first stanza poet addresses Psyche as a goddess. Then he apologises because he is going to expose all the secrets of Psyche’s life and her story. He stars the story by telling that he was wandering in the forest and he saw two lovers together making love in nature. He recognized them as they were Psyche and Cupid.

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!

      In the second stanza there is description of both lovers after they have loved each other and still both are in the arms of each other. Then he questions that from two lovers he was aware with the winged boy but was not aware with the lady with him, and suddenly he recognizes that she was his Psyche.

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.

.

      In this stanza, Keats described the beauty of the Psyche. He says that she is the most beautiful woman in the world. He used lots of metaphors in his description of her beauty. He also addresses Psyche as a neglected goddess.

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

     In this stanza poet says that like all other divinities Psyche has no temple no worshipping song and no flowers for her because she came too late in this world. Though she is the youngest and most beautiful of all the Olympian gods and goddesses she has no worshippers and temples. Keats addresses himself as prophet and starts worshipping Psyche.

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 ope at night,

To let the warm Love in!

    

      In the final stanza, poet says to psyche that he will be her priest and his mind will be the temple of her, where the thoughts of poet stays and it will worship her forever. He wants to become the choir, the oracles and music for Psyche. He promises Psyche that he will give her all the delights. He will keep the window of her new temple open at night so her lover can come to meet her, as he says, “Let the warm Love in”