Ode+on+Melancholy

No, no, go not to [|Lethe], neither twist [|Wolf's-bane], tight-rooted, for its poisonous wine; Nor suffer thy pale forehead to be kissed By nightshade, ruby grape of [|Proserpine]; Make not your [|rosary] of [|yew-berries], Nor let the beetle nor the death-moth be Your mournful [|Psyche], nor the downy owl A partner in your sorrow's mysteries; For shade to shade will come too drowsily, And drown the wakeful anguish of the soul.

But when the melancholy fit shall fall Sudden from heaven like a weeping cloud, That fosters the droop-headed flowers all, And hides the green hill in an April shroud; Then glut thy sorrow on a morning rose, Or on the rainbow of the salt sand-wave, Or on the wealth of globed [|peonies]; Or if thy mistress some rich anger shows, Imprison her soft hand, and let her rave, And feed deep, deep upon her peerless eyes.

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-mouth sips: Ay, in the very temple of Delight Veiled Melancholy has her sovran shrine, Though seen of none save him whose strenuous tongue Can burst Joy's grape against his palate fine: His soul shall taste the sadness of her might, And be among her cloudy trophies hung.

LINKS
http://academic.brooklyn.cuny.edu/english/melani/cs6/melancholy.html http://www.sparknotes.com/poetry/keats/section5.rhtml http://englishhistory.net/keats/poetry/odeonmelancholy.html

//Ode to Melancholy// by John Keats - 00:02:16 Source: [|E-text] [[|mp3@64kbps - 1.0MB]] [[|mp3@128kbps - 2.1MB]] [[|ogg vorbis - 1.3MB]] Read by: [|Alan Davis-Drake]