7. ODE SQUARED

I am going to compare John’s Keats’ “Ode on Melancholy” and William Wordsworth’s “Ode: Intimation of Immortality” from Recollections of Early Childhood. Two different poets wrote them during the eighteenth century but they have many differences and similarities.

Both poems have an abstract speaker. Neither poem states the sex of the speaker, but they are in first person so it is safe to assume that they are both male speakers. In Melancholy the unknown aged speaker is giving advice to an unknown person in the same manor as a general audience. At the end you feel that the speaker had already told this to the unknown person and continues to explain that person’s fate. He tells his audience not to choose death as an answer for mourning. The reliable speaker has emotions for the audience he is speaking to. A theme throughout the poem is death and another is taking one’s own life because of a loved ones death. The mourning person is being lured by the idea of death, “Nor let the beetle, nor the death-moth be” (Keats line 6) to end their own personal misery or loss. In Immortality the author is much older than his memory, starting the poem with, “There was a time” (Wordsworth line 1) and stating “It is not now as it hath been of yore” (W line 6). The speaker’s reliability is not really tested through out this poem. The speaker continues to reminisce about many past thoughts, feelings, and memories speaking to a general audience in a story speaking manner. There are a lot of different scenes, feelings and descriptions going on in this poem. Themes within this poem include human life and nature.

Both poets use many poetic elements throughout their odes such as sound and rhyme. “Ode on Melancholy” does not use assonance, consonance, or alliteration: the repetitions of sounds and letters within a line. In “Ode: Intimation of Immortality” Wordsworth does not use those a lot either but starts a line with a consonance, “Fresh flowers; while the sun shines warm,” (W line 48). Keats rhymes the last word of every line with another line; a rhyme scheme. There was not as much of a sound repetition as there is rhyme. The rhymes were mostly written naturally since it was not a constant repeating of two lines in a row, which affected the sound flow but not the meaning of the poem. Wordsworth uses rhyme but in not particular pattern throughout his stanzas. Nether forced the sound or tone. Keats’ was not forced because of the chosen rhyme scheme he uses and Wordsworth does not use a particular rhyme scheme which allows it to flow more natural. Keats uses a metered rhyme scheme repeated throughout ten lines. The first four lines create a quatrain and the last six create a tercet. The rhyme scheme repeats a total of three times. I feel that the rhyme is an appropriate tone for poem. The poem is mellow along with the rhyme that was used. In Immortality is written in open form, there is no specific rhyme scheme or followed meter. The eleven stanzas also differ from each other ranging from seven to thirty-eight lines, some rhyming but a variety of sounds. I feel this compliments the perplexity of the poem and being an appropriate tone.

In both odes the poets used the sentence element. In Melancholy the sentences are on average the same length. They are not very complex offering a particular idea or thought per line, “Turning to Poison while the bee-mouth sips;” (K line 24). The sentence structure continues to favor the meaning parallel to the previous mentioned pattern, rhyme and line length of the poem. Each line is very similar to one another creating an overall unity and flow of the poem. Wordsworth sentence structure is not the same. There is a combination of both short and long lines, as well as lines that are complex and very simple, “Land and sea” (W line 30). This adds meaning through the assortment Wordsworth uses throughout the poem. Both Keats and Wordsworth use punctuation in their poems. Keats uses punctuation at the end of almost every line as a break but each stanza is broken into its own complete sentence by only ending in a single period. Wordsworth’s stanzas are broken into several sentences ending in different punctuation. Wordsworth like Keats uses punctuation at the end of almost every line to form a break for the reader.

Another poetic element that John Keats and Williams Wordsworth use are line structure and line breaks. In Melancholy the lines remain around ten syllables no less than seven, a natural breath. Since all the lines remain around the same length it tributes to the constant flow and pattern of the poem. On the other had in Immortality the lines are different lengths, still around the natural breath of ten syllables but going as low as two to a line, “But he” (W line 69). The fluctuating line length can relate to the variety of thoughts and stories of the free verse poem. Most of the lines in Keats’ ode are end stopped, each line finishing at the end of the line, “Sudden from heaven like a weeping cloud,” (K line 12). However, in Wordsworth’s lengthy ode he uses a combination of that and lines that are enjambed, a line continued through the next verse, “And by the vision splendid Is on his way attended;” (W lines 73-74). This affects the poems the same way the line length favors the flow and meanings of the odes. Not all the lines are broken on specific words for emphasis. In Melancholy the lines are ended more to match the rhyme scheme of the poem. Wordsworth uses the technique more since he has an open formed poem that does not require a particular rhyme or line length to end the line. This also allows for more enjambed lines.

I enjoyed both poems in different ways. I felt that the diction used made it difficult at times to understand the poems thoroughly. The way Keats used an abstract speaker for the audience made it an interesting way for the reader to interpret the poem. I enjoyed the foreshadowing that began to explain the reason for the people in the end of the poem. I thought it was a thought out poem that made you think about not only the person that you were reading about but also relating it to real life. Losing a loved one is never easy and for someone to want to end their own life for the love of another is a powerful meaning. Wordsworth was often wordy and jumped around a lot. He talked a lot about human life and different stages. His wording and thought structure was hard to following clearly and tough to find the connections. I enjoyed the differences of the poem and how the different poetic elements contributed so much to the style of the poem. John Keats’ “Ode on Melancholy” was a followed pattern. Each line, each stanza and each rhyme linked the poem together well in a followed blueprint. This added to the monitored structure which made the poem symmetrical in a way. William Wordsworth followed the exact opposite approach in “Ode: Intimation of Immortality.” He used a variety of poetic elements that followed no particular structure creating abstract connections throughout the poem. His variety also factored into the array of thoughts and ideas throughout the poem.

Keats, John. "Ode on Melancholy." The Norton Anthology of Poetry. Ed. Margaret Ferguson, Mary Jo Salter, Jon Stallworthy. 5th ed. New York: Norton & Company, 2005. 937-938.

Wordsworth, William. "Ode: Intimation of Immortality." The Norton Anthology of Poetry. Ed. Margaret Ferguson, Mary Jo Salter, Jon Stallworthy. 5th ed. New York: Norton & Company, 2005. 796-801.