Lakhasly

MELANCHOLY, BEAUTY, AND IMPERMANENCE
John Keats’s “Ode on Melancholy” is a rich and complex poem that offers a way of responding to deep despair. Put simply, it encourages people to embrace sadness, not by seeking to end or soften it, but by living within it—that is, by actively acknowledging its presence. People ought to embrace “melancholy” because, even though it brings “sorrow,” it's also a fundamental part of beauty, joy, and pleasure. Furthermore, the poem argues, the highest forms of beauty are actually made beautiful by the fact that they cannot last—and it’s for this reason, the poem suggests, that melancholy, beauty, and time are so deeply intertwined.
The poem is almost like an early precursor to self-help literature, suggesting what to do and not to do when someone is feeling really down. To that end, the first stanza acts as a kind of warning, outlining different ways that people might respond to melancholy. These include self-poisoning and drinking from the ancient river of Lethe (which causes the drinker to forget whatever is troubling them). If people try to numb or end their "anguish," the poem argues, they won't make the most of their melancholy—they won’t be able to see its close relationship with beauty at first hand. Instead, they just will be overwhelmed by their sadness.
The second stanza then tells people what they should do when a melancholy mood strikes. Essentially, this boils down to embracing melancholy by seeking out beauty in the natural world. People should "glut"—that is, feed—their sorrows by looking at a "morning rose," a rainbow that appears over the sea, or a peony. Importantly, all of these things are temporary; a morning rose blooms in the morning, a rainbow fades, and globular peonies quickly brown and wilt. In fact, part of their beauty seems to come from the fact that their existence is fleeting. As such, the speaker argues that people should embrace their melancholy by bearing witness to the most melancholic fact of all: that the greatest beauty in the world is by its very nature temporary, and that’s why beauty contains and even intensifies melancholy.
In the poem, beauty and melancholy are thus linked by their impermanence. “Beauty [...] must die,” just as “Joy” is always bidding the joyful person “adieu” (goodbye). And though people can experience pleasure, it’s always metaphorically in the process of “turning to poison”—because time will eventually bring about its end. Inherent to beauty, the poem thus argues, is a sense of poignant sadness given the knowledge that beauty will one day be gone.
For that reason, then, “Melancholy” is like a kind of goddess who rules over the “temple of Delight.” Zooming out on this idea, the poem is essentially saying that nothing good can last forever. This in turn makes anything good in life full of sadness before it’s even over—but the best response to this sad fact, agues the poem, is simply to embrace it. Indeed, that’s why the poem's ending praises those people who “can burst Joy’s grape against [their] palate fine.” Someone like that accepts that beauty and melancholy “dwell” together, and “bursts” this metaphorical grape—a stand-in for all the good things in life—in full knowledge that doing so will eventually bring about a time when “Joy” will be gone. This is actually a pretty practical response in a world not built to last, and with a life that has death as its only real certainty.
Ultimately, then, “Ode on Melancholy” uncovers an intimate connection between melancholy, beauty, and the passing of time. If beautiful things could last forever, the poem seems to say, then they wouldn’t be suffused with such sadness. But, of course, nothing can last—and thereby the more beautiful something is (and beauty can stand for joy, pleasure, and general happiness) the more that melancholy “dwells” within it