Ode to Psyche

Question 1

key themes

Answer 1

• relationships
• nature
• worship

Question 1

relationships

Answer 1

• Erotic language (“lips touch’d” “past kisses” “arms embraced”) and semantic field of closeness.
• “Air…water…fire” – elemental love (true + deed/strong)
• Creating a “rosy sanctuary” of safe, secure + hidden nature
• “Mountains steep by steep” – scale of his love + freedom he offers.

Question 2

nature

Answer 2

• “Beneath the whispering roof” personification along with noun. Phrases of rich imagery (“forest” “leaves” “blossoms” “grass”) – nature is protective.
• “Vesper” – star linked to Venus (visual imagery)
• Aural imagery of purity (“virgin-choir”)
• “Sapphire-region’s star” – Pheobe, goddess of moon

Question 3

worhsip

Answer 3

• “No” repeated – reinforces her lack of worship and need to be acknowledged.
• “Haunted forest boughs” – worship of nature (romanticism)
• “Fond believing lyre” aural imagery – serenading/worshipping her.
• “Thy” repeated – focus all his attention on her.
• S4: no need for anything else (Psyche/ Fanny is the focus
• Excitement over the idea of worshipping her – explosives (S4)

Question 4

form/ structure

Answer 4

• Tableaux – S1 (reality) and S4 (Keats mind) both describe a forest.
• Strophe, anti-strophe, epode (narrative device common to odes) – allows story to be told by the chorus, common device in Greek mythology.
  Stanza 1: complex rhyme scheme – reflects Keats’ confusion of Psyche + wants the poem to be perfect.
  Stanza 2: simple + regular rhyme scheme – allows for the focus to be on Psyche’s tragedy.
  Stanza 3: iambic pentameter, 3 lines trimeter – more complexity as he proclaims worship.
  Stanza 4: 2 lines trimeter + simple rhyme – complexity of creating ‘home’.

Question 5

context - date

Answer 5

• Written in spring of 1819 – as part of Keats attempt at a literary career before giving up for more lucrative work + nearing death

Question 6

context - inspiration

Answer 6

• Keats read into myth of Psyche – one being Lempriere’s Classical Dictionary and Mary Tighe’s Psyche (1805) read it as a child then retuned to it in 1818
• After writing Ode to Psyche, Keats wrote to his brother George claiming he was dissatisfied with myth then turned to Apuleius’s Golden Ass (earlier version of cupid and psyche myth in Roman mythology)

Question 7

context - social

Answer 7

• Napoleonic Wars (1815): people hoped life old improve but society declined + poverty increased massively and harvests spoiled causing more conflict between classes
• When writing 6 odes in 1819: Peterloo Massacre took place in which Keats witnessed in the crowd when welcomed back to London
• Keats surrounded by conflict (emotional or physical) – why the theme of escape + imagination are explored

Question 8

context - personal

Answer 8

• Letter to brother in 1819: “The following poem – the last I have written – is the first and only one with which I have taken even moderate pains. I have for most part dashed off my lined in a hurry. This I have done leisurely – I think it reads the more richly for it, and I will hope encourage me to write other things in even a more peaceable and healthy spirit”
• Letter to Fanny in 1819: “I can do that no more – the pain would e too great – My Love is selfish – I cannot breathe without you” – passion shown in poems show Keat’s admiaration for Fanny (could be seen in the poem through the relationship of Psyche and speaker)
• Diagnosis of TB meant acknowledgement that his love for Fanny couldn’t last forever – them of imagination explores as Psyyche + speaker remain united (unlike Fanny and Keats)

Question 9

context - greek mythology

Answer 9

• Pyshe: Greek meaning both should and butterfly, ancient world, dead body often portrayed as having butterfly floating above it
  ‘goddess (believed her struggles made her a goddess) loved by Cupid bit then left by him, late arrival to Olympus means eh wasnt worshipped equally
• vale of soul making: things must be bas to experiment happiness
• tribute to Fanny: most complex poem