Ode to pysche Flashcards
who is psyche
a figure from ancient greek mythology. she was orginally a mortal who became a goddes. Psyche also means the soul which is often represented as a butterfly- a fragile light creature which ascends to the heavens
Story of psyche
- story taken from the golden ass by Apeleius
- Venus was jealous of Psyche (the most beautiful of mortal women) so she commanded cupid (her son) to inspire her to love the most despicable of men
- Cupid is overcome with Psyches beauty and therefore places her in a remote palace where he could visit her secretly and only in total darkness so she could not see him
- one night posyche lit a lamp and found out the figure by herside was cupid, who awoken by a drop of oil rom the lamp reproache dpsyche and fled
- psyche wanders the earth in search for him but instead encounters venus who enslaves her and imposed 4 almost impossible tasks upon her which she completes through teh aid of sympathetic animals and gods
- finally touched by psyches repentance cupid rescues her and asks Jupiter to make her a god and then is given in marriage to cupid
what does aurorean mean
belonging to dawn/ resembling it in brilliant hue
who is the winged boy
cupid
meaning of vesper in ode to psyche
another name for venus
synopsis of Keats’ ode to psyche
the speaker sees cupid and psyche together in the light and knowing she is the newest of gods without a cult to worship har he offers to make a temple to her in his mind and be the priest of her new religion
synopsis of stanza 1
- poet apologises for his inadequate skills when addressing the goddess Psyche.
- he reports that he was wandering without purpose through a forest and came across two lovers caught in a curious stasis of an embrace: they seem to be united and apart at the same time.
- He recognises them as Cupid and his lover Psyche.
synopsis of stanza 2
The poet notes that while the ancient gods have faded, Psyche is the newest amongst them – she is more beautiful than the others. But, she has no temple dedicated to her – no customs or rituals and no priest or prophet to pass on her word
stanza 3 synopsis
-the poet notes that it may be too late for Psyche to be celebrated, but even so, he says he is inspired by her and so eh offers himself as her temple- his voice as her celebrant and priest
stanza 4 synopsis
- the poet declares that he will build a temple in his mind for psyche. it will take the form of a garden suhc as those from the classical era but it will be located in a hidden part of himself
- his fancy will act as the gardener to tend it producing endlessly new flowers and pysche will be able to stand by an open window waiting for cupid to arirve
what can be used as context to this poem?
a letter to George keats from 1819 in which keats says
The following poem – the last I have written – is the first and the only one with which I have taken even moderate pains. I have for the most part dashed off my lines in a hurry. This I have done leisurely – I think it reads the more richly for it, and will I hope encourage me to write other things in even a more peaceable and healthy spirit. You must recollect that Psyche was not embodied as a goddess before the time of Apuleius the Platonist, who lived after the Augustan age and consequently the goddess was never worshipped or sacrificed to with any of the ancient fervour, and perhaps never thought of in the old religion – I am more orthodox than to let a heathen goddess be so neglected.
poetic techniques/ notable feautures of stanza 2
-juxtaposition between the use of superlatives/ comparatives to convey the oppulence of the goddesses and how psyche surpasses them in terms of beauty with the excessive use of negatives emphasised through an sydentic list to exemplify the absence of psyches worshippers
examples of Keats’ philhellenism
- thematically- psyche was a figure of greek mythology
- syntactically- keats employs homeric epithets (‘tender eye dawn’ soft conched ear)
- register echos that of a classical text through allusion to ‘zephyr’ and ‘Olympians’ and ‘vesper’
language in relation to structure in psyche
-language reflects the structure as it moves from one tableau to another: the tone changes from the warmth of physical love in stanza 1 to the more structured language of religious observance in the final stanza
keats use of phonetics/ auditory imagery
- VERY frequent use of auditory imagery, sibilance, consonnace of liquid sounds and frictives, lots of assounace
- this could capture the gentle meandering of the speakers body/ mind between the borders of reality and dream
- lots of examples of onomatopoeia e.g. whispering hushed trembled
- in the final stanza there is a stronger sense of control- plosives create a sense of discipline also the flowers are bred and not let to grown wildly
