Ode to psyche ............
INTRODUCTION.....
Ode to Psyche" is a poem by John Keats written in spring 1819. The poem is the first of his 1819 odes, which include "Ode on a Grecian Urn" and "Ode to a Nightingale". "Ode to Psyche" is an experiment in the ode genre, and Keats's attempt at an expanded version of the sonnet format that describes a dramatic scene.Keats uses the imagination to show the narrator's intent to resurrect Psyche and reincarnate himself into Eros (love). Keats attempts this by dedicating an "untrodden region" of his mind to the worship of the neglected goddess.
Stanza 1...
O Goddess! hear these tuneless numbers, wrung
By sweet enforcement and remembrance dear,
And pardon that thy secrets should be sung
Even into thine own soft-conched ear:
Surely I dreamt to-day, or did I see
The winged Psyche with awaken'd eyes?
I wander'd in a forest thoughtlessly,
And, on the sudden, fainting with surprise,
Saw two fair creatures, couched side by side
In deepest grass, beneath the whisp'ring roof
Of leaves and trembled blossoms, where there ran
A brooklet, scarce espied:
Stanza 2.....
Mid hush'd, cool-rooted flowers, fragrant-eyed,
Blue, silver-white, and budded Tyrian,
They lay calm-breathing, on the bedded grass;
Their arms embraced, and their pinions too;
Their lips touch'd not, but had not bade adieu,
As if disjoined by soft-handed slumber,
And ready still past kisses to outnumber
At tender eye-dawn of aurorean love:
The winged boy I knew;
But who wast thou, O happy, happy dove?
His Psyche true!
Stanza 3......
O latest born and loveliest vision far
Of all Olympus' faded hierarchy!
Fairer than Phoebe's sapphire-region'd star,
Or Vesper, amorous glow-worm of the sky;
Fairer than these, though temple thou hast none,
Nor altar heap'd with flowers;
Nor virgin-choir to make delicious moan
Upon the midnight hours;
No voice, no lute, no pipe, no incense sweet
From chain-swung censer teeming;
No shrine, no grove, no oracle, no heat
Of pale-mouth'd prophet dreaming.
Stanza 4......
O brightest! though too late for antique vows,
Too, too late for the fond believing lyre,
When holy were the haunted forest boughs,
Holy the air, the water, and the fire;
Yet even in these days so far retir'd
From happy pieties, thy lucent fans,
Fluttering among the faint Olympians,
I see, and sing, by my own eyes inspir'd.
So let me be thy choir, and make a moan
Upon the midnight hours;
Thy voice, thy lute, thy pipe, thy incense sweet
From swinged censer teeming;
Thy shrine, thy grove, thy oracle, thy heat
Of pale-mouth'd prophet dreaming.
Stanza 5......
Yes, I will be thy priest, and build a fane
In some untrodden region of my mind,
Where branched thoughts, new grown with pleasant pain,
Instead of pines shall murmur in the wind:
Far, far around shall those dark-cluster'd trees
Fledge the wild-ridged mountains steep by steep;
And there by zephyrs, streams, and birds, and bees,
The moss-lain Dryads shall be lull'd to sleep;
And in the midst of this wide quietness
A rosy sanctuary will I dress
With the wreath'd trellis of a working brain,
With buds, and bells, and stars without a name,
With all the gardener Fancy e'er could feign,
Who breeding flowers, will never breed the same:
And there shall be for thee all soft delight
That shadowy thought can win,
A bright torch, and a casement ope at night,
To let the warm Love in!
Myth ...
The Myth of Psyche:-

In Greek myth, Psyche was a princess whom cupid, the son of Venus, Fell in love with. Fearing his mother’s jealousy of her beauty, he visited her only at night, in total darkness. In one version of the myth she was a snake; in any event, to discover who and what he was, she looked at him one night after he had fallen asleep. When oil dripping from her lamp awoke him, he fled. Psyche searched for him, enduring much suffering. As a reward for her devotion and the hardships she had undergone, she was made immortal and reunited with cupid.
Why did this myth attract Keats ??.
All classical allusions enabled Keats to universalize his poetry, connected the poet’s concerns with images and stories which had gathered in meaning over the centuries; classical tales represented their own kind of permanence; they were widely understood and seen to be symbolic by Keats’s readers. The classical age was also seen as a time of simplicity where feeling and thought, spirituality and sensuality were united.
The poem is immediately addressed to Psyche. The ode does not actually retell the myth. The elements of the myth are just within the lines. The poet imagines that he has either seen or dreamed that he has seen the winged goddess, Psyche, while he was wandering in a forest. Although she is fairer than all other goddesses, there is no temple to her. The speaker wants to pay homage to Psyche. He says he will be her choir, alter, and music. In the fourth stanza, he continues with these declarations, saying he will become Psyche’s priest and build her a temple in a region of his mind. He uses elements of imagination and insight and relies on them to become experience. He also says that her love (Cupid/Eros) can come in. In the poem it mentions Psyche's wings. In Greek Psyche means soul or butterfly. The reader gives his self to understand the goddess. The lyrical voice is a symbol of giving up his own voice to create a deeper connection with her. This ode is an example of a romantic poet which John Keats is the master of creating.
Reference .....
http://chintavan201517.blogspot.in/2016/04/critical-note-on-john-keatss-odes.html
https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/44480/ode-to-psyche
Study material ..
INTRODUCTION.....
Ode to Psyche" is a poem by John Keats written in spring 1819. The poem is the first of his 1819 odes, which include "Ode on a Grecian Urn" and "Ode to a Nightingale". "Ode to Psyche" is an experiment in the ode genre, and Keats's attempt at an expanded version of the sonnet format that describes a dramatic scene.Keats uses the imagination to show the narrator's intent to resurrect Psyche and reincarnate himself into Eros (love). Keats attempts this by dedicating an "untrodden region" of his mind to the worship of the neglected goddess.
Stanza 1...
O Goddess! hear these tuneless numbers, wrung
By sweet enforcement and remembrance dear,
And pardon that thy secrets should be sung
Even into thine own soft-conched ear:
Surely I dreamt to-day, or did I see
The winged Psyche with awaken'd eyes?
I wander'd in a forest thoughtlessly,
And, on the sudden, fainting with surprise,
Saw two fair creatures, couched side by side
In deepest grass, beneath the whisp'ring roof
Of leaves and trembled blossoms, where there ran
A brooklet, scarce espied:
Stanza 2.....
Mid hush'd, cool-rooted flowers, fragrant-eyed,
Blue, silver-white, and budded Tyrian,
They lay calm-breathing, on the bedded grass;
Their arms embraced, and their pinions too;
Their lips touch'd not, but had not bade adieu,
As if disjoined by soft-handed slumber,
And ready still past kisses to outnumber
At tender eye-dawn of aurorean love:
The winged boy I knew;
But who wast thou, O happy, happy dove?
His Psyche true!
Stanza 3......
O latest born and loveliest vision far
Of all Olympus' faded hierarchy!
Fairer than Phoebe's sapphire-region'd star,
Or Vesper, amorous glow-worm of the sky;
Fairer than these, though temple thou hast none,
Nor altar heap'd with flowers;
Nor virgin-choir to make delicious moan
Upon the midnight hours;
No voice, no lute, no pipe, no incense sweet
From chain-swung censer teeming;
No shrine, no grove, no oracle, no heat
Of pale-mouth'd prophet dreaming.
Stanza 4......
O brightest! though too late for antique vows,
Too, too late for the fond believing lyre,
When holy were the haunted forest boughs,
Holy the air, the water, and the fire;
Yet even in these days so far retir'd
From happy pieties, thy lucent fans,
Fluttering among the faint Olympians,
I see, and sing, by my own eyes inspir'd.
So let me be thy choir, and make a moan
Upon the midnight hours;
Thy voice, thy lute, thy pipe, thy incense sweet
From swinged censer teeming;
Thy shrine, thy grove, thy oracle, thy heat
Of pale-mouth'd prophet dreaming.
Stanza 5......
Yes, I will be thy priest, and build a fane
In some untrodden region of my mind,
Where branched thoughts, new grown with pleasant pain,
Instead of pines shall murmur in the wind:
Far, far around shall those dark-cluster'd trees
Fledge the wild-ridged mountains steep by steep;
And there by zephyrs, streams, and birds, and bees,
The moss-lain Dryads shall be lull'd to sleep;
And in the midst of this wide quietness
A rosy sanctuary will I dress
With the wreath'd trellis of a working brain,
With buds, and bells, and stars without a name,
With all the gardener Fancy e'er could feign,
Who breeding flowers, will never breed the same:
And there shall be for thee all soft delight
That shadowy thought can win,
A bright torch, and a casement ope at night,
To let the warm Love in!
Myth ...
The Myth of Psyche:-

In Greek myth, Psyche was a princess whom cupid, the son of Venus, Fell in love with. Fearing his mother’s jealousy of her beauty, he visited her only at night, in total darkness. In one version of the myth she was a snake; in any event, to discover who and what he was, she looked at him one night after he had fallen asleep. When oil dripping from her lamp awoke him, he fled. Psyche searched for him, enduring much suffering. As a reward for her devotion and the hardships she had undergone, she was made immortal and reunited with cupid.
Why did this myth attract Keats ??.
All classical allusions enabled Keats to universalize his poetry, connected the poet’s concerns with images and stories which had gathered in meaning over the centuries; classical tales represented their own kind of permanence; they were widely understood and seen to be symbolic by Keats’s readers. The classical age was also seen as a time of simplicity where feeling and thought, spirituality and sensuality were united.
The poem is immediately addressed to Psyche. The ode does not actually retell the myth. The elements of the myth are just within the lines. The poet imagines that he has either seen or dreamed that he has seen the winged goddess, Psyche, while he was wandering in a forest. Although she is fairer than all other goddesses, there is no temple to her. The speaker wants to pay homage to Psyche. He says he will be her choir, alter, and music. In the fourth stanza, he continues with these declarations, saying he will become Psyche’s priest and build her a temple in a region of his mind. He uses elements of imagination and insight and relies on them to become experience. He also says that her love (Cupid/Eros) can come in. In the poem it mentions Psyche's wings. In Greek Psyche means soul or butterfly. The reader gives his self to understand the goddess. The lyrical voice is a symbol of giving up his own voice to create a deeper connection with her. This ode is an example of a romantic poet which John Keats is the master of creating.
Reference .....
http://chintavan201517.blogspot.in/2016/04/critical-note-on-john-keatss-odes.html
https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/44480/ode-to-psyche
Study material ..
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