Using ‘Ode on Melancholy’ and one other, examine how Keats uses languag

Using ‘Ode on Melancholy’ and one other, examine how Keats uses language to explore his muses Keats In ‘Ode on Melancholy’ Keats accepts the truth he sees: joy and pain are inseparable and to experience joy fully we must experience sadness or melancholy fully. The first stanza urges us not to try and escape pain; stanza two tells us what to do instead - embrace the transient beauty and joy of the nature and human experience, which contain pain and death. Stanza three makes clear that in order to experience joy we must experience the sorrow that beauty dies and joy evaporates. The more intensely we feel happiness, the more subject we are to melancholy. The poet's passionate outcry not to reject melancholy is presented negatively – â€Å"no,† â€Å"not,† â€Å"neither,† â€Å"nor.† The degree of pain that melancholy may cause is implied by the ways to avoid it, for example â€Å"go to Lethe† and â€Å"suffer thy pale forehead to be kissed by nightshade†¦Ã¢â‚¬  The first two words, â€Å"No, no,† are both accented, emphasising them; their forcefulness expresses convincingly the speaker’s passionate state. In the first stanza, the language used presents â€Å"the wakeful anguish of the soul†. Keats speaks of â€Å"yew-berries† which are generally associated with mourning; the mood of the stanza is joyless which mirrors the subject it speaks of. However, Keats describes the â€Å"anguish† as â€Å"wakeful† because the sufferer still feels and so still has the capacity to feel happiness. The language used in ‘Ode on Melancholy’ is highly appropriate – the clouds are â€Å"weeping†. Much of the effectiveness of this poem derives from the concrete imagery. Throughout the poem, Keats yokes elements, which are ordinarily regarded as incompatible or as opposites. These ... ...e him unable to hear it anymore and therefore feel anguish. In the end of ‘Ode on Melancholy’, we see the reward of the â€Å"wakeful anguish of the soul†. The possessor of the wakeful soul â€Å"shall taste the sadness of her might†. The change of tense from present pleasure to future melancholy expresses their relationship – one is part of and inevitably follows the other. Keats concludes that the wakeful soul will be the â€Å"trophy† gained from melancholy. However, the trophies are described as â€Å"cloudy,† which has negative overtones keeping the muse of the poem constant throughout. Keats explores his muses using language of both happiness and despondency. Each of these feelings characterise the poems and therefore the use of imagery is relevant. The language used enables Keats to convey his emotions and experiences to the point where the reader can feel them too.