The Odes by John Keats

His means of worship is the act of imaginative creation itself, as the final section of the poem makes clear. So, to put Keats’ allegory in a simplified form: ‘imaginative creation divinises, or makes eternal, the human mind.’ The ‘dreaming prophet’ is, in fact, the active image-creative artist: “Surely I dreamt to-day, or did I see/The winged Psyche with awaken’d eyes?” The Keatsian allegory is dovetailed with the earlier allegory of Apuleius to make the ultimate imaginative fulfilment one of love. So – in the first section – Psyche in excelsis is envisioned in Cupid’s embrace in an earthly paradise, and the climax of the whole poem is an invitation to love to visit the human mind – “a casement ope at night.” Keats’ main difference with Apuleius’ Neo-Platonism is that, for him, it is the poet who divinises the human mind, whereas in Apuleius it is the action of God, seen as Divine Love.

GLOSSARY

‘tuneless numbers’ – rhetorical use of false modesty by Keats. ‘numbers’ = metrical verse.

‘sweet enforcement’ – the poet has been so struck by his insight that he is compelled to communicate it.

‘own soft-conched ear’ = soft and shaped like a sea-shell. The conch image suggests the whispering sound heard when shells are held to the ear. The shell’s colour and texture as well is relevant – pinkish-white, pure and smooth. The intimacy of a whisper is suggested by the threefold assonance on the o vowel.

‘I wander’d in a forest thoughtlessly’ – The wandering suggests the poet’s mind existing aimlessly without a clear creative impulse (there may even be an echo of Wordsworth’s ‘I wandered lonely as a cloud’). Being ‘lost in a forest’ adds to this sense. The adverb ‘thoughtlessly’ is precise in a poem about the human mind: with the vision of Cupid and Psyche his thoughts become completely engaged.

‘’Mid hush’d, cool-rooted flowers, fragrant-eyed,/Blue, silver-white, and budded Tyrian” – typically rich language to suggest an earthy paradise. There is a sensuous use of assonance on “cool-rooted.” In both lines the vowels are stepped from low sounds to high sounds and move from long vowels to short, giving an ‘anticipatory’ feel. All is building up to the almost-kiss of “Their lips touch’d not.”

‘tender eye-dawn of aurorean love’ – They will kiss again once their eyes ‘dawn’ by waking and looking at each other again. ‘Aurorean love’ is ‘dawn love:’ fresh, new, young. Keats says, ‘ As if disjoined by soft-handed slumber’ (italics added): they are not asleep, but in a kind of trance of fulfilment, a state he will explore further in Ode on a Grecian Urn .