However, although Coleridge has often expressed a fear that his poetic powers have declined, I believe his melancholic feelings may have inspired his poetry more than he realizes. As my colleague, Christopher Murray notes, by writing this poem Mr. Coleridge’s melancholy is “productively transformed in the writing of the poem itself’ (Murray, 722). Although Coleridge has insisted to me time and time again that his poetic powers are waning, I believe that this may be one of the greatest poems that he has written, and surely others will agree in the future. It seems that rather than completely inhibiting his poetry, his melancholy in fact inspired one of his best works. Although Coleridge “may not hope from outward forms to win / the passion and
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Wordsworth and Mr. Coleridge, Mr. John Keats is certainly the most unusual of my patients in that he seems to both completely embrace his melancholic feelings as a source of inspiration intermingled with joy. Mr. Keats’ melancholy most likely stems from his feelings of impending death caused by his diagnosis with tuberculosis, and this appears to influence the majority of his works. Whereas Mr. Wordsworth saw his melancholia as a source of inspiration and joy as well as pain, and Mr. Coleridge perceives his melancholia as detrimental, Mr. Keats instead clearly combines melancholy with joy to make a statement on “his recurrent themes of the mingled contrarieties of life” (Greenblatt, 931). In fact, Mr. Keats seems almost obsessed with melancholy. Not only does he constantly quote from his copy of Robert Burton’s Anatomy of Melancholy, but he seems to see joy and pain as “inseparable but irreconcilable opposites” (Greenblatt, 903). A prime example of this combination of opposites is Mr. Keats’ poem “Ode on Melancholy” wherein he praises melancholy and its influences on his work. Rather than encouraging the reader to transform melancholy into positive thought or lamenting his melancholic emotions, Keats instead advises the reader to embrace melancholy and recognize it as a vital aspect of joy. For example, in the beginning of the poem Keats encourages the reader to seek the beautiful when sorrow strikes rather than yield to sorrow when he writes “when the melancholy fit shall fall / sudden from heaven like a weeping cloud…then glut thy sorrow on a morning rose” (11-14). However, Keats also recognizes that this joy is transitory and unreliable, noting that joy “turn[s] to poison while the bee-mouth sips” (24). Rather than dividing joy and pain, Keats instead recognizes melancholy’s mixture of the two emotions, and represents it as a complex emotion. Further, Keats claims that melancholy is an essential aspect of joy and that one cannot exist
Wordsworth and Mr. Coleridge, Mr. John Keats is certainly the most unusual of my patients in that he seems to both completely embrace his melancholic feelings as a source of inspiration intermingled with joy. Mr. Keats’ melancholy most likely stems from his feelings of impending death caused by his diagnosis with tuberculosis, and this appears to influence the majority of his works. Whereas Mr. Wordsworth saw his melancholia as a source of inspiration and joy as well as pain, and Mr. Coleridge perceives his melancholia as detrimental, Mr. Keats instead clearly combines melancholy with joy to make a statement on “his recurrent themes of the mingled contrarieties of life” (Greenblatt, 931). In fact, Mr. Keats seems almost obsessed with melancholy. Not only does he constantly quote from his copy of Robert Burton’s Anatomy of Melancholy, but he seems to see joy and pain as “inseparable but irreconcilable opposites” (Greenblatt, 903). A prime example of this combination of opposites is Mr. Keats’ poem “Ode on Melancholy” wherein he praises melancholy and its influences on his work. Rather than encouraging the reader to transform melancholy into positive thought or lamenting his melancholic emotions, Keats instead advises the reader to embrace melancholy and recognize it as a vital aspect of joy. For example, in the beginning of the poem Keats encourages the reader to seek the beautiful when sorrow strikes rather than yield to sorrow when he writes “when the melancholy fit shall fall / sudden from heaven like a weeping cloud…then glut thy sorrow on a morning rose” (11-14). However, Keats also recognizes that this joy is transitory and unreliable, noting that joy “turn[s] to poison while the bee-mouth sips” (24). Rather than dividing joy and pain, Keats instead recognizes melancholy’s mixture of the two emotions, and represents it as a complex emotion. Further, Keats claims that melancholy is an essential aspect of joy and that one cannot exist