Ode To Psyche - Structure

Structure

"Ode to Psyche", Keats's 67 line ode, was the first of his major odes of 1819. As such, the poem is an experiment in the ode structure that he was to then rely on for his next five odes. Although Keats spent time considering the language of the poem, the choice of wording and phrasing is below that found within his later works, including Hyperion or the odes that followed. "Ode to Psyche" is important because it is Keats's first attempt at an altered sonnet form that would include longer more lines and would end with a message or truth. Also, he did not want the poem to be based simply around that message, so he incorporated narrative elements, such as plot and characters, along with a preface to the poem. Of these additions, the use of a preface was discontinued in his next odes along with the removal of details that describe setting within the poems; they would only be implied within later odes.

H. W. Garrod, in his analysis of Keats's sonnet form, believes that Keats took various aspects of sonnet forms and incorporated only those that he thought would benefit his poetry. In particular, Keats relies on Petrarch's sonnet structure and the "pouncing rhymes" that are found within Petrarch's octave stanzas. However, M. R. Ridley disputes that Keats favours Petrarch and claims that the odes incorporate a Shakespearean rhyme scheme. Regardless of which sonnet structure was favoured over the other, Keats wanted to avoid the downsides of both forms. "Ode to Psyche" begins with an altered Shakespearean rhyme scheme of ababcdcdeffeef. The use of rhyme does not continue throughout the poem, and the lines that follow are divided into different groups: a quatrain, couplets, and a line on its own. These are then followed by a series of twelve lines that are modelled after the Shakespearean sonnet form, but lack the final couplet. The next lines are of two quatrains, with cddc rhyme, followed by two lines that repeat the previous rhymes, and then a final quatrain, with efef rhyme.