Ode To Psyche - Themes

Themes

The moment that Cupid and Psyche are revealed is an example of "Keatsian intensity" as they are neither in a state of separation nor are they united; they exist in a state somewhere in between in a similar manner to the figures depicted in Keats's "Ode on a Grecian Urn". The narrator's ability to witness the union is unique to Keats's version of the Psyche myth because the lovers in the original story were covered in darkness. However, the narrator questions if he was able to see them at all or if he was dreaming. This inability of the narrator to know if he was awake is a theme that appears in many of Keats's odes that followed, including "Ode on Indolence", "Ode on a Grecian Urn", and "Ode to a Nightingale". Regardless of the narrator's state of consciousness, he is able to relate himself to Cupid as he believes himself to be in love with Psyche, representing the mind.

Part of the problem within "Ode to Psyche" is in the narrator's claim that Psyche was neglected since she became a goddess later than the other Greco-Roman deities. As such, the narrator serves as a prophetic figure who is devoted to the soul. Worship towards the soul is through use of the imagination, an idea that shows the influence of William Wordsworth upon the poem's themes. In particular, the lines are reminiscent of the description of inspiration and the muse within Wordsworth's The Recluse. To serve Psyche, the narrator of "Ode to Psyche" seeks to worship her by thoroughly exploring the regions of his mind. However, the temple dedicated to the goddess within his mind does not yet exist.

This reveals that there is a struggle between the acceptance of imaginative experience that exists only within a small part of the mind. This struggle, according to Walter Evert, has "no relevance to the world of external action and perhaps no truth to offer even the visionary dreamer himself." However Anthony Hecht looks at the problem in a different way and believes that there must be a connection between the external and internal worlds for the narrator to even face the problem. Regardless, the narrator never states that this worship of Psyche or embracing the imagination would aid mankind, but the poem does rejoice in exercising the imagination.

In addition to the theme of dedicating one's self to the mind, the theme of reception plays heavily upon the poem's presentation; Andrew Bennett states that the poem, like all poems, is "'heard' both by itself (and therefore not heard) and by an audience that reads the poem and 'hears' it differently". Bennett implies that the word "wrung" in line one contains a double entendre as it also alludes to the "ringing in the ears" involved with active listening. The poem's treatment of the reader as a third-party to the conversation between the narrator and the goddess exemplifies the narrative question common among many of Keats's odes and leads Bennett to question how exactly the reader should regard his place within the poem, or outside of it.