Abstract
Ode on Melancholy is an example of a Pindaric ode, i.e., it is composed in iambic pentameter (we have some occasional spondees too), while the rhyme scheme is a b a b c d e c d e for the first two stanzas and a b a b c d e d c e for the third and last one. We have three stanzas, the first one called the strophe, the second – the antistrophe and the third – epode. We also have eight run-on lines and two hemistichs ( two times a caesura in the middle of a line ) but they are in the last stanza of the poem. Normally, Pindaric ode is used in less personal works but here, apparently, we have an exception.
What immediately attracts the attention of the reader is the fact that the first stanza contains words of Latin origin, refering to mythology : “Lethe”, which is the river of oblivion and suggests death (river in the underworld of Hades in which souls about to be reborn bathed to forget their past lives. Hence, it is the river of forgetfulness); “Proserpine”, who is the goddess of the underworld and in Greek mythology symbolizes the cycle of the seasons and more broad passage of time; “Psyche”, who often represents the human soul.
