Keats
Ode on Indolence
"They toil not, neither do they spin"
One morn before me were three figures seen,
With bowed necks, and joined hands, side-faced;
And one behind the other stepp'd serene,
In placid sandals, and in white robes graced;
They pass'd, like figures on a marble urn,
When shifted round to see the other side;
They came again; as when the urn once more
Is shifted round, the first seen shades return;
And they were strange to me, as many betide
With vases, to one deep in Phidian lore. 10
How is it, Shadows! that I knew ye not?
How came ye muffled in so hush a masque?
Was it a silent deep-disguised plot
To steal away, and leave without a task
My idle days? Ripe was the drowsy hour;
The blissful cloud of summer-indolence
Benumb'd my eyes; my pulse grew less and less;
Pain had no sting, and pleasure's wreath no flower:
O, why did ye not melt, and leave my sense
Unhaunted quite of all but-nothingness? 20
A third time came they by; - alas! wherefore?
My sleep had been embroider'd with dim dreams;
My soul had been a lawn besprinkled o'er
With flowers, and stirring shades, and baffled beams:
The morn was clouded, but no shower fell,
Tho' in her lids hung the sweet tears of May;
The open casement press'd a new-leav'd vine,
Let in the budding warmth and throstle's lay;
O Shadows! 'twas a time to bid farewell!
Upon your skirts had fallen no tears of mine. 30
A third time pass'd they by, and, passing, turn'd
Each one the face a moment whiles to me;
Then faded, and to follow them I burn'd
And ached for wings because I knew the three;
The first was a fair Maid, and Love her name;
The second was Ambition, pale of cheek,
And ever watchful with fatigued eye;
The last, whom I love more, the more of blame
Is heap'd upon her, maiden most unmeek, -
I knew to be my demon Poesy. 40
They faded, and, forsooth! I wanted wings:
O folly! What is Love! and where is it?
And for that poor Ambition - it springs
From a man's little heart's short fever-fit;
For Poesy! - no, - she has not a joy, -
At least for me, - so sweet as drowsy noons,
And evenings steep'd in honied indolence;
O, for an age so shelter'd from annoy,
That I may never know how change the moons,
Or hear the voice of busy common-sense! 50
So, ye three Ghosts, adieu! Ye cannot raise
My head cool-bedded in the flowery grass;
For I would not be dieted with praise,
A pet-lamb in a sentimental farce!
Fade softly from my eyes, and be once more
In masque-like figures on the dreamy urn;
Farewell! I yet have visions for the night,
And for the day faint visions there is store;
Vanish, ye Phantoms! from my idle spright,
Into the clouds, and bever more return! 60
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The thought and the imagery of this Ode, which was not published in Keats's lifetime, are obviously suggested by those of his letter of 19 March 1819 to George Keats. He probably re-read this part of the letter when he finally sent it off, about 3 May 1819, and tried to reconstruct the experience, but in a setting of early May (see l. 26).
It is also noticeable that the expression "my idle spright" (l. 59) is repeated exactly from the sonnet On a Dream, which he wrote in the middle of April.
The Ode, though written just after the Ode to Psyche, shows Keats still experimenting with the form he was to develop in the later Odes. It is repetitive and loose in construction, lacking their concentration and clarity. It is not even certain in what order he wrote the stanzas, and the scheme adopted here is that favoured by H. W. Garrod. It must be added that Keats himself wrote (9 june) "You will judge of my 1819 temper, when I tell you that the thing I have most enjoyed this year has been writing an ode to Indolence".
l. 10. - "Phidian" - relating to Pheidias, the Greek sculptor. Keats means he knows about sculpture, but not about vases.
ll. 57-58. - "visions for the night, and for the day" - A reminiscence of his reading for the Ode to Psyche in The Golden Asse, chap. XXI, "as the visions of the day are accounted false and untrue, so the vision of the night do often chance contrary."
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