Ode to Psyche

I was in my British Literature class the other day, and we were going over John Keats and his odes.  There is one that stuck out the most.  It was not only beautiful, but it had a Greek mythology embedded into it.  This made my morning because not only did my day start with literature, but it started with mythology, as well.  First, I want to start by talking about the myth.  Then, I will get to the ode and the analysis.

The story of Psyche and Cupid (Eros) is probably one of the most beautiful tales in Greek mythology.  It is very popular and has been retold in a multitude of ways.  Many aesthetics of this story are found in movies today.

Myth of Psyche and Cupid:

Psyche is the youngest of three sisters.  She is born with extreme beauty and grace.  People worship her to the point of forgetting about the goddess Venus.  Venus is the actual goddess of beauty, and Psyche causes her great jealousy.  The angry goddess sets out to create a plot of ruin Psyche.  She hatches the idea that her son Cupid (Eros) should shoot Psyche with an arrow.  The arrow will make her fall in love.  Venus does not just want the beautiful maiden to fall in love; she wants her to fall in love with a hideous man.  Cupid sees how glorious Psyche is and falls in love with her and her beauty.  He shoots himself with his own arrow.  During this, Psyche's father worries she will never find a husband.  Men find her beautiful, but she has yet to find a suitor to take her hand in marriage.  Her father decides he should pray to Apollo.  The god tells them that Psyche should go to the top of a hill where she will marry a serpent and not a man.  She listens.  She falls asleep on this hill and wakes up to a beautiful mansion.  However, she has yet to see her husband.  At night she falls in love with her husband, but she still does not see him.  She is content and happy with their love though.  Psyche asks her husband if her sisters can visit.  He advises that it's not a good idea but follows the wishes of his bride.  Her sisters arrive and are already jealous of her living quarters.  They wonder why Psyche has never seen her husband.  One night they talk her into turning on a light to see him.  She finds Cupid next to her in bed.  When she sees him, she loses her faith, and Cupid flees.  He leaves her because he says a marriage cannot lack trust.  Cupid goes back to his mother, Venus.  Psyche realizes she was wrong and searches for her true love.  She ends up going to Venus and begging for Cupid to return.  Venus wants revenge, so she makes Psyche sort a large pile of seeds in the night.  The tasks seems impossible, but ants help her sort and succeed. Venus commands her to retrieve a golden fleece from the river. She almost drowns herself in the river because she is so depressed, but a reed speaks to her and tells her that she should collect the golden pieces of fleece from the thorny briar that catches it.  She accomplishes the task yet again. The amazed Venus now orders Psyche to fill a flask from the mouth of the River Styx. When Psyche reaches the head of the river, she realizes that this task seems impossible because the rocks are so dangerous. This time, an eagle helps her and fills the flask.  Venus then challenges Psyche to go to the Underworld and have Persephone but some of her beauty into a box.  Somehow, she succeeds again.  Psyche gets curious before giving the box to Venus.  She opens it and immediately falls asleep.  There was actually a sleeping spell inside.  Cupid finds her and takes her to Zeus.  He begs for her to be granted immortality.  Zeus agrees to make Psyche a goddess.  Once she becomes a goddess, Cupid and Psyche's marriage is now approved by his mother.  She decides that because Psyche is a goddess and married to cupid, mortal men will no longer be distracted by her beauty, and they will once again worship Venus. 

Despite all of the challenges thrown at Psyche she beats every one even though she is a mortal.  Cupid's love runs deep, and it ends happily.  Psyche is an unusal character because she conquers her goals as if she were a male character.  It's also rare that she begins as a mortal and ends divine.  The story continues to explore the distinction between humans and gods.  The reconciliation of opposites is a major theme in this myth.  It is a similar theme in the ode. 

The "Ode to Psyche":

O GODDESS! hear these tuneless numbers, wrung
By sweet enforcement and remembrance dear,
And pardon that thy secrets should be sung
Even into thine own soft-conchèd ear:
Surely I dream'd to-day, or did I see
The wingèd Psyche with awaken'd eyes?
I wander'd in a forest thoughtlessly,
And, on the sudden, fainting with surprise,
Saw two fair creatures, couchèd side by side
In deepest grass, beneath the whisp'ring roof
Of leaves and trembled blossoms, where there ran
A brooklet, scarce espied:
'Mid hush'd, cool-rooted flowers, fragrant-eyed,
Blue, silver-white, and budded Tyrian
They lay calm-breathing on the bedded grass;
Their arms embracèd, and their pinions too;
Their lips touch'd not, but had not bade adieu,
As if disjoinèd by soft-handed slumber,
And ready still past kisses to outnumber
At tender eye-dawn of aurorean love:
The wingèd boy I knew;
But who wast thou, O happy, happy dove?
His Psyche true!
O latest-born and loveliest vision far
Of all Olympus' faded hierarchy!
Fairer than Phoe<! oelig>be's sapphire-region'd star,
Or Vesper, amorous glow-worm of the sky;
Fairer than these, though temple thou hast none,
Nor altar heap'd with flowers;
Nor Virgin-choir to make delicious moan
Upon the midnight hours;
No voice, no lute, no pipe, no incense sweet
From chain-swung censer teeming;
No shrine, no grove, no oracle, no heat
Of pale-mouth'd prophet dreaming.
O brightest! though too late for antique vows,
Too, too late for the fond believing lyre,
When holy were the haunted forest boughs,
Holy the air, the water, and the fire;
Yet even in these days so far retired
From happy pieties, thy lucent fans,
Fluttering among the faint Olympians,
I see, and sing, by my own eyes inspired.
So let me be thy choir, and make a moan
Upon the midnight hours;
Thy voice, thy lute, thy pipe, thy incense sweet
From swingèd censer teeming:
Thy shrine, thy grove, thy oracle, thy heat
Of pale-mouth'd prophet dreaming.
Yes, I will be thy priest, and build a fane
In some untrodden region of my mind,
Where branchèd thoughts, new grown with pleasant pain,
Instead of pines shall murmur in the wind:
Far, far around shall those dark-cluster'd trees
Fledge the wild-ridgèd mountains steep by steep;
And there by zephyrs, streams, and birds, and bees,
The moss-lain Dryads shall be lull'd to sleep;
And in the midst of this wide quietness
A rosy sanctuary will I dress
With the wreath'd trellis of a working brain,
With buds, and bells, and stars without a name,
With all the gardener Fancy e'er could feign,
Who breeding flowers, will never breed the same;
And there shall be for thee all soft delight
That shadowy thought can win,
A bright torch, and a casement ope at night,
To let the warm Love in!     The poem is immediately addressed to Psyche.  The ode does not actually retell the myth.  The elements of the myth are just within the lines.  The poet imagines that he has either seen or dreamed that he has seen the winged goddess, Psyche, while he was wandering in a forest. Although she is fairer than all other goddesses, there is no temple to her. The speaker wants to pay homage to Psyche.  He says he will be her choir, alter, and music.  In the fourth stanza, he continues with these declarations, saying he will become Psyche’s priest and build her a temple in a region of his mind.  He uses elements of imagination and insight and relies on them to become experience.  He also says that her love (Cupid/Eros) can come in.  In the poem it mentions Psyche's wings.  In Greek Psyche means soul or butterfly.  The reader gives his self to understand the goddess.  The lyrical voice is a symbol of giving up his own voice to create a deeper connection with her.  This ode is an example of a romantic poet which John Keats is the master of creating.