Ode on Indolence

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"Ode on Indolence" is an ode by the British poet John Keats. It was written in the spring of 1819. This ode has to do with temptation and resistance. On a lazy morning, the speaker has a vision of three figures representing love, ambition, and poesy. He has personified Love, Ambition and Poesy(poetry) and explains how they are luring him, but he resists them and bids them farewell, for they are but haunting 'phantoms'. Love is fleeting and short-lived, ambition is mortal, and poetry has no joy to offer. Nothing is as joyful as indolence. The ending is in fact ironic, because he is talking about giving up poetry or the futility of writing poetry through a poem itself.

Structure: Six ten-line stanzas; Usually iambic pentameter

Rhyme scheme:

  ABAB CDECDE (stanzas 1-4)     
       CDEDCE (stanza 5)
       CDECED (stanza 6)

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