Ode to Psyche

• Plot: “Ode to Psyche” explores the speaker’s discovery of the forgotten goddess, Psyche, in a dream, and his desire to worship her in his imagination.
• Structure & Language Techniques: The poem consists of four unevenly rhymed stanzas utilising complex, flowing sentences with highly descriptive imagery and numerous classical allusions.
• Themes & Linking Poems: Themes of love, nature, spirituality, and the power of imagination connect “Ode to Psyche” to other Keats’ works, such as “Ode to a Nightingale” and “Ode on a Grecian Urn”.
• Key Quotes: Quotes such as “Yes, I will be thy priest and build a fane” and “Ah, Psyche, from the regions which are Holy Land” exemplify the speaker’s devotion and reverence for Psyche.
• Poet & Context: Keats wrote “Ode to Psyche” in 1819 against the backdrop of Romanticism, a cultural movement emphasising emotions, nature and the imagination, all of which heavily influence this poem.