“Identifying the Soul”

“Yes, I will be thy priest, and build a fane / In some untrodden region of my mind, / Where branched thoughts, new grown with pleasant pain / Instead of pines shall murmur in the wind” (Keats 848). This quote, taken from the last stanza of John Keats’ “Ode to Psyche,” exemplifies the meaning of the ode for the reader. According to Andrew Motion, author of Keats: A Biography, “Keats defines his individual self while registering his dependence on …

…and sensual imagery. He discovers that, like Psyche, it does not matter if the world admires him as a great poet. The only place he can find his true identity is in his soul. Keats use of sensual imagery shows that the failure that one experiences in life will one day be restored. “Ode to Psyche” gives the reader a hopeful beginning to the journey of Keats’ concept of Beauty and Truth in subsequent odes.