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Question #3:

Melancholy, I believe, can be very different for each individual. For some it might be a gloomy day. While for others, it could be the loss of a loved one, or a tragic event. No matter what specific label you associate with the word, you know that it will usually be in a negative aspect. When used as a focus in poetry, it can convey many emotions that the narrative is trying to impose on the reader.

To me the word brings of strong symbolism of loss,death, and the afterlife. The tone of melancholy is full of longing and conspicuous sadness. It is the usually the result of an action, although it might be used as a depiction. If someone dies, then the result would be melancholy. While the act of relaying that someone has died can be done with a melancholy attitude.

In contrasting subjects a melancholy approach can also make something seem more or less important. If something is presented with such melancholy that it becomes unattractive, then the other subject by default would almost definitely seem more attractive. On the other hand, when placing importance on the melancholy subject, it could be made out to seem more immediate or threatening. All depending on the use, melancholy can be a powerful poetic device.

John Keats’ “When I have fears that I may cease to be” is one good example of the use of melancholy. The poem is written in the form of a sonnet, yet at the end it seems to solve nothing. The last four lines actually increase the overall affect of melancholy that the first two lines introduce. By having this fear of death and loss, the reader can easily relate with the subject, that just happens to be so depressing. Besides most of the sadness being cleverly disguised by metaphor and simile, the strong themes of despair and death still shine through to deliver a strong poem based on a very melancholy subject. Even the title itself proves to the contents dark meanings; to think that its not would be outrageous.

“Annabel Lee”, written by Edgar Allen Poe, I consider to be the epitome of melancholy poetry. Poe starts by building up this sue-do happiness with the reader in the first two stanzas. By mentioning the seraphs, one could only imagine to the greatness of this love they must have had. Then with little warning she’s dead. If the third stanza was the last, the poem would be considered a sad one. But with the proceeding stanzas the sadness grows and seeps into the reader as they continue down the path of grief the narrator must be suffering.