ISSN 1799-2591

Theory and Practice in Language Studies, Vol. 12, No. 7, pp. 1378-1385, July 2022
DOI: https://doi.org/10.17507/tpls.1207.18

A Stylistic Analysis of John Keats’s Poem “Ode

to Psyche”
Rasha Sh. Al- Erjan
Department of Basic Sciences, Amman University College for Financial and Managerial Sciences, Al- Balqa Applied
University, Amman, Jordan

Abstract—John Keats is an English poet whose works profoundly influenced English Romantic poets of the
nineteenth century. His poems have attracted many literary critics who have approached Keats’s texts with an
aim to analyzing them; however, few approaches have questioned his literary texts from a stylistic point of
view. This paper offers a stylistic reading of Keats’s “Ode to Psyche” (1819) that uses linguistic methods to
analyze the poem so as to highlight certain features that enhance the text, making it more insightful, attainable,
and explicit. This stylistic analysis focuses on repetition, parallelism, sound parallelism or phonetic schemas,
style variation, and linguistic deviation, and it pursues the impact of foregrounded features and their
contribution to understanding the text. It proves that stylistics plays an essential role in understanding literary
texts as it unleashes hidden, fuzzy, and even contradictory meanings. This study shows that Keats employed
stylistics devices in a way that differed from his peers of the 19th century, and, moreover, that his form and
style lend themselves to concealed and ambiguous thoughts that come together to create a harmonious work of
art. By drawing attention to the unique aspects of Romanticism through stylistic features in the poem, the
analysis demonstrates that the aesthetic dimension and form of a literary work remain inseparable from a
fuller

Index Terms—foregrounding, John Keats, parallelism, repetition, stylistics

I. INTRODUCTION
Stylistics is a branch of linguistics that studies and interprets texts from a semantic, phonetic, and phonological
perspective. Phonetics studies the sounds of a language while phonology examines pronunciation using the rules of
language. The lexical level of analysis examines the meaning of a word and its use in language. Grammatical analysis is
carried out to analyze the structure of a text. Graphology is concerned with writing using a set of rules for spelling.
Parallelism refers to the repetition of a word or a phrase in a sentence or within a group of sentences. Parallelism as
stylistic tool is important because it affects the grammatical structure and the meaning of a literary text. It also makes
the sentence more appealing, persuasive, and symmetrical. The analysis in this study is implemented at the phonological,
lexical, semantic, and grammatical levels. The aim is to analyze the style and structure of John Keats poem “Ode to
Psyche,” one of his most famous, admired and critically acclaimed poems, with a view toward understanding the
themes of beauty and nature that are present.
John Keats is an English poet who was born in 1795 and died in 1821. He belongs to the nineteenth century school of
English Romanticism. The creativity of John Keats’s famous poem “Ode to Psyche” appears in his use of words and
sounds that illustrate his rich and vivid imagination. His poem has left its mark in the literary canon because it was one
of the earliest attempts to write a long poem in the ode genre. The current study approaches Keats’s poem “Ode to
Psyche” from a stylistic perspective, paying particular attention to repetition, parallelism, sound parallelism or phonetic
schemas, and style variation. The paper investigates the impact of the different foregrounded features and their
contribution in illuminating hidden thoughts of the author and uncovering his feelings as a Romantic poet so as to prove
that linguistics is inseparable from literature. The present study also sheds light on the phenomenon of linguistic
deviation in literary style which gives the poet license to break away from societal norms and freely express his
thoughts as a Romantic poet, meaning one who rebels against tradition, deviates from the normal rhythms of life, and
defies the boundaries of thought present in most poetry.
John Keats’s literary works have left their mark on the world of literary appreciation because of the distinction the
poet achieved among the English Romantic poets in the nineteenth century. However, few literary approaches have
analyzed his texts stylistically. The present paper, which investigates John Keats’s “Ode to Psyche” from a stylistic
point of view, aims to show that stylistic features are deliberately used by Keats to prove that the author never dies and
is never detached from the text. Keats’s style, touches, and identity as a Romantic poet are reflected in the poem. An
examination of these stylistic devices and methods shows that Keats succeeds in achieving a certain emotional effect
and mood that transcends the boundaries of ordinary linguistic expression, while maintaining a balance with external
form and style. This uniqueness that Keats achieves in his poem shows that texts are not separate from their authors,
contrary to the assumption of many modern schools that claimed authors are dead. Roland Barthes, for instance, argued
that authors are dead and separate from the text in his “the death of the author” (1968) (Golban, 2011). Unlike the

© 2022 ACADEMY PUBLICATION

THEORY AND PRACTICE IN LANGUAGE STUDIES 1379

proclamations of Barthes, Michael Foucault “expressed the idea of the author as an all- powerful creator of the text”
(Golban, 2011). By juxtaposing the beauty and value of the poet’s inner thoughts, as revealed through stylistic analysis,
with the external stimuli in the poem, the reader can appreciate Keats’s new modern claim that a poem remains
inseparable from its author.

II. LITERATURE REVIEW

John Keats (1795- 1821) produced some of the greatest poetry in the English language. His “Ode to Psyche” was the
first in a series of six odes which were published in his last collection of poems. The poem has received much scholarly
attention and has been analyzed by scholars of varying backgrounds and interests. Some critics have disapproved of the
poem. Banerjee disapproved the poem because it portrays female figures negatively. She argued that the poem depicted:
“the conventional female stereotypes of meek, helpless womanhood, through the central women figures Psyche” (2002,
p.142). In responding to some critical reviews of the poem, Allot defends the poem against poets who claimed that it is
“shabby and undeserved”, stating that it is “the Cinderella of Keats’ great poems” (1986, p.17- 31). While some critics
have disapproved of the poem, the fact that it has received so much attention within literary circles shows that it is not a
poem to be dismissed lightly. Keats himself confirms that this poem was the first he composed in a series of odes and
that it was written in a more leisurely manner than his previous poems, which he “dashed off in a hurry” (Gittings, 1962,
p.142). According to T.S. Eliot, who highly admired “Ode to Psyche,” the poem was enough to secure Keats’s
reputation (1964). He maintained that the poem was remarkable, and though not the best among the odes of Keats, “it
illustrated [his] possession of poetic power in its own right” (Allot, 1986, p.17- 31). Bate, while appreciative of the
novelty of this poem, nevertheless asserts that it “always puzzled readers” (1963, p.487).

III. THEORY
Literary style is a mode of linguistic expression characterized by special features that attempt to convey a message to
the reader in an appealing, explicit, and persuasive way; keeping the reader attentive and engaged is achieved through
knowledge of literary techniques (Hacker, 1991; Sebranek et al., 2006). Within the framework of literature, stylistics
gives the writer a legitimate license to freely express inner thoughts and unspoken feelings. Stylistics is “a well-
established approach to canonical poetry and prose as they are approached with imagination and creativity” (Moodley,
2019, p.144)
These inner thoughts and implicit meanings cannot be freely explained or depicted in normal or standard language.
Thus, an analysis of the stylistic features of a literary text, whether written in verse or prose, is important in helping the
reader to uncover this deeper meaning in the text. It enriches the literary text by drawing out the implicit thoughts that
the casual reader might not notice. However, studying a poetic text stylistically can reveal alarming ambiguities and
even contradictions, because poetry conveys many emotional aspects of a person, not all of which are revealed in
ordinary discourse.
According to Short (1996), an important relationship exists between a literary text and its linguistic description. The
job of the stylistician is to look for interactions among various linguistic features in the text and investigate their
linguistic function (Short, 1996). Linguistic features include deviation, parallelism, repetition, and style, all of which
help the poet foreground the poem. As a linguistic term, “foregrounding” is a term that is suggested by Jan Mukorovsky
for defining the effect of the stylistic variations on the readers (Ul, 2014). “He explains that poetic language is different
from the standard language, as standard language is the norm of language and it is for the purpose of communication. In
poetic language, on the other hand, the purpose of communication remains in the background and replaced by the
aesthetic purpose” (Ul, 2014, p. 38). These foregrounded features, which break away from the norms, play a significant
role in illustrating the main ideas in the poem and enriching the mood of the poem. They also enable the poet to
maintain an aesthetic distance.
Deviation is an important stylistic feature which, according to Cook, illustrates “a case of non-conformity to the
norms and regularities of discourse structure” (1989, p.74). Deviation refers to a sentence or any unit of language that
violates the normal use of language, causing it to appear ill-formed semantically, grammatically, or phonologically
(Crystal, 2003). Deviation can be grammatical, semantic, lexical, morphological, graphological, phonetic, or discoursal.
Other stylistic features, such as, repetition and parallelism, can notably and considerably enrich the literary work of
the author. For instance, repetition helps the poet highlight his ideas and verify the internal music as well as the
rhythmic effects of his words. This helps foreground the text. In addition, parallelism enables the reader to perceive the
different semantic relationships of contradiction and similarity.
Sound effects are important phonetic schemas. They produce effects leading to the foregrounding feature of sound
parallelism. These include rhyme, alliteration, assonance, sound symbolism, length, indistinctness, and phonesthemes.
In addition, there are many kinds of style variations that help the poet deviate internally so as to foreground the poem.
These kinds include dialect, medium or mode, domain or mode, and tenor or formality variations.

IV. OVERVIEW AND ANALYSIS

© 2022 ACADEMY PUBLICATION

1380 THEORY AND PRACTICE IN LANGUAGE STUDIES

John Keats’s “Ode to Psyche” is a significant poem among Keats’s literary texts because it depicts a concept that,
according to the poet, is unobtainable in this world and can be found only in the imaginative world of the poet. This is
the concept of ideal love. Keats asserts that “Ode to Psyche” was composed with much more pain than usual, which
affects the aesthetic aspect of it (Fraser, 1972). The speaker in the poem appreciates the beauty and charm of the ancient
goddess Psyche, whom he imagines while contemplating nature. The goddess Psyche courts her beloved god, Cupid.
The speaker decides, in the poem, to build a temple in his mind for this goddess where she will be immortalized and
adored. His pen and his words will be the means by which this will take place.
The speaker in Keats’s “Ode to Psyche” is delighted and obsessed by the charm and beauty of Psyche, a goddess and
a fair creature. In the poem, the speaker wanders in the forest and meets two fair creatures courting each other. He again
addresses Psyche who, according to the speaker, is the most beautiful and youngest among the fairy gods and goddesses
although she has no temples in which to worship her. However, the speaker stresses that he will be her priest and will
build a temple for Psyche in his mind and imagination. Imagination, blurred by reality, is portrayed through the use of
words that “induce sensations” (Tarrayo, 2021, p.70). The temple of the speaker will be inside his mind and filled with
words, thoughts, feelings, and expressions that will be directed towards immortalizing this goddess by describing her
beauty. This beauty will be a reflection of nature itself, but found inside the imagination of the poet. Nature plays an
essential role in inspiring Keats, as a Romantic poet. It also nourishes his eloquence and poetic diction.
In terms of stylistic features, Keats’s “Ode to Psyche” is a poem of moderate length consisting of sixty-seven lines
that are divided into four stanzas. The four stanzas vary in number of lines and rhyme schemes, which, in turn, express
the poet’s intention to deviate from the norms and standards of ordinary poetry. Instead, Keats intends to express his
inner thoughts and feelings freely and without restraint. The speaker begins the poem by addressing the goddess Psyche.
Although poetry is typically a written form of art, Keats uses characteristics of spoken language because he wants to
address the goddess directly. My analysis of the poem will begin by examining the foregrounding features in the first
stanza.
1. O Goddess! hear these tuneless numbers, wrung
2. By sweet enforcement and remembrance dear,
3. And pardon that thy secrets should be sung
4. Even unto thine own soft-conched ear:
5. Surely I dreamt to-day, or did I see
6. The winged Psyche with awaken'd eyes?
7. I wander'd in a forest thoughtlessly,
8. And, on the sudden, fainting with surprise,
9. Saw two fair creatures, couched side by side
10. In deepest grass, beneath the whisp'ring roof
11. Of leaves and trembled blossoms, where there ran
12. A brooklet, scarce espied:
13. 'Mid hush'd cool-rooted flowers, fragrant-eyed,
14. Blue, silver-white, and budded Tyrian,
15. They lay calm-breathing on the bedded grass;
16. Their arms embraced, and their pinions too;
17. Their lips touch'd not, but had not bade adieu,
18. As if disjoined by soft-handed slumber,
19. And ready still past kisses to outnumber
20. At tender eye-dawn of aurorean love:
21. The winged boy I knew;
22. But who wast thou, O happy, happy dove?
23. His Psyche true!
says: "O Goddess! Hear these tuneless numbers, wrung."
In these lines, the poet attempts to urge the goddess to listen to his secrets. Thus, he personifies Psyche, although she
is a mythical goddess, as a woman, and he urges her to hear his words. Personification is a kind of discourse deviation.
There is also a repetition of the nasal voiced lateral consonant /n/ in the words "tuneless," "numbers," and "wrung"
which produces alliteration. This helps link the words phonetically. It also links these words together semantically
which, in turn, helps the speaker draw the attention of the reader to his ideas. Moreover, the repetition of the high front
long vowel /i:/ or the assonance in the words "hear" /hi:r/ and "these" /ði;s/ produces sound parallelism, and the long
vowel /i:/ is a sound symbolism. The length is significant and points to the length and slowness of the movement of the
words of the speaker. Finally, the repetition of the fricative voiceless consonant /s/ in the words "Goddess," "these,"
"tuneless," and "numbers" produces alliteration which combines these words and brings them closer together
semantically. This combination of words refers to the secrets of the beauty of the goddess, which will be discovered by
the speaker.
More stylistic features can be analyzed in the first stanza. The speaker compares enforcement to a sweet girl when he
says: "sweet enforcement" (L.2). This metaphor alludes to semantic deviation. Here, the metaphor creates a meaning

© 2022 ACADEMY PUBLICATION

THEORY AND PRACTICE IN LANGUAGE STUDIES 1381

relationship that is illogical and contrastive. This comparison might reflect the instability of the Romantic speaker who
is unable to determine whether what he sees is a dream or truth. There is also a conversion of the adjective/noun order
in "remembrance dear" (L.2). The use of grammatical deviation is deliberate and a characteristic of Poetic Poetry.
Poetic form employs sets of rules that dictate a poem’s rhyme scheme, rhythm, tone, structure that help uncover its
inner thoughts and produce a meaningful and effective poem. It leads to inconsistency, since "sweet enforcement" is
coordinated with "remembrance dear" and the second phrase is grammatically incorrect.
Even more stylistic devices can be found that shed light on this first stanza of the poem. His words, "thy secrets
should be sung" (L.3), compare the secrets of the goddess to a song that should be sung. Here, the poet is saying that her
truth should be told or discovered, not hidden or neglected. The alliteration of the /s/ consonant in the initial positions of
the words "secrets" and "song" is worth mentioning as it reinforces the meaning. Moreover, there is a loose alliteration
in the words "that thy" because both the /ð/ and /θ/ sounds share distinctive features: both are dental and fricative
phonemes.
In this stanza, the speaker personifies Psyche and talks to her as if she is a real woman while actually imagining her.
He breaks away from the discoursal norms when talking directly to the goddess. This is shown in his words, "thine own
soft-conched ear" (L.4). Here, he uses the characteristics of spoken language. Next, there is a graphological deviation in
the word "to-day" in the fifth line which is written in this way to fit the metrical system. Following that, the words
"dreamt," "day," and "did" are linked by the alliterated alveolar stop consonant /d/, which joins the words semantically
and phonetically.
Moreover, there is inconsistency in coordinating a statement and a question in the line, "Surely I dreamt to-day, or
did I see / The winged Psyche with awaken'd eyes?" (L.6). This kind of inconsistency might represent a lack of mental
stability, reflecting the uncertainty and instability of the speaker who is still unsure if he really sees Psyche or only
imagines her. The speaker continues deviating semantically when he compares Psyche or the goddess to a bird. There is
also a loose alliteration between the initial voiceless fricative consonant sounds /f/ and /θ/ in "forest" and
"thoughtlessly." More alliterate words appear in the following line. The voiceless, fricative /s/ sound is repeated twice
in the two words "sudden" and "surprise." Sudden and surprise are alliterative words; they represent the wonder of the
speaker who discovers that what he sees is truth and not a dream. In the following line, the voiceless, stop, velar
consonant /k/ is repeated in "creatures" and "couched," illustrating alliteration. Loose alliteration is found in the
combined words, Psyche and Cupid, who is her lover.
Besides alliteration, repetition is an important foregrounding device that the author uses. Repetition serves as a means
of emphasis which also adds a musical sense to the poem. The author repeats the word “side” and repeats the /s/ sound
in "saw" and "saide" in order to stress the visual image of watching the fairy creatures sitting side by side. The metaphor
brings contrastive meaning to the poem. In the next line, the voiced lateral /r/ sound is repeated in "trembled," "where,"
"there," and "ran." This repetition represents the short action or the running of the brooklet, as the following line,
containing semantic deviation, illustrates. A brooklet is compared to a man who spies (L. 12).
The speaker, being affected by the surrounding nature, also uses sound symbolism. He uses the onomatopoeic word
"hush'd" which echoes or mimics sounds in the surrounding nature. In "cool- rooted," the assonance of the long back
low vowel /u:/ in "cool" and "rooted" brings together two words in a sound parallelism relationship. Lines fifteen and
sixteen also exhibit sound parallelism. The words "they lay" and "their arms embraced" convey a similar meaning. The
sound parallelism or assonance in /ðei/, /lei/, and /ðer/ helps deduce this kind of semantic parallelism. The same two
lines contain alliterative sounds. This alliteration occurs by repeating the voiced bilabial stop /b/ consonant in the two
words "breathing" and "bedded." Alliteration combines these two words, which refer to the way the speaker sees the
two lovers embrace each other in nature. Moreover, there is an eye rhyme between "budded" in the previous line and
"bedded" in this line. This rhyme adds an aesthetic visual dimension to the lines because the eye rhyme can be observed
from a graphological perspective. In addition, the cluster /sl/ in the word "slumber" is phonaesthetic, and this sound
symbolic relationship is significant.
The speaker compares Psyche's beloved god or Cupid in line twenty-one to a bird that flies. Here, he semantically
breaks from the standards. He wants to emphasize that he sees Cupid, but he still wonders if the goddess that he sees is
Psyche. The last two lines include the medium of variation, also referred to as style variation. The conversational tone
confirms the speaker is engaged in a conversation with the goddess. He repeats the word "happy” for emphasis, creating
rhythmic and sound effects. This enables him to express his feelings of delight in realizing the true identity of Psyche.
The sound features are significant. It is assumed that they reflect the sounds of frictions and breeze in nature. The
nasal alveolar voiced /n/ is repeated thirty- five times while the bilabial nasal voiced /m/ is repeated twelve times. These
nasals are indistinct sounds. Moreover, the fricative sounds such as /f/, /s/, /h/, /v/, /f/, /θ/, /ð/. are repeated symbols, and
they mimic friction or sounds in nature.
The second stanza of the poem, which is shown below, begins by using apostrophe. The beginning parallels the
opening to the first stanza. Both start by using the capitalized "O" and a word which refers to Psyche, who is
personified as a woman with whom he talks.
24. O latest born and loveliest vision far
25. Of all Olympus' faded hierarchy!
26. Fairer than Phoebe's sapphire-region'd star,

© 2022 ACADEMY PUBLICATION

1382 THEORY AND PRACTICE IN LANGUAGE STUDIES

27. Or Vesper, amorous glow-worm of the sky;

28. Fairer than these, though temple thou hast none,
29. Nor altar heap'd with flowers;
30. Nor virgin-choir to make delicious moan
31. Upon the midnight hours;
32. No voice, no lute, no pipe, no incense sweet
33. From chain-swung censer teeming;
34. No shrine, no globe, no oracle, no heat
35.Of pale-mouthed prophet dreaming.
Note that in both stanzas, the poet uses the spoken medium and characteristics of spoken language. He also addresses
the goddess directly. However, he varies the style when using the spoken medium. The opening line in the second
stanza maintains an inconsistent relationship between the born and the vision. This contradiction is reinforced by the
use alliterative voiced lateral sounds /l/ in the initial position: "latest born" and "loveliest vision." Cleverly, the speaker
uses another alliterative sound /n/ which occurs in the final positions of these phrases. The voiced fricative labio-dental
consonant /v/ is alliterative and repeated in "loveliest vision."
Moreover, the words "fairer," "Phoebe," "sapphire," and "star" in line twenty- six are phonetically parallel. This is
shown in the partially alliterative sounds /f/ and /s/ which share many phonetic features, such as their manner of
articulation. Both are fricatives, and they are voiceless sounds. It might be argued that the repetition of fricatives shows
the influence of nature; the speaker hears frictions in the surrounding nature.
In line twenty- eight, the words "than," "these," and "though" are combined together by alliteration through the use of
the voiced fricative sound /ð/. Furthermore, when the speaker says, "Nor Virgin-choir to make delicious moan" the
choir or the carriage is compared to a human being who makes something delicious. Another contrast can be found by
noting the comparison of the sigh or the moan to delicious food. These contradictory meanings contribute to bring about
semantic deviation which helps attract the attention of the reader to the inconsistent relationship occurring between
words and their meanings.
With respect to sound effect, the poet uses the rhyme between "far" and "star," "flower” and "hours," "sweet" and
"heat," and “teaming" and "dreaming" for special effect. The poetic orthography is apparent and the poet adds
indication marks in "region'd," "heaped," and "mouth'd." The use of the /i/ vowel in the words "voice," "pipe," and
"innocent sweet" shows parallelism. This indicates a kind of semantic resemblance. Moreover, there is a parallel
between "No voice, no lute, no pipe, no innocent sweet" and "No shrine, no grove, no oracle, no heat." As these
examples show, style or form is inseparable from the inner body of the poem.
The third stanza represents development in the story-telling by mirroring and reflecting the growth of plants in nature.
This stanza explicitly reveals that the speaker reaches a moment of awakening conscience. When Keats says "O
brightest!" he introduces, at this very moment, a shift in tone and attitude. The development of ideas and style in the
subsequent lines is justified by this shift.
36. O brightest! though too late for antique vows,
37. Too, too late for the fond believing lyre,
38. When holy were the haunted forest boughs,
39. Holy the air, the water, and the fire;
40. Yet even in these days so far retir'd
41. From happy pieties, thy lucent fans,
42. Fluttering among the faint Olympians,
43. I see, and sing, by my own eyes inspired.
44. So let me be thy choir, and make a moan
45. Upon the midnight hours;
46. Thy voice, thy lute, thy pipe, thy incense sweet
47. From swinged censer teeming;
48. Thy shrine, thy grove, thy oracle, thy heat
49. Of pale-mouth'd prophet dreaming.
This third stanza parallels the second one, which is significant because of the shift in meaning and emphasis that
occurs here. Stanzas two and three are contradictory in meaning and emphasis, but parallel in structure. “Derrida
believes that like signifiers, signification of a text is indeterminate and deferred endlessly due to the presence of
contradictions, paradoxes, metaphors, allusions and references” (Mishara, 2011, p.52). The speaker begins this third
stanza by addressing the goddess and using the apostrophe. He uses style variation for the third time in the poem. This
beginning parallels the beginning of the first two stanzas which start by using the capitalized letter "O" and a word
which refers to Psyche. However, in stanza three he also uses the obscurant voiced bilabial stop consonant /b/ to shock
the reader. He wants the reader to be prepared for the increasing awareness that begins at this point and gradually
continues until the end of the poem.
The first two lines of the third stanza, "O brightest! though too late for antique vows/ Too, too late for the fond
believing lyre," are parallel in structure. Here, the speaker uses repetition. The repetition of the word "too" is significant,

© 2022 ACADEMY PUBLICATION

THEORY AND PRACTICE IN LANGUAGE STUDIES 1383

because the word can be considered sound symbolic. It includes a long vowel /u:/ which can be interpreted as a sound
symbolic representing length. The speaker is here referring to the goddess who is born late, and thus neglected among
her Greek counterparts. Parallelism in these lines indicates a similar semantic relationship; therefore, it could be argued
that "antique" and "the fond believing lyre," which are parallel, have similar meanings as well. Line forty-three also
contains sound parallelism which links the words phonetically. The /s/ alliteration in the words "see," "sing," and
"inspired": they are parallel in meaning. It is noteworthy that "sing" and "inspired" include assonance in the sound /i/, a
short front high vowel, which reinforces the parallelism in meaning.
The last six lines in third stanza are parallel in structure to the last six lines in the second stanza. While those last six
lines are negative and depict the misery Psyche suffers among Greek goddesses, in the third stanza the speaker confirms
that he will compensate her for the loss that she suffers. This is shown by the shift that occurs in line 44. Whereas in
line 32, he writes "Nor voice- choir to make delicious moan," in line 44 he writes " So let me be thy choir, and make a
moan." He then repeats the prepositional phrase "Upon the midnight hours." The last four lines of each stanza are
parallel: they are partially repeated. The poet changes the negation word "No" to "thy" in this stanza while keeping the
other words the same. However, in the previous stanza he writes, "from chain-swung censor teeming," whereas in this
stanza the words are changed to "From swing censor teeming." The parallelism between these lines helps draw attention
to the contrast in meaning between these lines and between the stanzas as well.
Furthermore, the repetition of the fricative sound, such as the sound /f/ which is repeated ten times and the fricative
consonant /s/ which is repeated twelve times, are noteworthy. The pronunciation of these sounds produces friction,
which mimics the sound of the friction of elements in nature. The poet might be wanting to remind the readers of the
nature that he adores; therefore, he imitates the sounds of nature in his poetry while contemplating nature.
Alliteration is also a recurring feature in this third stanza. The /f/ alliteration recurs in "for" and "fond" in the second
line of the stanza. The /h/ sound suggests a full alliteration between "holy" and "haunted," thus combining two
contrasting words. Moreover, the repetition of the word "holy" is significant. It is a characteristic of the narrative form
of the genre of odes.
The fourth stanza, shown on the next page, parallels the previous stanza in the way it ends. However, the fourth
stanza deviates internally from the previous three stanzas by beginning and ending in a different way. This stanza shows
how the poet’s thoughts and ideas have developed over the course of the poem, and it represents the height of awareness
the poet has attained (Fraser, 1972). This development can be viewed as a mimicry of the growth of plants in nature.
50. Yes, I will be thy priest, and build a fane
51. In some untrodden region of my mind,
52. Where branched thoughts, new grown with pleasant pain,
53. Instead of pines shall murmur in the wind:
54. Far, far around shall those dark-cluster'd trees
55. Fledge the wild-ridged mountains steep by steep;
56. And there by zephyrs, streams, and birds, and bees,
57. The moss-lain Dryads shall be lull'd to sleep;
58. And in the midst of this wide quietness
59. A rosy sanctuary will I dress
60. With the wreath'd trellis of a working brain,
61. With buds, and bells, and stars without a name,
62. With all the gardener Fancy e'er could feign,
63. Who breeding glowers, will never breed the same:
64. And there shall be for thee all soft delight
65. That shadowy thought can win,
66. A bright torch, and a casement ope at night,
67. To let the warm Love in
This final stanza internally deviates from the other stanzas in the poem. The speaker begins in the middle of speech
by saying, "Yes, I will be thy priest, and build a fan." This method is called beginning "in medias res," because it
assumes that something has taken place previously. Accordingly, the stanza illustrates growth and development in the
narration of the events. Semantic deviation is found in a single line (L. 51), where the poet uses the words “region of my
mind.” Here, the poet compares his mind to an area where he intends to build a temple to immortalize the goddess. The
/m/ alliteration stresses the meaning of this place where he wants to build a temple for the goddess. The next line
contains more foregrounding features. The speaker semantically deviates from the norms when he compares his
thoughts to a tree that bears branches. These thoughts will grow like branches, but with pain and pleasure. This is
shown in the alliteration of the voiceless stop bilabial consonant /p/ in the phrase "pleasant pain," representing an
increase in his conscience which has the capacity for pain and pleasure. Furthermore, the poet repeats the word "far"
twice in the following line to dismiss the misty thought from his mind. The long back front vowel /a:/ is a sound symbol
representing the wish of the speaker to obtain a distance from the trees. He also repeats the word "steep" in the next line.
The word repeated includes a long front high vowel /i:/ which is a sound symbolic also standing for length. The

© 2022 ACADEMY PUBLICATION

1384 THEORY AND PRACTICE IN LANGUAGE STUDIES

following line contains assonance of the same long front high vowel /i:/ in the words "streams" and "bees," which are
also examples of internal rhyme. The assonance combines the two words, which together refer to nature.
In the middle of this final stanza, the speaker grammatically deviates when he converts the subject/verb order, saying,
"A rose sanctuary will I dress." He also puts an emphasis on contradictions by drawing a comparison among the
sanctuary, the place, and the clothes that he will wear. Here, he mentions the position the goddess will occupy in his
consciousness or imagination. The line is concise, bearing the least syllable numbers in the stanza. It, therefore,
deviates from the rest of it.
Moreover, there is alliteration in the words "buds" and "bells," which are also parallel in meaning as they are
elements existing in nature. In addition, "the gardener Fancy" is compared to a woman "who breeding flowers, will
never breed the same"(L. 63). The same line includes a parallel which emphasizes contradictions. However, a couple of
lines later, the poet uses comparison by linking his thoughts to a man who wins: "That shadowy thought can win" (L.
65). Furthermore, in saying there will be no flowers except instead his mind and imagination (L. 63), the poet compares
his mind to a garden. Here, the poem shows an increase in the awareness of the speaker along with semantic deviation.
The poet’s precious tools will glorify and immortalize the goddess, and his mind and thoughts will be the torch that
delights her and shows his love for her.
In contrast to the previous stanzas, this stanza contains the least number of fricative sounds. The reason, it could be
argued, is the shift of the setting or the location from nature to a different kind of nature that is unreal because it exists
inside the imagination of the speaker. This may justify the shift in tone, emphasis and attitude in the fourth stanza, a
shift that reflects the heightened awareness of the speaker in this stanza.
The inconsistency in the rhyme schemes of all four stanzas might also be justified by the way he wrote this poem as
opposed to his previous poems. The irregular rhyme schemes are obvious. In the first stanza, the poet follows the rhyme
scheme (ABAB CDCD EFGG EEGH IIJJ KIKI) while there are unrhymed lines elsewhere, such as in lines nine, ten,
eleven, fourteen, fifteen, sixteen, and seventeen. In the second stanza, the rhyme scheme takes the form (ABAB CDCD
EFEF), which is more consistent and organized. The poet verifies the rhyme scheme in the third stanza and follows the
form (ABAB CDDCEF GHGH), while leaving lines forty to forty-five unrhymed. Finally, the rhyme scheme in the
fourth stanza takes the form (ABAB CDCD EE FGFG HIHI). While the rhyme schemes of the stanzas vary, Keats uses
the iambic pentameter throughout most of the stanzas. Each line is composed of ten syllables; five of them receive the
weak stress and five receive the strong stress. However, in each stanza there are a few lines that deviate from this
pattern and have fewer syllables. An example occurs in line twelve in the first stanza:" A brooklet, scarce espied:" and
in the last line of the stanza, "His Psyche true!" These lines contain six syllables and are written in the iambic trimester.
Keats revolutionizes poetry with “Ode to Psyche” to uncover the beauty of words and to unfold aesthetic features
previously unexplored. Style is developed by figurative language and linguistic features that lead to ambiguity or fuzzy
text, yet these features add beauty and richness to the poem. Unlike other nineteenth-century poems, “Ode to Psyche”
uses many novel linguistic features to create an imaginative vision of the poet’s inner aspirations.

V. CONCLUSION
This paper offers a stylistic analysis of John Keats’s “Ode to Psyche” in which the author employs form, style, and
aesthetic features to create a meaningful poem that unleashes the inner thoughts of the poet. The analysis of stylistic
devices and methods shows that Keats succeeds in achieving a certain emotional effect and mood. Foregrounding plays
an important role in revealing unexplained feelings and hidden meanings in the poem. Keats also depends on repetition
and parallelism to highlight semantic contradictions that occur throughout the poem. He further uses sound symbolism
and sound schemas, which are two important kinds of sound parallelism, to represent the influence of nature on him as a
Romantic poet. These distinctive features enable him to deviate from ordinary language by breaking with the common
norms or standards they espouse. He revolutionizes the stylistics of poetry, thus raising the linguistic and literary
awareness of his readers.
John Keats is widely regarded as one of the most talented Romantic poets, and “Ode to “Psyche” reveals this talent
through its unique use of the stylistic features mentioned above. Focusing on the phenomenon of linguistic deviation as
a literary style, the present study shows how this linguistic tool gives the poet license to break away from the norms of
poetry and freely express his thoughts as one who rebels against norms, deviates from common paths, and defies the
boundaries of ordinary poetry. The analysis demonstrates that stylistics and linguistics can contribute to literary studies
and to an understanding of poetic texts. The current study relates distinctive stylistic features of the author to his
characteristic ways of perceiving the world. In “Ode to Psyche,” Keats creates a unified, coherent, and organized text
that has a deep impact on readers because of the feelings it evokes. The order of words creates an overall unified
experience, although some words are contradictory, fuzzy, and ambiguous. Sensory and stimuli symbols are used in the
poem, and ambiguity brings richness to the beauty of the poem. Finally, as a Romantic poet, Keats anticipated modern
schools of literature that disapprove assumptions about the death of author and claim that ambiguity does not prevail in
nineteenth century texts. In this poem, Keats proved that the author is inextricable from his poem and that ambiguity is
a poetic device that predates modern poetry. This makes it necessary to reevaluate Romantic poetry, not only in terms of
its aesthetic beauty and richness of expression, but also in terms of the range of meaning that it is able to convey.

© 2022 ACADEMY PUBLICATION

THEORY AND PRACTICE IN LANGUAGE STUDIES 1385

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
This manuscript would not have been possible without the encouragement of my family. Nobody has been more
important to me in the pursuit of it than the members of my family. I would like to thank my father whose love and
guidance are with me in whatever I pursue. I contribute to the conception and design of it without receiving any
financial fund or support.

REFERENCES
[1] Allot, K. (1986). “The ode to Psyche” in Keats’s Odes. Edited by Jack Stillinger, pp. 17-31. Englewood, NJ: Prentice- Hall.
[2] Banerjee, A. (2002). Female Voices in Keats’s Poetry. New Delhi: Atlantic Publishers and Distributors.
[3] Bate, W. J. (1963). John Keats. Cambridge, MA: Belknap Press of Harvard University Press.
[4] Cook, G. (1989). Discourse. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
[5] Crystal, D. (2003). A Dictionary of Linguistics and Phonetics. Oxford: Basil Blackwell.
[6] Fraser, G. S, Ed. (1972). John Keats: Odes. London: The Macmillan Press Ltd.
[7] Gittings, R. (1962) John Keats: The Living Year. London: The Windmill Press Ltd.
[8] Golban, P. (2011). Romantics, Ian McEwan, and the Identity of the Author. Atatürk Üniversitesi Sosyal Bilimler Enstitüsü
Dergisi, 15 (1), 215-226
[9] Hacker, D. (1991). The Bedford Handbook for Writers. 3rd edition. Boston: Bedford Books.
[10] Mishra, P. (2011). A Deconstructive Stylistic Reading of Keats’ Ode on a Grecian Urn. The Southeast Asian Journal of English
Language Studies, 17 (2), 49- 58.
[11] Moodley, V. (2019). A Stylistic Analysis of a Wildfire Conversation of a Prologue and Visual Narrative Documentary, “From
Brutal Poacher to Delicate Pastry Chef”. The Southeast Asian Journal of English Language Studies. 25 (2), 143- 156.
[12] Sebranek, P., Kemper, D., Meyer, V., & Krenzke, C. (2006) Writers Inc.: A Student Handbook for Writing and Learning.
Wilmington: Houghton Mifflin Company.
[13] Short, M. (1996). Exploring the Language of Poems, Plays, and Prose. Malaysia: Addison Wesley Longman Limited.
[14] Tarrayo, V. N. (2021). ‘On Grieving and Holding On’ in Kate Osias’s Flash Fiction ‘Dinner for Two’: A Stylistic Analysis.
Journal of Narrative and Language Studies. 9 (16), 68- 84.
[15] Ul, B. (2014). Foregrounded: a Comparative Stylistic Analysis of Their Eyes Were Watching God and its Turkish Translation.
Procedia- Social and Behavioral Sciences. 158, 37- 42.

Rasha Sh. Al- Erjan is an instructor and a researcher in the field of English language and literature at Al- Balqa Applied
University/ Jordan. Her research area of interest is literature specifically in the genres of postmodern, postcolonial and feminist
studies. She has attended the Department of Basic Sciences at Amman University College for Financial and Managerial Sciences at
Al- Balqa Applied University/ Jordan since 2015. She has taught variety of courses in literature, language, linguistics, and general
communication skills. She worked form 2009- 2015 at the Department of English at the University of Jordan. She has taught variety
of courses in English language and literature at the Department of English Language and Literature at the University of Jordan, too.
Rasha Erjan holds an M.A. in English Literature from the University of Jordan (2011). She holds a B.A. in English Language and
Literature from the University of Jordan (2006).

© 2022 ACADEMY PUBLICATION