“Ode on Indolence” was probably the second ode composed by Keats in the spring of 1819 after “Ode on Melancholy” and a few months prior “To Autumn”. When it comes to grouping of the odes together as a sequence “Indolence” is often placed first in the group, which absolutely makes sense, considering the fact that “Indolence” usually provides glimmerings of themes explored in the other five poems and also seems to portray the speaker’s initial struggle with the problems and ideas of the other odes. “Indolence” is an extraordinarily simple tale of a young man who spends a drowsy summer morning lazing around until he is nudged by a vision of Love, Ambition and Poetry. He feels brewing desire to follow the vision but in the end decides against it when the temptations of his indolent morning outweighs the temptations of love, ambition and poetry.
The principal theme of Keats’ “Ode to Indolence” holds the pleasant numbness of the speaker’s indolence state which is preferable over more exciting and engaging states of love, ambition and poetry. Anguish of morality- the pain and frustration caused by the changes and endings unavoidable in the life of a human being is one of the great themes of Keats’ poetry. In his Ode on Indolence, the speaker’s indolence in many ways seems an attempt to blur the forgetful lines that exists in this world, so that the “short fever-fit” of life can no longer seem agonizing . Love and ambition are rejected by the speaker simply because they require him to experience his own life too and hold the unavoidable promise of ending (of love, the speaker also wonders what and where it is, he notes the pale cheek and “fatigued eye,” and observes it “springs” directly from human morality). He is not interested to find out “how change the moon” and to be “sheltered from annoy” which is why poetry offers the most seductive as well as hateful, challenge to indolence. Poetry is not mortal, but it is detests to indolence and would requires the speaker to feel his life too acutely- hence, it possesses “not a joy” for him as sweet as the nothingness of indolence.
Inspite of the poem ending on a note of rejection, the endurance of the figures and the speaker’s impassioned response to them indicates that the he will eventually have to raise his head from the grass and directly confront love, ambition and poetry. A confrontation which embodies the other five odes, in which the speaker struggles with problems of creativity, morality, imagination and art. Many ideas and images in Ode of Indolence anticipates more developed ides and images in the later odes. Keats in other odes confronts some sort of divine figure, usually a goddess, in the Ode on Indolence, he confronts three. The lushly described summer landscape with its “stirring shades/ and baffled beams,” anticipated the imaginary landscape the speaker creates in “Ode to Psyche”, the experience of numbness anticipates the aesthetic numbness of “Ode to a Nightingale” and the anguished numbness of “Ode to Melancholy” the birdsong of the ‘throstle’s lay’ anticipates the nightingale and the swallows of “To Autumn.”
In this way, the “Ode on Indolence” makes somewhat a preface to all the other odes. It does not present a dramatic exploration of love, ambition and poetry, rather ignites a possibility of such a confrontation in a way that throws light on the behavior of the speaker in other odes. Its lush seductive tone and the speaker’s oscillation between temptation and rejection in the face of the figures’ persistent processional highlights a deeper and more acute poetic exploration to come. As for now the speaker is absolutely content with the numbness of his indolence.
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