Ode on Indolence

Ode on Indolence is a six-stanza ode written by the English Romantic poet John Keats in the spring of 1819, standing alongside the odes he composed in the same period: Ode on a Grecian Urn, Ode on Melancholy, Ode to a Nightingale, and Ode to Psyche. The poem depicts a vision on an indolent morning: three figures dressed in classical white robes and shod in silent sandals pass by in succession like ancient figures on a revolving urn; he recognizes them as Love, Ambition, and Poesy. The poet questions each in turn about why they have come and whether they mean to enter his life, yet ultimately declares that he would not keep all three within it, preferring instead to remain in idleness. At the time of writing, Keats had just left the hospital and devoted himself to poetry, yet was tormented by guilt over his inability to support his brother George; the tension between indolence and ambition runs throughout the poem. Unlike the other four odes, this one was not published during Keats's lifetime; it appeared only in 1848, twenty-seven years after his death, and is therefore regarded as an important work for understanding his art and circumstances. Zha Liangzheng's (Mu Dan's) Chinese translation is included in Selected Poems of Keats.