# Chapter LV explained — Poetry

> Chapter companion for Poetry by John Keats.

## What happens

The speaker invokes Melancholy, Music, and Echo, calling for despondent sighs and a pale light in the cypress glooms, tinting marble tombs with silver.

## Themes in this chapter

### Sorrow and Melancholy

The chapter directly addresses Melancholy and calls for despondent music and sighs.

### Mortality and the Sublime

Imagery of cypress glooms and marble tombs evokes death and the sublime.

## Character check-ins

### Echo

Invoked to sigh from a sombre, Lethean isle.

### Unknown

The speaker who calls upon Melancholy, Music, and Echo.

## Key lines

> O Melancholy, linger here awhile! O Music, Music, breathe despondingly! O Echo, Echo, from some sombre isle, Unknown, Lethean, sigh to us⁠—O sigh!

The speaker pleads for Melancholy to stay, for Music to sound mournfully, and for Echo to send a sigh from a dark, forgetful island.

_The invocation sets a tone of deep sorrow and longing._

> Spirits in grief, lift up your heads, and smile; Lift up your heads, sweet Spirits, heavily, And make a pale light in your cypress glooms, Tinting with silver wan your marble tombs.

The speaker urges sorrowful spirits to raise their heads and smile faintly, casting a pale silver light through the dark cypress trees onto their white marble tombs.

_This image blends grief with a ghostly, beautiful illumination of death._

## Links

- HTML: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/poetry_14_se/chapters/lv
- Book: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/poetry_14_se
- All chapters: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/poetry_14_se/chapters