Ode to Psyche

The mythological figure of Psyche is the dominant symbol of the poem. She symbolizes the soul or mind. Cupid is the god of love, and as such he symbolizes love in the ode. Whereas Psyche is ever-present in the ode, Cupid is mentioned only once and not directly by name. He is the “The winged boy” (Line 21) whom Keats’s speaker recognizes immediately, and he and Psyche are calmly embracing—an image of mutual love in a moment of repose. The final two lines anticipate but do not actually show the presence of Cupid. The speaker fully realizes the essence of the goddess—the fully developed soul or mind. Within themselves, they have created the condition for lovers to be united, for “warm Love” (Line 67) to enter. The symbolism of Cupid and Psyche together, then, brings out a fuller dimension of the ode. It is love, not just soul or mind, that is given the last word.

Keats valued the imagination enormously for its essential role in poetry. He wrote in one of his letters:

I am certain of nothing but of the holiness of the Heart’s affections and the truth of Imagination—What the imagination seizes as Beauty must be truth—whether it existed before or not [.