Ode on Indolence: Stanza 6 - Summary

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So, ye three Ghosts, adieu! Ye cannot raise

My head cool-bedded in the flowery grass;

For I would not be dieted with praise,

A pet-lamb in a sentimental farce!

Fade softly from my eyes, and be once more

In masque-like figures on the dreamy urn;

Farewell! I yet have visions for the night,

And for the day faint visions there is store;

Vanish, ye Phantoms! from my idle spright,

Into the clouds, and never more return!

Summary

      Lines 51—60 So, ve, three.....more return. The poet bids farewell to the three shadowy figures of Love, Ambition and Poetry. He tells them that they cannot rouse him from the cool bed of flowery grass. What he means is that the passions which he once cherished cannot raise him from his easeful and luxurious indolence and inspire him to become active. He has not the least inclination to follow his favorite passions because he is no more desirous of getting praise from those who read his poetry. He does not want to be petted, praised and flattered by people, as a pet lamb is praised and appreciated in a farcical play by the characters. Hence he asks the three figures to vanish from his sight for ever. He wants them to conceal their identity in the guise of figures engraved on the surface of an urn which he imagined for describing their coming round and round. He again bids them farewell saying that he has plenty of idle fancies and daydreams to enjoy by night and day. He commands them sternly to go away from his idle soul, vanish into the clouds and never return again.