Having It Out with Melancholy

Jane Kenyon

Fiction | Poem | Adult | Published in 1992

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Summary

Background

Poem Analysis

Themes

Symbols & Motifs

Literary Devices

Epigraph

Kenyon begins “Having It Out with Melancholy” with a quote from the play The Cherry Orchard by 19th- and 20th-century Russian writer Anton Chekov. Kenyon uses the lines as an epigraph (a quote or piece of information preceding an original written work). The epigraph clues the reader in on the work’s themes, motifs, and messages.

The epigraph establishes that the poem deals with a chronic illness that people do not always know how to handle. It also foreshadows (details hinting at future events or ideas that happen later) Kenyon listing medication in the second section. Kenyon’s pessimism about the lack of a cure foreshadows her concerns about predetermination and free will.

Personification

Personification happens when an author grants a non-human being, object, or force human personalities and intentions. Kenyon structures “Having It Out with Melancholy” around her depression personified. Kenyon makes this apparent in the first three lines:

When I was born, you waited

behind a pile of linen in the nursey,

and when we were alone, you lay down (Lines 1-3).

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These lines present depression as a strategic, patient entity that wants to interact with Kenyon. For the rest of the poem, depression remains invested in Kenyon, going as far as considering her as one of its “dear / ones” (Lines 48-49).

It shapes her life, from instructing her on how to live to “rescuing” her from peaceful epiphanies (Lines 11, 36-49). Depression is an interloper who became her master and tormenter at an early age.

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Kenyon portrays her depression as an “Unholy ghost,” a teacher, and an unwelcome guest (Lines 11, 78-81). All of these personas co-exist since they all impose on her somehow. As an “Unholy ghost,” it possesses her and causes her to see everything through a melancholy lens (Lines 3-8, 78). She resents depression as a teacher since it only shows her how “to exist without gratitude,” disrespect God, possess a nihilistic outlook, and even tricks to fool her loved ones (Lines 11-18).

Litany

Originating as a form of petitioning in the Christian Church, the litany has evolved into a literary form and device. The litany quickly lists similar items in a single sentence or a repeated line structure as a literary device. A litany occurs when Kenyon lists anti-depression medications in the “2. Bottles” section.

Kenyon recites “Elavil, Ludiomil, Doxepin, / Norpramin, Prozac, Lithium, Xanax, / Wellbutrin, Parnate, Nardil, Zoloft” in a single fragment without any verbs (Lines 21-23). Because they appear as a list, the medications seem overwhelming, intrusive, and mostly interchangeable.

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Arguably, “Having It Out with Melancholy” loosely modifies the litany form since Kenyon divides the poem into sections, deals with religious faith, and catalogs her lifetime of Depression (The Poetry Foundation). However, it cannot be considered a more formally traditional litany. The formal litany possesses a feeling of “incantatory recitation,” where “every line or nearly every line starts with the same word” (An Exaltation of Forms: Contemporary Poets Celebrate the Diversity of Their Art. United Kingdom, University of Michigan Press, 2002).