Stanza 4 Summary

Lines 31-34

They faded, and, forsooth! I wanted wings:
  O folly! What is Love? and where is it?
And for that poor Ambition! it springs
  From a man's little heart's short fever-fit;

• Gosh, Keats—tongue-twister, much? The first line is chock full of alliteration, or the repetition of beginning consonant sounds.
• "Faded" and "forsooth" are one example. "Wanted" and "wings" are another—you get the picture.
• Alliteration is one way to add a little rhythm and flow to the lines. For more of Keats' sonic tricks, check out "Sound Check."
• Meanwhile, the speaker is still pretty bummed out about these figures.
• He's searching for them, and wishing he could follow them, but he knows that is foolish and impossible.
• He doesn't know where Love is, or even what it means. She's impossible to follow.
• And he feels badly for ambition, which jumps metaphorically out of men's hearts in short bursts, like a fit or a brief, but intense, fever.
• You can't really follow her to the inside of a person. So, yeah, that's out.

Lines 35-37

  For Poesy!—no,—she has not a joy,—
  At least for me,—so sweet as drowsy noons,
And evenings steep'd in honey'd indolence;

• What about Poesy? Can't the speaker follow her?
• No—he says she isn't as fun as the "drowsy noons" and delicious evenings he spends being lazy and relaxed.
• That's why it'd be foolish for him to follow her.
• It wouldn't give him joy, he says—or, at least, not as much joy as feeling numb and sleepy.

Lines 38-40

 O, for an age so shelter'd from annoy,
 That I may never know how change the moons,
Or hear the voice of busy common-sense!

• Our speaker would prefer to live a life without the annoyances of Love, Ambition, and Poesy.
• If it wasn't apparent already, he isn't really talking about ghosts. He's talking about the actual qualities of love, ambition, and poetry.
• The figures aren't literal; Keats is using figurative language, here.
• He says that he'd rather be lazy and drowsy and never have to stay up late working on things. He'd prefer to live an unhurried life, free of the tasks that come along with having common sense.
• And things like love, ambition, and poetry definitely get in the way of his preferred life of leisure.
• What's more: they make him feel things. Remember how he said he preferred to feel the "nothingness" of a good lazy day?