Just recently, the Benson Theater put on its last show, ending its storied history. I have had the personal honor of performing at the Benson Theater four times, and its atmosphere and character have had a profound effect on me as a student and actor. Benson is often home to the hardest working people on campus: technicians who put blood, sweat and tears into their work, actors who recite lines late into the night, and directors who volunteer their time to ensure the show's perfection. That's why it was bittersweet to see the last show in Benson on Saturday night. Yet, without the good times Benson had during rehearsals, performances, and all the time spent in between, there would have been no real feeling about its closure. John Keats, just like me, came to the conclusion that without the possibility of sadness there can be no happiness; just as without the choice to be evil, there can be no good. In Ode on Melancholy Keats expresses this intrinsic connection between joy and sorrow through the juxtaposition of death and images of nature. The first stanza of Ode on Melancholy advises perseverance through sadness to experience the ultimate feelings of joy. Throughout the first stanza, for example, Keats advises against suicide with lines such as "No, no, go not into Lethe" (line 1), "nor twist the wolf's ruin, with thick roots, for his poisonous wine" ( line 2 ), and “do not make your rosary of yew berries” (line 5). It emphasizes the importance of continuing life despite its sadness because it is only through suffering that man can truly know what bliss is. Keats's idea of ​​a dualistic nature of joy and despair in which there can be no joy without the presence of despair is very much like a relationship... middle of paper... the grapes of joy against his fine palate. ..and taste the sadness of its power” (line 29). Keats closes with the final oxymoron of “cloud trophies” (line 30) which are rewards for the perseverance of the “soul” (line 29) through misery. The third and final stanza uses imagery of a melancholic goddess to show the intrinsic connection between torment and joy. In the Ode on Melancholy Keats expresses the fundamental connection between bliss and agony through the comparison of death and nature throughout the poem. Keats's awareness of the duality of relationships applies not only to happiness and depression, but to many other collaborations such as the one between the Benson Theater and the new Sobrato Theatre. The sadness experienced during the closing night of Romeo and Juliet will be more than compensated by the many new memories that will arrive in the new theater.