Melancholy isn’t bad, nor is it a wholly negative feeling, the purpose of which might be to motivate the changing of one’s circumstances for the better. Rather, it’s an emotional admission of the inevitability & commonality of life’s less idealistic realities.

Melancholy poems, songs, & other creative expressions mirror our own personal griefs in a yet impersonal, universal way. In a melancholy state, we neither feel upset about, singled out by, nor averse to these misfortunes, but dispassionately accepting of humanity’s and life’s true, middling natur...