preview

John Keats 'The Eve Of St. Agnes'

Better Essays
Open Document

Saint Agnes is known as the patron saint of virgins and on the eve of her feast day, January 20th, young virgin girls were told to perform certain rituals. They were to go to bed without dinner, undress to their nakedness, and lay on their bed facing the heaven with their hands behind the pillow. If they performed this ritual their future husband would appear in their dreams. John Keats poem, “The Eve of St. Agnes” is based off of this ritual, which was customary during the middle Ages, even though this poem was written in 1819. During the 19th century, many writers used the Middle Ages as the setting for their works. This time period was known for their damsels in distress, knights in shining armor, and fairytale like themes. He composed …show more content…

Agnes” has been compared to William Shakespeare’s play “Romeo and Juliet”. “This beautiful adaptation of Romeo and Juliet is one of the most perfect achievements of Keats” (Bell 103) Romeo and Juliet is a tragedy even though Keats’ poem is not a tragedy, it does take on a tragic undertone. The foreshadowing of the upcoming tragedies is possibly seen in the cold and dreary setting and in the latter part of the poem when Angela and the Beadsman die. There are many similarities between the lovers Madeline and Porphryo, Romeo and Juliet, as well as other characters in the play, but there are also numerous differences. The most obvious comparison is the couples themselves and their feuding families with lead to their forbidden love, and “a combination of life and death, sensuality and abstinence” (Wolf 105). Both love stories begin with as an innocent infatuation the turns into something that is desperate and dark. Furthermore, both leading men, Porphyro and Romeo were loyal and madly in love with their leading ladies, and by comparison Juliet and Madeline were both young, beautiful, virgins. Other characters might be similar, in Keats’ poem Madeline’s nurse “Angela, a motherly old crone who aids and abets Porphyro, taking a similar role to that of Juliet’s nurse in Shakespeare’s play” (Banerjee 46). This is where the similarities end, the setting of the poem and play take place in the same Medieval time period, but Keats chooses the …show more content…

Agnes” from the Medieval time period setting to the love struck characters. Pagan views are also evident in his work, since he considered himself a Pagan. Since he was raised a Catholic by his mom, there are many Christian analogies in his works “Train up a child in a way he should go: and when he is old, he will not depart from it,” Proverbs 22:6. Living only until 25 years of age, Keats’ work still had an impact on other poets of this time period, such as Alfred, Lord Tennyson. In everyday life this style of poetry seems outdated and irrelevant, however Keats’ impact is still referenced today and can be seen in Dan Simmons’ Hyperion saga¬¬. With the use of extreme emotions and vivid imagery Keats draws the reader into his fantasy settings and dreamlike state of desire. Keats was obsessed with blurring the boundaries of dreams versus reality and the consequences of those boundaries. This is seen more in this poem than any of his other works. It is not known why he had this obsession, but maybe the dream world allowed him to forget everyone he lost due to illness, or maybe prevented him from thinking about his own illness and future demise. While writing this poem, Keats knew he was ill, because of his previous medical experience, and because he lost his mother and brother to tuberculosis, so he knew the symptoms. Once

Get Access
Related
Get Access