Hello Romanticists,
Our poems for Thursday all focus on one of the great themes
of Keats’ poetry: crossing between different states of being. In “Ode on Indolence,” the speaker occupies
some indeterminate space between dreaming and waking, a “drowsy hour” (15) in
which he encounters what he variously describes as “shadows” or “visions” or
“phantoms” (11, 57, 59). Similarly, “To
Autumn” examines that season as a threshold between life and death aptly
symbolized by a drowsing reaper whose momentary pause dilates the space between
the ripe life of summer and the inevitable death of winter.
“The Eve of St. Agnes” features both of these in-between
realms. Characters shift continually
between dreams (waking or sleeping) and full consciousness, and while young
lovers and revelry are at the center of the narrative, death hovers close in
various forms (elderly characters are nearing death, Porphyro will be killed if
he is discovered). In addition, “St.
Agnes” toys with the line between the real or ordinary world and an ideal,
otherworldly realm. The tradition that
on St. Agnes Eve one may dream of one’s future, as well as the lovers’ strange,
almost magical flight, suggest the fantastical world of fairy tales.
For your posts, consider one scene of crossing borders: of
dreaming or waking, passing between life and death, or of shifting from
realistic to fantastic. Be attentive, as
always, to poetic form, word choice, and figurative language.
Happy reading,
Prof. M.
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| The Flight of Madeline and Porphyro, William Holman Hunt |
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| Madeline Undressing, John Everett Millais |
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| Madeline After Prayer, Daniel Maclise |
I chose to respond to “The Eve of St. Agnes.” In this piece, Keats explores the blurring of the line separating imagination and reality. I examined the formal aspects of this poem to see how they contribute to this phenomenon.
ReplyDeleteFirstly, the poem is a narrative, and a lengthy, drawn-out one at that. The stanzas are relatively long, at nine lines each. While the poem is written in iambic pentameter, the last line of each stanza contains twelve syllables, not ten. This also contributes to the poem’s overall sense of lengthiness.
Why would Keats have written “The Eve of St. Agnes” in such an emphatically protracted style? Perhaps he felt that doing so would add to the trance-like dreaminess of the poem, which further blurs the line between imagination and reality. Or, maybe he imposed this slowness on the reader to force him to stop, recognize, and consider that blurring.
It’s interesting to note that the poem contains several sharps contrasts: the “bitter chill” at the start of the poem and Porphyro’s heart “on fire for Madeline”, the hatred of Madeline’s family for Porphyro and her adoration of him. . .The idea of sharp contrasts does not seem to dovetail with the poem’s theme of blurring. I wonder how they works together?
The Beadsman in “The Eve of St. Agnes” seems to be crossing boundaries. He is about to die: “already had his deathbell rung.” He’s moving from body to pure soul, so his body is becoming cold and hard (his fingers are “Numb” and he breathes “frosted breath), and he actively treats it harshly by sitting in “Rough ashes” in order to succeed in this transition – it’s “for his soul’s reprieve.” His breath is described as “pious incense…taking flight for heaven,” becoming a symbol for his departing soul. (At least religiously, breath and soul are connected - G-d breathed a “living soul” into Adam).
ReplyDeleteWhat’s interesting about the Beadsman, though, is that though he is about to die, he is the only live thing in the beginning of the poem. In contrast to his surroundings, the Beadsman is the most living thing around. He is breathing, acting, moving. In contrast, he passes the “sculptured dead” and the “carved angels,” all unmoving, all dead.
Yet this vision of him walking among the “dead” serves to highlight his transition from life to death. He passes through the “purgatorial rails” where the people are “seem to freeze.” At least in Dante’s version of hell, the lower down you go, the colder it gets. He is passing through purgatory (which is not exactly hell but close enough) but he manages to make it through and end up in the place of “silver trumpets,” “chambers…glowing to receive a thousand guests” and “carved angels.” He ends up in heaven.
Interestingly, Keats never quite tells us whether he is awake, asleep or somewhere in between when he is visited by the three figures in "Ode to Indolence". The very first words of the poem tell us that it is morning, which implies wakefulness, clarity and reality. The rest of the first stanza, however, describes the figures' "shifting" like figures on a rotating urn. This unusual description of motion makes the figures seem inhuman, inanimate and transient - more like the frozen figures on Keat's Grecian Urn than real visitors.
ReplyDeleteKeats addresses them as "shadows", again implying that they are not real. He tells us that he was having a "drowsy hour" when his pulse slowed (he was relaxed) but not experiencing "nothingness" (not quite asleep? or just a dreamless sleep?).
Once Keats identifies the figures as his personal muses, it seems clear that he is having a vision, like a sort of prophecy. The figures fade (a supernatural exit), and Keats despairs that he has no wings. Presumably, he wants to follow the muses on wings. Does this mean that the muses had wings? Keats never tells us that they do, nor does he specify that they flew away. This is an example of his negative capability - he causally leaves out seemingly important details like whether his visitors can fly and whether he was awake when they stopped by.
In Ode on Indolence, the speaker is torn between temptation and rejection when three figures repeatedly pass him by as he lounges in the grass, in a state between wakefulness and dreaming. With their third passing, he recognizes them as Love, Ambition, and Posey. The poem shifts back and forth between his desire to follow them, and his rejection of their temptation.
ReplyDeleteIt seems as if this poem is not only describing the shifting boarders between dreaming and waking, but between letting life slip by in indolence or living life with vitality. It is easier to sleep than it is to be awake, though to be awake allows for feeling the pleasures and pains of life. Even dreams provide but a pale imitation of pleasure. The only true feelings are experienced in waking hours... but the bad comes along with the good, and, for some, the bad is simply not worth it. Similarly, living life in indolence can allow it to slip by without much of a sensation, but can a person ignore their desire for sensation? The speaker is tempted by love, ambition, and poetry – but the pain they bring causes him to cast them aside. Though he ends on a note of rejection, the repeated passing of these figures suggests that they will continue to tempt him, and he may not hold out against the temptation for ever.
In “To Autumn” the speaker personifies the seasons, speaking about them as if they are people who conspire with friends, who think and feel. It was very reminiscent of the Shelly poem we read that used the falling leaves to meditate on mortality. After having seen the similarity here, it got me thinking about the way humans concretize the abstract to better understand it. It is easier to understand the changing of the seasons, and the death and birth, that brings with it than to come to terms with human mortality.
ReplyDeleteTherefore, “To Autumn" avoids any overt references to death. Instead, the theme is treated subtly, demonstrating not just the death and life process, but the passivity on the part of the human in the transition period. For example, the bees in line 9 are oblivious to the quickly approaching winter, having gotten so used to life in the sun they do not realize their inevitable doom. The poppies in line 17 are spared from a hook that will end them. The creatures described, have no control over how or when they will go.
The rhyme scheme of each of the three stanzas is ABAB CDEDCCE. This divides the stanza into a section of four lines and a section of seven lines. The complicated rhyme scheme matches the thematic structure indicating that life, although it looks long, is, in fact, less than most of the existence. You’re dead for longer than you are alive. Because some of the rhymes are not close to each other, the poem becomes as surprising as life itself, as the reader is never sure when or where their transition period in life will arrive, and when the death process will begin.
Ode to Indolence definitely plays on two of these borders, the dream and reality world, and the fantasy reality world. In the poem the speaker straddles dream and reality but were not sure the exact situation, whether he is sleeping or not- that is because there is also certain fantasy elements that have played into the poem that make me think he's also exploring the fantasy vs reality. The angels visit him three times as we often see in fairytales. He seems to be straddling the dream/fantasy world and the reality/awake world, kind of not fully knowing himself what hes encountering- am I dreaming, or am I placing myself into a fantasy world- one you know is fake and in your head (dreams) and the other causes you to question the reality you've always known (fantasy).
ReplyDeleteAs far as structural elements, there is much use of words having to do with moving from one position to the other like "shifting" "passed" "fading". The poem also mimics elements from an Italian Sonnet, using the ABAB CDECDE structure (which is not a full octave and sestet but still a similar structure) which also allows Keats to straddle the world of traditional/classical poetry, and his modern, fresh creations.
The straddling represents Keats's life in a way as well, the fact that he was uneducated but entering the world of the super-famous poets such as Byron, WW, and Coleridge.