The Eve of St Agnes
Notes
St Agnes is the patron saint of young virgins, possibly martyred in the Diocletian persecution (c.304) at the age of 13; she vowed that her body be consecrated to Christ and rejected all her suitors. According to legend, virgins may see their future husbands in their dreams during the night of St Agnes' Eve (20th January)
'The Eve of St Agnes' is a narrative poem in which the narrative impulse repeatedly leads towards description. The poem is primarily noteable for its elaborate pictorial and musical effects. Its wealth of description meant that, like 'Isabella', the poem became a favorite with the Pre-Raphaelite artists of the 19th century. Keats' use of the Spenserian stanza formally encourages this tendancy towards descriptiveness. The stanza, containing eight lines of iambic pentameter and final alexandrine, a line of iambic hexameter, does not require the kind of compression associated with the ottava rima Keats used in 'Isabella'. Nevertheless, as a self-contained unit, it encourages the creation of tableaux (visual poem).
The story of the Eve of St Agnes goes as follows:
Beadsman in church watches preparation for festivities. (On Deaths Door)
Action switches to Madeline, who is oblivious to the festivities. Waiting for that night.
Switches again to Porphyro- waiting to see Madeline. Family Feud introduced.
Imagines the horrors that await him. Is he innocent or does he know he can take advantage of her.
Meets Angela who warns him off. (And tells him the legend)
Asks Angela to help him find Madeline.
Angela tells him whats supposed to happen to Madeline and laughs. Porphyro gets suspicious and has a go at her.
She complains and defends herself. He apologises and gives a woeful speech and Angela sympathises. She agrees to do what he wants.
Porphyro plans to spy on her. Angela goes to get Madeline's room ready. She collects Porphyro and hides him in the room. (He also prepares the room)
Madeline turns up and undresses and goes to sleep. (after looking at the nice things in the room)
Creepy guy Porphyro sneaks out of closet and him and Madeline 'do business'.
Madeline thinks he's a traitor but he wants her to be his bride and to run away with him.
They escape while everyone is still asleep. The Beadman dies..?
Some notes:
Stanza 1-5:
Semantic field of cold: "The owl, for all his feather, was a-cold,
They have limped trembling through the frozen grass"
plus: "numb", "frosted breath", "freeze", "icy"
contrasts with the warmth of the castle later on. Exterior vs Interior
There is also another contrast of age vs youth:
"old", "death", "weak spirit fails", "aged man" vs "sweet virgin" and "young"
Beadsman is isolated in a cold chapel- perhaps Keats is hinting at the inneffectivness of religion.
Religious imagery: "insense", "heaven", "sweet vigin's picture". Church is described with horrible images: "sculptured dead", "emprisoned in black". This hints that religion and faith cannot stop what is about to happen to Madeline. Failure of Christianity.
Beadsman decides not to join the feast. Symbolism of rejection of life's joys?
"The joys of his life were said and sung" - prefiguring death?
Music and sounds of celebration "music's golden tongue", "snarling trumpets". Illustrating human activity and animation.
"snarling"- sinister. showing perhaps all is not as it seems. Start to get hints of a dream vs reality concept in the poem. Transitional states. Negative capability? "shadows" - imagery of dreams and unreality. Silver and moonlight imagery runs throughout the poem, contrasting with vividly coloured images.
Verbs:
Beadsman: "saith", "meagre", "praying".= pathetic, decayed, weak.
Revelers: "hurry", "glowing", "burst", "wish" = action, livliness.
Answer these questions to help you with the poem annotation:
1. Stanzas I - III
Describe the beadman and his world. Identify specific words and phrases that create this atmosphere and tone.
2. IV - V
How does the atmosphere here compare? Why does Keats juxtapose the two?
3. VI
Explain in your own words, the nature of St Agnes Eve, and analyse the language used here. What connotations do you find?
4. VII - VIII
Trace the development of this emotion.
5. IX
Describe the effect of the way Keats has written the last line.
6. X
Comment on the effect of Keats' punctuation here.
7. XI - XII
Structurally, what are the benefits of these two stanzas?
8. XIII - XIV
Again thinking in terms of the form of the poem, why has Keats included such vigorous dialogue here?
9. XV - XVI
How does the semantic field of XV contrast with that of XVI, and to what effect?
10. XVI - XIX
Keats provides us here with a portrait of Porphyro. Track the different aspects of his character shown to us and express your own opinion of him.
11. XX
Why "must (he) needs the lady wed"?
12. XXI
Which of the senses is Keats stimulating in this stanza? How does he do this?
13. XXII
Why the change of tense?
14. XXVI - XXVII
How does Keats dramatise this moment?
15. XXVIII
Where does Keats create the sense of Porphyro secretly spying on Madeline? Is his voyeurism justified by his marriage intentions?
16. XXIX
What contrast does Keats create here?
17. XXX - XXXI
Choose 2 or 3 adjectives to describe the environment Porphyro creates here. How does Keats contrast the 2 characters?
18. Follow Porphryo's actions and then comment upon the effect of Keats' manipulation of pace, lines 294-7
19. XXXV
Note how the Porphyro of reality doesn't quite match up to the figure of her dreams.
20. XXXVI
Based on a close reading, decide what is going on here.
21. XXXVII - XXXIX
Summarise the narratve in your own words. How does Keats bring it alive?
22. XL
What is the effect of this medieval imagery?
23. XLI
Note and explain the change of tense.
24. Try to explain the sense and effect of the final stanza.
25. Keats definately meant for Porphyro to make love to Madeline, which is made clear in stanza XXXVI:
In September1819, Keats suggested alterations to the poem, including a rewrite of stanza XXXVI and the two proceeding lines:
See, while she speaks his arms encroaching slow,
Have zoned her, heart to heart, - loud, loud the dark winds blow!
XXXVI:
For on the midnight came a tempest fell;
More sooth, for that his quick rejoinder flows
Into her burning ear; and still the spell
Unbroken guards her in serene repose.
With her wild dream he mingled, as a rose
Marrieth its odour to a violet.
Still, still she dreams, louder the frost wind blows.
However, this was rejected on the grounds that the changes made the poem too sexually explicit. Some have argued that one of the strengths of stanza XXXVI as printed- in which Porphyro becomes part of Madeline's dream and fulfils it- is that it can be read innocently.
26. Is this a story of idealistic love, in your opinion?
27. Read Keats' letter to Fanny Brawne, June 1820. Does this alter your impression of Porphyro?
Essay title- click on it to view my answer:
Keats believed that poetry should surprise by a fine excess. What evidence have you found in the Eve of St Agnes of ‘surprise’ and ‘fine excess’?
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