A Holiday For The Virgins Essay, Research Paper
A Holiday for the Virgins.
John Keats was born in Londoꗬ?GЉ ሀ? က Ѐ ᷶
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? ŵ ? ? ĺ ļ $ ɯ Ǵ ? s; and became a licenced druggist. ( ) Keat?s earliest poems date from 1814. In 1816 John Keats, gave up his medical training and devoted himself full time to a literary career. In 1820 Keats became ill with tuberculosis. The illness may have been aggravated by the emotional strain of his attachment to Fanny Brawne, a young woman with whom he had fallen in love( ). Nevertheless, the period from 1818 to 1820 was one of great creativity. In July 1820, the third and best volumes of poetry; Lamia, Isabella, The Eve of St. Agnes, and Other Poems, were published (Hilton 2-5). Nowadays, John Keats is one of the most gifted and appealing writers of the nineteenth century and an influential figure of the Romantic Movement. ?The Eve of Saint Agnes?, one of Keat?s greatest poems, expresses sensations like touch and sound and emotions like love and fear.
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To begin with, Keats described an extemely cold night:
?St. Agnes? Eve- Ah bitter chill it was!
The owl, for all his feathers, was a-cold;
The hare limp?d trembling through the frozen grass?, (Roe 188)
By reading this description, the feeling of coldness of the night can be felt. In this poem, Keats used a lot the sense of touch . For Instance, the touching between the lovers and the palpation of objects. As shown in this quote, ?This is the open note, and progress through images of cold and death before the action gets under way? (Stillinger 68). Keats also described the night as humid,
?Young virgins might have visions of delight,
And soft adoring from their loves receive
Upon the honey?d middle of the night,
If ceremonies due they did aright;? (Roe 189)
It is suggested that Keats? usage of the term ?honey?d? connotes moist.
?According to the popular superstition connected with St. Agnes? Eve, a young maiden who fasts and neither speaks nor looks about before she goes to bed may get a sight of her future husband in a dream? (Stillinger 69). Keats employed all his resources to convey the intensity of the coldness. He contrasted this coldness with the sentiment Gonzalez 3
of the young ladies due to the Eve of St. Agnes.
In The Eve of Saint Agnes, John Keats not only narrates the sense of touch, yet also uses the sense of sound. ?In the Eve of St. Agnes it is richness of sensations, the magic of placenames and the haunting verbal music that most commonly attract attention? (Danzig 9). For example, Madeline is seen dancing through the crowd, noisy hall. Later, Porphyryo maintained the reader in constant tension with his silence,
of the young ladies due to the Eve of St. Agnes.
Danzig, Allan. The Eve of St. Agnes: A Collection of Critical
Essays. New Jersey: Prentice-Hall. 1971
Hilton, Timothy. Keats and His World. New York: The Viking
Press.1971
Keats, John.?John Keats?. The Norton Anthology of World
Masterpieces vol. 2 Ed Maynard Mack Expanded Ed. New York Norton, 1995
Roe, Nicholas. Selected Poems. University Of Saint Andrews:
Everyman 1995
Stillinger, Jack. The Hoodwinking of Madeline. Chicago, IL.
University of Illinois Press. 1971.