The Eve of St. Agnes, by John Keats

In his poem “The Eve of St. Agnes”, John Keats writes of a tragic romantic tale of “two star-crossed lovers” sharing many similarities with William Shakespeare’s “Romeo and Juliet.” The poem follows a young man named Porphyro who love Madeline, a daughter of the king of a feuding family. During the evening of St. Agnes: a day that virginity is celebrated, Porphyro sneaks into Madeline’s room with some help and takes advantage of her while she was in a dream-like trance. Porphyro then convinces Madeline to run off with him into the winter storm that was brewing outside and they are never seen again. Keats presents his poem in a unique way that allows the audience to have multiple ways to interpret the actions and intents of the characters. For example, they can debate if Porphyro was fully responsible of the actions and consequences of what happened that night. Although Porphyro lost his self-control and his actions were the key agents of the events of that night, he is not fully responsible because the decisions made by Madeline and Angela holds some significance to the consequences. Madeline comes under scrutiny for following superstitious rituals and her failure of distinguishing the difference between dream and reality in the process. Angela can be criticized for being easily manipulated by Porphyro’s expression and his ability to persuade. Also the visualization and descriptive details that Keats puts in his poem are useful for understanding Porphyro’s true intentions and help convey to the audience if he is influenced by love or lust.

To help the readers discover and debate what Porphyro’s intentions are, Keats uses descriptive imagery in his poem to set the underlying emotions and tone of the story and characters. For exam...

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...starting a new life with Porphyro, she chooses to run away with him and possibly damns herself in the processes.

Although Porphyro may of loved Madeline, his lust eventually took over him when he saw his “lover” exposed and vulnerable when she fell asleep. His actions were aided by the decisions made by both Angela and Madeline and led to this unfortunate circumstance. Also Keats helps present the meaning behind Porphyro’s actions through his use of the setting, imagery, and the use of supernatural. Even though Porphyro may have had the best of intentions his actions compared with poor decision making of the other characters in the poem led to heavy circumstances that no one was prepared to pay.

Works Cited

John, Keats. "Eve of St. Agnes." The Norton Anthology of English Literature. Ed. Greenblatt, Stephen. 8th ed. New York: W.W Norton & Company, 2006. 1830-840