Context

Question 1

Sensations

Answer 1

Wrote a letter to Benjamin Bailey stating ‘O for a life of Sensations rather than of Thoughts’

Question 2

Astronomical

Answer 2

In July 1819, refers to Fanny Brawne as ‘my Bright Star’ in letter

Question 3

Other contemporaries

Answer 3

Wordsworth, Coleridge, Shelley

Question 4

Keats profession

Answer 4

Surgeon

Question 5

Tom

Answer 5

Brother Tom died from tuberculosis in 1818 - Keats attempted to nurse him - Tom was only 19

Question 6

Father

Answer 6

Father died when he was only 9

Question 7

‘The grass, the thicket, and the fruit-tree wild;
White hawthorn, and the pastoral eglantine;
Fast fading violets cover’d up in leaves;’

Answer 7

Reference to Shakespeare’s Midsummer Night’s Dream - Oberon states - ‘‘I know a bank where the wild thyme blows, Where oxlips and the nodding violet grows, Quite over-canopied with luscious woodbine, With sweet musk-roses and with eglantine’

Question 8

Bright star influence

Answer 8

‘it is the star to every wondering bark’ - sonnet 116

Question 9

River of Lethe

Answer 9

River of forgetfulness in Ancient Greek Mythology

Question 10

Romantic ideas about alienation

Answer 10

modern civilisation and industrialisation has alienated humanity from the earth and everyone from themselves

Question 11

Romantic ideas about sincerity

Answer 11

Romantic ideals of sincerity and honesty and purity of emotion - desire to be natural

Question 12

Romantic ideas about nature

Answer 12

• Key Romantic idea - natural world is a place of great beauty that performs a very important function to humanity
• ^^ humanity’s natural place is to be surrounded by and interacting with the natural world

Question 13

‘full-throated ease’ (Nightinagle)

Answer 13

alludes to Wordsworth and Coleridge’s ‘Lyrical Ballad’

Question 14

Hippocrene

Answer 14

fountain - greek myth - on Mount Olympus - drink for inspiration

Question 15

Where Beauty cannot keep her lustrous eyes,
Or new Love pine at them beyond to-morrow.

Answer 15

• These lines very similar to Hamlets lines - ‘O that this too too solid flesh would melt, Thaw, and resolve itself into a dew!’ - character of Hamlet full of existential despair and can’t see point of carrying on - Keats inspiration from Shakespeare

Question 16

Psyche and Eros/Cupid

Answer 16

Goddess of soul/mind and God of love/desire

Question 17

Recent discovery

Answer 17

Recent discovery of Uranus

Question 18

‘silent upon a peak in Darien’

Answer 18

when Cortez and crew discovered Pacific Ocean

Question 19

Keats marry Fanny

Answer 19

Keats could never marry Fanny due to his financial instability

Question 20

Keats view on Ancient Greece

Answer 20

saw it as time of great creativity and hope - would contrast with modern age which he sees as corrupt and money oriented

Question 21

O Solitude!

Answer 21

wrote Solitude when working/training as a surgeon - before met Fanny

Question 22

Solitude in Romanticism

Answer 22

common trope within Romanticism - individual self communicating with the natural world - ‘I wonder lonely as a cloud’ - Wordsworth
- ^^ celebration of being by oneself in nature

Question 23

Chapman’s Homer

Answer 23

• Keats read Chapmans homer for first time at night 1815 Cowden Clarke
• Next morning Clarke found the sonnet at 10’o clock

Question 24

St Agnes

Answer 24

In 1819, Keats was in Winter in Sussex - initial cold and isolation of poem reflects environment in which he was in

Question 25

Shakespeare parallel Eve of St Ag

Answer 25

Parallels Romeo and Juliet, yet has more ambiguous ending as Keats is more focused on the emotions between the lovers, not a dramatic ending

Question 26

Hecate

Answer 26

Witch-like figure of the sea (also appears in Macbeth)

Question 27

Sea nymphs

Answer 27

nymphs or Nereids often accompanied Poseidon and were said to be friendly and helpful to sailors

Question 28

Keats death

Answer 28

23rd Feb 1821

Question 29

Keats diagnosis

Answer 29

early 1820

Question 30

Hamlet in WIHFTIMCTB

Answer 30

spirit of Shakespeare ’to be’ - Hamlet when pondering on value of staying alive

Question 31

Romantics idea about logic

Answer 31

• ‘magic hand of chance’ - implies creativity is quite a mysterious and unpredictable process - part of life
• ^^ common Romantic idea that if one has an overly mechanical/scientific view of life, you can’t capture the full complexity of life