Eve of St.Agnes

Question 1

Who is St.Agnes?

Answer 1

a patron saint of young virgins who vowed that her body would be consecrated to Christ and rejected all suitors.

Question 2

Who is the ageing nurse?

Answer 2

Angela

Question 3

Porphyro plays her lute and arouses her from her dreams of him into a state between sleeping and walking in which she confesses her love; at this point “_________________________.”

Answer 3

Into her dreams he melted

Question 4

What is the poem primarily notable for?

Answer 4

its elaborate pictorial and musical effects

Question 5

Its wealth of description mean that,like ‘Isabella,’ the poem became a favourite with the Pre-_________ artists of the 19th century?

Answer 5

Raphelite

Question 6

Keats use of the Spenserian stanza formally encourages the tendency towards..?

Answer 6

towards descriptiveness

Question 7

What style of Stanza formally encourages a tendency towards descriptiveness?

Answer 7

Spenserian

Question 8

The Spenserian stanza, containing 8 lines of iambic pentameter and a final alexandrine, does not require the kind of compression associated with the ______ _______ Keats used in Isabella. Nevertheless as a self contained unit, it encourages the creation of tableaux. (motionless story)

Answer 8

ottava rima

Question 9

The Spenserian stanza, containing 8 lines of iambic pentameter and a final alexandrine, 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, how?

Answer 9

through its wealth of description and its notable pictorial and musical effects

Question 10

As well as the poems notable eleborate pictorial and musical effects, what is the poem also notable for?

Answer 10

its varied and sensual imagery and synaesthetic richness

Question 11

Many images in the poem function to suggest opposition and to set up boundaries:the cold outside for example is set against the warmth within, the noise and revelry of the feasters in the castle against the calm and quiet of Madelines room, and the snarling trumpets against what?

Answer 11

the tender chords of the lute

Question 12

The poem has also been much admired for its dramatic immediacy. How is this partly achieved?

Answer 12

by the way the tense fluctuates between past and present, which also acts as another opposition set up

Question 13

In what stanza is there a movement from past to present when the narrator, reflecting a sense of rising excitement, turns straight from description to address the concealed Porhphyro, atelier him to the arrival of Madeline?

Answer 13

stanza 22

Question 14

Why is there a sense of haste and urgency when the young lovers escape?

Answer 14

as the narrator returns to the present tense

Question 15

Why does the narrator use the present tense to build up the sensual immediacy of Porphyro and Madeline?

Answer 15

as this has the effect of the present and ever lasting love between the two young lovers that exists in the fluidity of the dream state

Question 16

What might be the reason for the last stanza?

Answer 16

to puncture the world of make believe which is heightened by the narrators scepticism of the love between the young lovers throughout.

Question 17

Thematically the poem can be seen as structured around a series of oppositions and one of the most central to these is this opposition between dream and reality.What quote is an example of how they are living in a dream world?

Answer 17

as in this world a rose may shut and “be a bud again”

Question 18

Thematically the poem can be seen as structured around a series of oppositions and one of the most central to these is this opposition between dream and reality, a world where a rose may shut and “be a bud again.” However we are reminded throughout that they actually live in a word where roses can wither and die. If their love is to be validated, what must they do?

Answer 18

they must leave the protection of the warm and magical dream room and go out to face the storm.

Question 19

How is there a great deal of evidence to suggest that the association of Porphyro with dreams is problematic from the start?

Answer 19

as Madeline desires a vision of her lover and a dream of consummation whereas Porphyro desires to gaze upon the actual form of Madeline and perhaps even to experience a physical consummation .

Question 20

How can the poem be seen as an ironic critique of idealistic young love?

Answer 20

as Porphyro’s intentions are debatebl; does he wish to seduce her or love her?

Question 21

What quote suggests Porphyro wants to just seduce Madeline?

Answer 21

as a thought comes to him “like a full-blown rose”

no longer a bud

Question 22

IN an influential say entitled “The ____________ ___ ___________” Strillinger argues that Porphyro gains Madelines bed only by a stratagem.

Answer 22

Hoodwinking of Madeline

Question 23

IN an influential essay entitled “The Hoodwinking of Madeline” who argues that Porphyro gains Madelines bed only by a stratagem?

Answer 23

Strillinger

Question 24

If Porphyro is bent on seduciton from the start that Porphyro is a villain as much as hero; while Madeline is what?

Answer 24

the deluded victim

Question 25

Such a reading of the poem as Porphyro being a billion emphasises the latent ironies and presents is as a sceptical ___________>

Answer 25

anti-romance

Question 26

What is it possible to suggest is Porphyro’s intentions (pure)?

Answer 26

that he only intended to awaken her in order to ensure, in accordance with the legend, that he will become her husband; and thus melts “into her dream” as Keats delicately describes

Question 27

If he only intended to awaken her in order to ensure, in accordance with the legend, that he will become her husband; and thus melts “into her dream” as Keats delicately describes what can be affirmed?

Answer 27

the powers of romance and imagination