Keats: O Solitude! if I must with thee dwell

Question 1

Structure

Answer 1

Two Quatrains
VOLTA
Quatrain
Couplet

Question 2

Title

O Solitude! if I must with thee dwell

Answer 2

• Declaration of deep feeling
• Rythm emphsises stressed syllable of “I”
• ‘With’ and ‘dwell’- alliteration brings together concepts –> Repulsion of human buildings

Question 3

Stanza 1

O Solitude! if I must with thee dwell,
Let it not be among the jumbled heap
Of murky buildings; climb with me the steep,—
Nature’s observatory—whence the dell,

Answer 3

Quatrain
- “jumbled heap”- society- Challenges ind. rev. Enjambment –> trangresses society, emphasises desire to get away.
- “murky buildings;”- caesura- personifies solitude and draws reader in.

Question 4

Stanza 2

Its flowery slopes, its river’s crystal swell,
May seem a span; let me thy vigils keep
’Mongst boughs pavillion’d, where the deer’s swift leap
Startles the wild bee from the fox-glove bell.

Answer 4

• “‘mongst boughs”- lessened syllables emphsise fluid nature + trees
• “swift leap”- enjambment- movement

Question 5

Stanza 3

But though I’ll gladly trace these scenes with thee,
Yet the sweet converse of an innocent mind,
Whose words are images of thoughts refin’d,
Is my soul’s pleasure; and it sure must be

Answer 5

• “but” volta

Question 6

Couplet

Almost the highest bliss of human-kind,
When to thy haunts two kindred spirits flee.

Answer 6

• “flee”- Fleeing from society’s confines & expectations

Question 7

The use of “I”

Answer 7

• Universal
• Romanticism, personal experience