Keats: On the Sea Flashcards
Structure
Petrarchan sonnet
ABBA ABBA
Volta ln. 9
CDEDEC
First 1/2 of Octet
It keeps eternal whisperings around
Desolate shores, and with its mighty swell
Gluts twice ten thousand Caverns, till the spell
Of Hecate leaves them their old shadowy sound.
The sea and its qualities.
- “twice ten thousand”- hyperbole & alliteration- scale of sea.
- “whisperings”- subtle.
- “mighty”- power.
- “spell / Of Hecate”- Greek godess of magic + audience understands & Shakespeare utilised it. sibilance- emph. these magical qualities
Second 1/2 of Octet
Often ‘tis in such gentle temper found,
That scarcely will the very smallest shell
Be moved for days from where it sometime fell.
When last the winds of Heaven were unbound.
-“temper”- personification, subject to emotions
- “shell/ Be”- enjambment- movement of the sea.
- “were unbound.”- End-stopped line forces reader to pause, emph. the volta.
Sestet
Oh, ye! who have your eyeballs vexed and tired,
Feast them upon the wideness of the Sea;
Oh ye! whose ears are dinned with uproar rude,
Or fed too much with cloying melody-
Sit ye near some old Cavern’s Mouth and brood,
Until ye start, as if the sea nymphs quired!
- “Oh Ye!”- volta
- “eye-balls … ears”- Sea will help with multiple things
- “cloying melody-”- could be slight dig at religion. The “-“ interrupts himself, changing the original sonnet form.
- “uproar rude”- unspohisticated, the Romantics liked ‘unfiltered nature’. Could also link to CITIES and daly life. The sea is the “golden mean” between those two extremities (Aristotle’s ‘Golden Mean’)
- “as if the sea-nymphs quired!”- a ‘sure’ ending denoted by the “!”. Personal experience with nature.
What qualities does the sea show?
The sea shows both gentle and violent qualities- & is sublime. Links to Romanticism.
Publication
1817 in ‘The Champion’
