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English Literature - Paper 1 > Lamia > Flashcards

Lamia Flashcards

1
Q

what is lamia written in?

A
  • rhyming heroic couplets
  • rhymed iambic pentameter
  • when couplets closed can give poem sense of control
  • verse form allows Keats to introduce a cynical, world-weary voice into the poem
  • tone often at odds with magical and violent events of narrative
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2
Q

what is central to the tragedy?

A

of this poem is the notion that the love between lamia and lycius is based on an illusion and thus bound to fail

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3
Q

quote to describe setting

A

“upon a time, before faery broods”
- conventional beginning of fairy-tale –> mythical, expectations of unusual/ supernatural occurrences

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4
Q

characterisation of Hermes at beginning of poem?

A

“his golden throne, bent warm on amorous theft”
- always in love/ lust
- “hermes” - winged messenger of gods - sounds alright at start; however doesn’t sound particularly loving (connotations of rape)

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5
Q

part 1: hermes passion

A

“burnt from his winged heels”
“blushed into roses”
- lexical field of heat and passion - with an undertone of anger/ jealousy perhaps sexual desire

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6
Q

part 1: characterisation of nymph at beggining?

A
  • “a nymph, to whom all hoofed Satyrs knelt” - satyrs: known for their sexual appetites/ potency
  • nymph which Hermes is particularly infatuated with is desirable
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7
Q

part 1: hermes trying to find nymph

A

“from vale to vale, from wood to wood, he flew” - there is no indication she wants to be found yet he is desperate to find her

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8
Q

part 1: hermes feeling cause he hasn’t found the nymph; jealous

A

“Pensive, and full of painful jealousies” - self absorbed; plosives: speaker scornful of H

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9
Q

Initial introduction of Lamia’s voice

A

“mournful voice” - adjective
- we hear her voice first
- interesting doesn’t begin with appearance (typical)

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10
Q

hermes wants to find nymphs bed

A

“where this sweet nymph prepared her secret bed” - intimate- rather intrusive - implies its not meant to be found

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11
Q

lamia’s longing described

A

“And love, and pleasure, and the ruddy strife Of hearts and lips! Ah miserable me!” - polysyndetic listing: highlights her utter desperation/desire + tricolon

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12
Q

initial physical description of lamia: snake

A

“a palpitating snake, Bright and cirque-couchant in a dusky brake” - trembling - plosives assonance harsh repeat the rhythm of her beating heart
- sibilant - laying twisted in a circle

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13
Q

visual imagery of lamia

A

“she was a gordian shape of dazzling hue” “Vermilion-spotted, golden, green and blue”
“striped like a zebra” - very detailed description of lamia’s form; a lot of visual imagery
- enchanting overwhelming listing of similes to hyperbolically accentuate her “dazzling” - otherworldly physical features
- serpentine yet feminine
- projection of keats unrealistic and idealised women

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14
Q

description of lamia’s voice

A

“Her throat was serpent, the words she spake Came, as through bubbling honey, for love’s sake”
- establishes power of her seduction –> suggests that the reader should consider VOICES, WORDS SAID, SOUNDS with care and attention in this poem
- pity; evokes sympathy - lamia seeks love

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15
Q

Hermes victimising lamia? check

A

“Like a stooped falcon ere takes his prey” - simile; predatory: victimisation/ subjects his female characters to this power

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16
Q

sense that nymph is free and undisturbed

A

“free as the air” - fake sense of comfort; this liberty will be stripped away
“she tastes unseen; unseen her nimble feet”
–> repetition of unseen adds to the sacred notion to the nymph - Hermes is disturbing her peace

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17
Q

lamia protects nymph

A

“And by my power her beauty is veiled” - lamia protects nymph

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18
Q

Lamia’s need for love - in reference to her immortality

A

“Pale grew her immortality, for woe Of all these lovers, and she grieved so” - Also seen in LBD - knight: Isabella; pale –> dead
impact of unrequited or hopeless love –> even makes supernatural creates pale/ love vitality –> perhaps even robs them of their immortality

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19
Q

lamia agrees to reveal location of nymph if he helps her become have a “woman’s shape”: Lamia- reference to the agreement and her ears

A

“An oath, and though the serpent’s ears it ran, warm, tremulous, devout”
–> keats is reminding us of lamia’s deceptive/ decietful nature in accentuating her form –> religious allusions + the sly and deceitful role the snake plays to adam and eve
- quadruple epithet

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20
Q

Beginning of Lamia’s transformation

A

“moon in wane, Faded before him, cowered, nor could restrain” “Her fearful sobs, self-folding like a flower”
- pallid/pale; a v. vulnerable image –> fem pov –> verb highlights her absolute trepidation –> cowered, sobs, faints

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21
Q

lamia’s love forshadowing that its doomed to fail

A

“grew they pale, as mortal lovers do” –> warning/ forshadowing
- mortal love can’t last
- LA is about to take on mortal form in order to woo Ly –> suggests their love is doomed

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22
Q

Lamia’s metamorphosis

A

“the serpent now began To change … Her mouth foamed”
–> narrative shifts focus; violent; she is losing all that is beautiful about her; putting herself through a lot; grass withers due to foam; sheds her supernatural, demonic appearance and changes to a beautiful mortal women –> clear sense this isn’t positive

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23
Q

losing her looks

A

“undrest Of all her sapphires, greens and amethyst” “Nothing but pain and ugliness were left” –> losing what makes her precious; fem crit - looks valuable/ women only valued for looks

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24
Q

losing her protection

A

“Spoilt all her silver mail, and golden brede” –> La’s discarded snakeskin = compared to chainmail/ armour - lost her protection

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25
how does Lamia's transformation link to religon
- keats evokes Book 9 of Paradise lose - satan enters body of/becomes serpect --> implies that LA's transformation will lead to downfall
26
lamia is going to entice Lycius
"virgin purest" ... but knows about "love" "As though in Cupid's college she had spent" --> La knows much of love - will know how to charm & ensure ly --> relationship is doomed; isn't genuine or honest - points to contradictory images of her - pure but educated love and sex - patriarchal society - fem crit
27
lamia falls in love with lycius instantly
"fell into a swooning love for him"
28
Lycius loving lamia (at first he doesn't notice her)
"For so delicious were the words she sung" - her voice alluring; proleptic irony- ly's blind love for LA will result in him losing her and dying - forshadowing ... "began to adore"
29
ly faints
"swooned, murmuring of love, and pale with pain" "the cruel lady" - plosives; ly sho shocked and terrified that he faints; la has lot of power; negative portrayal of Lamia
30
la kissed ly
"the life she had so tangled in her mesh: And as he from one trance was wakening Into another" --> she kissed his lips and renewed his spirit; suggests her love is a trance?
31
sexual imagery between ly and la
"His drooping head ... Any more subtle fluid in her veins Than throbbing blood"
32
lamia is playing a part to appeal to lycius
"So threw the goddess off ... playing woman's part" --> she realises he is scared so tones it down - she is not genuine - appearance vs reality "blinded Lycius" - blinded by love
33
Initial description of Apollonius
"With curled gray beard, sharp eyes, and smooth bald crown" "philosophic gown" - sense of superiority; critical, intense learned - keats not fan
34
End of part 1
"the flitter-winged verse must tell, For truth's sake, what woe afterwards befel" - people would like to leave happy - away from rational - ends with mystery + intrigue - poet's duty
35
Part 2: Initial representation of love
"Love in a hut" - seclusion "cinders, ashes, dust" - tricolon; tragic; love comes to nothing; metaphor - narrator warns us of unhappiness to come "Love in a palace is perhaps at last More grievous torment than a hermit's fast—" - love becomes grief; pair doomed
36
part 2: quote to indicate their love won't last long
"but too short was their bliss To breed distrust and hate, that make the soft voice hiss." - la's true nature not revealed until too late; they will die
37
part 2: love portrayed as jealous
"Love, jealous ... Hovered and buzzed his wings, with fearful roar" - personification; love portrayed negatively; too in love; downfall; portrayed as jealous of their love
38
part 2: their sex described as sin
"That purple-lined palace of sweet sin" - before marriage
39
part 2: dialogue between Lycius and Lamia; she feels deserted and upset; wants attention
"saw this with pain" "began to moan and sigh" "you have deserted me" - la= jealous wants ly's attention to be on her - la fears rational worlds imposition and love fading perhaps - rationality can destroy love
40
part 2: dialogue lycius rebukes suggestion lamia don't love him
"How to entangle, trammel up and snare Your soul in mine, and labyrinth you there" - tricolon - ironic - she has done this - wants to marry her; sense of entrapment
41
part 2: lamia begs lycius to change his mind about the marriage
"trembling" "pale and meek, Arose and knelt before him, wept a rain Of sorrows at his words" - loss of identity - submissive female - begs him - hyperbole
42
part 2: lycius desire to control lamia
"with stronger fancy to reclaim Her wild and timid nature to his aim:" "he took delight Luxurious in her sorrows, soft and new." "His passion, cruel grown" - oxymoron - subduing, conquering male aroused by op to tame her
43
part 2: god imagery to express lycius's control
"Fine was the mitigated fury, like Apollo's presence when in act to strike The serpent" - proleptic irony; ly's action result in her downfall
44
part 2: lamia likes the new lycius
"she burnt, she loved the tyranny" - impressed by/ loves newly "fierce" lycius - consents to marry him
45
part 2: she betrays him
"he to the dull shade of deep sleep in a moment was betrayed" - he asks why; she casts a spell over him - betrays him
46
part 2: he's foolish; she wants to hide her mysery
"foolish heart" - foreboding; authorial voice; k feels foolish to promote rationalism over love "how to dress The misery in fit magnificence." - disguise with grandeur; costume - asks supernatural for help - more deception
47
part 2: foreboding with description of guests
"When dreadful guests would come to spoil her solitude." - foreboding; alliteration - double meaning; she's scared and also Ap
48
part 2: apollonius arrives how does he look at them
"eye severe" "he laughed" - old philosopher not won over by her spells - harsh view/ gaze
49
part 2: ap describes his understanding that he shouldn't have showed up uninvited
""Tis no common rule" "for uninvited guest To force himself upon you, and infest With an unbidden presence" "Lycius blushed" - negative lexis - negative presence - ap effect on ly
50
part 2: change in narrative after Ap arrival
- keats then postpones the narrative with setting description - create tension - banquet begins, guests start to drink - sentence lengths longer. more fluid - drinking?
51
part 2: description of what will come for lamia - wreath
"Upon her aching forehead be there hung The leaves of willow and of adder's tongue" - flaw downfall; k suggests that different wreaths will be placed on their heads - her wreath features traditional symbols of grief - grim downfall - inevitability of tragic fate - willow: funeral flower?
52
part 2: description of what will come for lycius - wreath
"And for the youth, quick, let us strip for him The thyrsus, that his watching eyes may swim Into forgetfulness" - ive/ vine leaves that surround Bachuss' wand - ly should forget the troubles he'll indure through drink - ref to his folly in hosting banquet in spite of la's plea he doesn't
53
part 2: description of what will come for ap - wreath
Let spear-grass and the spiteful thistle wage War on his temples. “ cold philosophy?" "Philosophy will clip an Angel's wings" - half rhyme; aliteration - his plants/ leaves will have sharp, painful thorns - K's view of philospjy - direct allusion to hazlitt's lectures: said that science and knowledge were restricting humanity's imagination and clipping the wings of poetry
54
part 2: example of rainbow
"Unweave a rainbow as … Lamia melt into a shade." - keats suggests newton destroyed rainbow and that Ap will destroy La in same way - reaching climaz, narrator's view of la has improved
55
part 2: ly touches her hand its cold
"Lycius then pressed her hand, with devout touch, As pale it lay upon the rosy couch: "'Twas icy" "all the pains Of an unnatural heat shot to his heart." - physiological/ physical pain of love - contrast of her iceness with rosiness of couch - juxta of la's pale coldness vs vitality of human things
56
part 2: doesn't see love in her eyes
“There was no recognition in those orbs." - no humanity their; contrast of ly and la - la absorbs ly's vitality - she's not talking to him
57
part 2: increasing horror
"grew hush" "deadly silent "Until it seemed a horrid presence there, And not a man but felt the terror in his hair." - tension; setting; horrifying
58
part 2: all her love humanity everything gone
"no passion" "vision—all was blight; Lamia, no longer fair, there sat a deadly white." - spoilt; ominous; she won't respond to him
59
part 2: ly tells Ap to stop looking at her
""Shut, shut those juggling eyes, thou ruthless man! Turn them aside, wretch!" "thorn of painful blindness" - commands the gods to make him blind - ruthless? unnecessary public humiliation of la - protecting? - Ap calls him a "fool!" - no sympathy - la's deception at least brought happiness; philos only brings death and destruction
60
part 2: Ap see's her as predetor
""from every ill Of life have I preserved thee to this day, And shall I see thee made a serpent's prey?"" "weak hand" "motioned him to be silent" "No!" - puts himself as protector - ap doesn't stop - can't see beyond her origins - sympathy created
61
part 2: la and ly die
"a Serpent!" - announces "Than with a frightful scream she vanished: “And Lycius' arms were empty of delight, As were his limbs of life” - vanishes; and he dies - symp for la - marriage/death - tragic ending

English Literature - Paper 1 (17 decks)

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