Lamia Flashcards
‘She was a maid more…
…beautiful than ever twisted braid’ (Lamia)
- After her transformation, there is a large focus on her beauty being her only noticeable character trait.
How does Romanticism manifest itself in Lamia?
- The power of the imagination.
- The beauty of the abstract/ambiguity.
- The spiritual.
- The supernatural.
The beginning
Use of stereotypical mythical setting:
1) Upon…
2) Repetition of…
3) ‘Nymph and… ‘Dryads and…
4) ‘King…
1)…a time
2)…before
3)…Satyr’ …Fauns’
4)…Oberon’
Beginning
Sexual Desire:
1) ‘amorous…
2) ‘ever-smitten…
3) ‘they withered…
4) ‘what a world of love…
5) ‘a celestial…
6) ‘breathing upon the flowers…
1)…theft’
2)…Hermes’
3)…and adored’
4)…was at her feet!’
5)…heat’
6)…his passion new’
Lamia pre-transformation:
1) ‘mournful…
2) ‘When from this wreathèd tomb…
3) ‘gordian…
4) ‘Vermillion-spotted, golden,…
5) ‘Eyed like…
6) ‘rainbow-…
7) ‘the words she spake / Came,…
8) ‘beauteous wreath…
1)…voice’
2)…shall I awake?’
3)…shape of dazzling hue’
4)…green, and blue’
5)…a peacock’
6)…sided’
7)…as through bubbling honey’
8)…with melancholy eyes’
Beginning
Love and pain:
1) ‘The ruddy strife of…
1)…hearts and lips!’
The nymph and Hermes:
1) ‘unseen…unseen…
2) Lamia: ‘let me have once more/ …
3) ‘she, like a moon in wane, …
4) ‘Her fearful…
5) ‘gave up her honey…
6) ‘[Hermes’] celestial…
7) ‘keep her loveliness…
8) ‘Nor grew they pale…
1)…unaffronted, unassailed’
2)…A woman’s shape’
3)…faded before him’
4)…sobs’
5)…to the lees.’
6)…heat’
7)…invisible’
8)…as mortal lovers do’
Lamia’s transformation:
1) ‘convulsed with…
2) ‘torture fixed, …
3) ‘Lava ravishes…
4) ‘Spoilt all her…
5) ‘Eclipsed her crescents, …
6) ‘Undressed of all her…
7) ‘Nothing but pain…
1)…scarlet pain’
2)…and anguish drear’
3)…the mead’
4)…silver mail’
5)…and licked up her stars.’
6)…sapphires, greens and amethyst’
7)…and ugliness were left’
Lamia post-transformation:
1) ‘a lady…
2) ‘a full-born beauty…
3) ‘By a clear pool, wherein…
4) ‘her robes flaunted with…
5) ‘A virgin purest lipped…
1)…bright’
2)…new and exquisite?’
3)…she passionèd / To see herself’ - allusion to Narcissus
4)…the daffodils’ - allusion to Narcissus
5)…, yet in the lore / Of love deep learnèd.’
Love and pain:
1) ‘unperplex bliss…
2) ‘love, and pleasure…
3) ‘unperplexed delight…
1)…from its neighbour pain’
2)…and the ruddy strife of hearts and lips!’
3)…and pleasure known’
Lamia and Porphyro meet:
1) ‘Jove heard his vows, …
2) ’His fantasy was lost, …
3) ‘unseen…
4) ‘so delicious were…
5) ‘soon his eyes…
6) ‘she saw his…
7) ‘Even as thou vanishest…
8) ‘as thy silver…
9) ‘Over these hills and vales…
1)…and bettered his desire’
2)…where reason fades’
3)…she stood’
4)…the words she sung’
5)…had drunk her beauty up’
6)…chain so sure’
7)…so I shall die.’
8)…proxy shine’
9)…where no joy is’
‘Platonic…
…shades’
- A comment of Plato’s cave analogy about one’s perception of reality. A derisive one? Questioning the legitimacy of Plato’s partitioning of reality into what is observed and what is real, intimation that reality is entirely subjective to the imagination of a person. Paradigm Romantic.
What is a possible motivation for Keats’ motivation to write medieval and mythical poems?
- G.R Elliott believed that for Keats: ‘to draw into his verse more of life, external and mental, would be to shatter his mastery of beauty’.
- This battle is reflected in Lamia.
In what way is Keats’ poetry controversial?
- He criticised Wordsworth’s commitment to dogmatism, saying that he resents ‘being bullied into a certain philosophy’, in one of his letters.
- Could this be a motivation for the moral ambiguity constructed in Lamia?
Love and reality in the middle:
- ‘finer spirits cannot breathe…
…below in human climes, and live.’
Love and reality in the middle:
- Lycius ‘Swooned, murmuring of love, …
… and pale with pain.’
Love and reality in the middle:
- ‘The life she had so…
…entangled in her mesh’
Love and reality in the middle:
- ‘As he from one trance…
…was wakening / Into another.’
Fate:
- ‘The stars drew in…
…their panting fires’
Love and reality in the middle:
- ‘Lycius from death…
…awoke in amaze’
Love and reality in the middle:
- ‘by playing…
…woman’s part’
Blindness and reality:
1) ‘blinded…
1)…Lycius’
(Lamia) Trepidation, secrecy and danger:
- ‘Muttered, like tempest in the…
- …distance brewed’
Trepidation, danger and secrecy:
- ‘found them clustered…
…in the corniced shade.’
First meeting with Apollonius:
- ‘curled grey beard, …
…sharp eyes, and smooth bald crown’
- Even the physical form of Apollonius’ being is well-defined.
First meeting with Apollonius:
- ‘hurried Lamia…
…trembled’
First meeting with Apollonius:
- ‘Why do you shudder, love, …
…so ruefully?’
First meeting with Apollonius:
- ‘Wherefore did you blind…
… / Yourself from his quick eyes?’
First meeting with Apollonius:
- ‘he seems / The ghost of…
…folly haunting my sweet dreams.’
Reality and love:
- ‘shut from…
…the busy world’
- Only occlusion from reality could shield their love.
Love and reality:
- ‘Love in a hut…
…is…cinder ashes, dust’
Love and reality:
- ‘Love in a hut…
…is…cinder ashes, dust’
Love and reality:
- ‘Love in a palace is…
…perhaps at last / More grievous torment.’
Love and suffering:
- ‘too short was their bliss…
…to breed distrust and hate.’
Love and suffering:
- ‘Love, jealous grown of so…
…so complete a pair, Hovered and buzzed his wings’
Love and superficiality:
- ‘with eyelids closed…
…saving a tithe which love still open kept’
Lycius’ awakening:
- [from outside] ‘came a thrill…
…of trumpets’
Lycius’ awakening:
- ‘a thought, a buzzing in his head…
…for the first time’
Lycius’ awakening:
- ‘that purple-linèd palace…
…of sweet sin’
Lycius’ awakening:
- ‘His spirit passed beyond its golden bourne…
…into the noisy world.’
Lycius’ awakening:
- Lamia: ‘You have…
…deserted me - where am I now?’
Lycius’ awakening:
- ‘My silver planet, …
…both of eve and morn!’