Lamia Flashcards
“Upon a time”
Reminds reader of the start of a fairy-tale, indicates this will be a fairy-tale type narrative
“For somewhere in that sacred island dwelt / A nymph, to whom all hoofed satyrs knelt”
Strong rhyme emphasises the nymph’s desirability, “all” shows the extent of it
“At whose white feet the languid Tritons poured / Pearls”
Plosive alliteration and enjambment adds to the nymph’s desirability further
“Celestial heat”
Heavenly imagery used in reference to love - link to Eve of St Agnes?
“That from a whiteness, as the lily clear, / Blushed into roses”
Reference to death, pastoral, floral imagery. Link across many poems
“From vale to vale, from wood to wood, he flew”
Repetition emphasises length and intensity of Hermes’ journey for the nymph - extents people go to for love
“To find where this sweet nymph prepared her secret bed”
Line is extended to 12 syllables after previous iambic pentameter to emphasise length and difficulty of Hermes’ search
“Pensive, and full of painful jealousies”
Shows extent of Hermes love for the nymph
“There as he stood he heard a mournful voice, / Such as, once heard, in gentle heart destroys / All pain but pity, thus the lone voice spake”
Lexis of melancholy and sadness - Lamia is unhappy in snake form
“When from this wreathed tomb I shall awake! / When move in a sweet body fit for life”
Lamia’s snake body traps her - reference to entrapment because of gender roles. Juxtaposition of references to death and life
“The God, dove-footed, glided silently / Round bush and tree, soft-brushing, in his speed”
Sibilance and assonance
“Vermillion spotted, golden, green, and blue”, “full of silver moons, that, as she breathed, / Dissolved, or brighter shone”, “So rainbow-sided, touched with miseries”
Lengthy and opulent physical description of Lamia’s snake form, but it is interspersed with darker imagery. Celestial imagery and foreshadowing are examples of tragic tropes
“Sprinkled with stars, like Ariadne’s tiar”, “Proserpine”
Mythological allusions to characters associated with excessive sadness and love
“Her throat was serpent, but words she spake / Came, as through bubbling honey”
Metaphor to show her persuasiveness, juxtaposition of negative connotations of serpent with positive connotations of honey
“Fair Hermes, crowned with feathers, fluttering light”
Fricative sounds show Lamia’s gentle and persuasive tone
“I saw thee sitting, on a throne of gold”
Anecdote Lamia picks to appeal to his sense of masculinity - criticism of masculinity?
“Among the Gods, on Olympus old, / The only sad one;”
Cesura provides a dramatic pause to emphasise his sadness + Lamia’s ability to manipulate him
“I dreamt I saw thee”
Merging of dreams and reality - Romantic trope
“She tastes unseen; unseen her nimble feet” … “she plucks the fruit unseen, she bathes unseen”
Lamia repeats “unseen” when talking to Hermes in order to show his lack of power as Lamia is the only person who is able to see her and Hermes is unable to
“Unseen”, “unaffronted, unassailed”
Repetition of “un” shows Hermes’ lack of power
“Thou shalt behold her, Hermes, thou alone”
Lamia directly addresses Hermes by using personal pronouns and his name and cesuras slow the pace, creating tension and showing her manipulation
“Faded before him, cowered nor could restrain / Her fearful sobs, self-folding like a flower”
Negative lexis suggests that Hermes has asserted his control over the nymph and she does not necessarily want it - indictment of male dominance and forced female passivity
“Bloomed, and gave up her honey to the lees”
Erotic metaphor suggests sexual unity of nymph and Hermes
“Hot, glazed, and wide, with lid-lashes all sear, / Flashed phosphor and sharp sparks, without one cooling tear”
Violent sounds and sibilance show the pain of her transformation - notion of the pain of becoming a woman
“She was undressed / Of all her sapphires, greens, and amethyst / And rubious-argent;”
Cesura may represent the end of her beauty
“Wither fled Lamia, now a lady bright, / A full-born beauty new and exquisite?”, “Fair”
Interjection from narrator. This line shows that she has become beautiful, which contradicts the previous stanza. This is because of a patriarchal desire for beautiful female characters. “Fair” later in the stanza also serves as a reminder of her beauty, as it is very key to her character
“Wherein she passioned / To see herself escaped from so sore ills”
Both literal and metaphorical meaning
“A virgin purest lipped, yet in the lore / Of love deep learned”
Superlative to show the extent of her purity - importance of virginity and purity, but patriarchal expectations of sexual knowledge.
“Not one hour old, yet of sciential brain / To unperplex bliss from its neighbour pain”
Juxtaposition of youth and experience, bliss has sexual connotations - shows importance of female sexuality
“As though in Cupid’s college she had spent / Sweet days a lovely graduate, still unshent, / And kept his terms in idle languishment”
‘Ideal’ image of a women in patriarchal eyes, sexually experienced, but still a virgin
“Or where in Pluto’s gardens”
Reference to Roman god of death - foreshadowing
“Young Corinthian Lycius / Charioting… Like a young Jove”
Compares Lycius to the king of the gods to show his power (over Lamia?) and importance in the narrative
“To sacrifice to Jove, whose temple there / Waits with high marble doors for blood and incense rare”
12 syllable line deviates from metre to show Jove’s power - adds more weight to the earlier comparison of Lycius and Jove
“His fantasy was lost, where reason fades”
Merging of fantasy and reality - Romantic trope
“Lamia beheld him coming, near, more near - / Close to her passing, in indifference drear”
Link to Eve of St Agnes and Porphyro’s voyeurism
“His silent sandals swept the mossy green”, “She stood: he passed, shut up in mysteries”
Gentle imagery and sibilance
“So neighboured to him, and yet so unseen”
“Unseen” is a reference to the nymph from earlier in the poem
