Lamia Flashcards
Fantastical, Mythical setting at the start.
‘upon a time, before the faery broods’
‘nymph’, ‘satyr’, ‘King Oberon’, ‘Dryads’, ‘Fauns’
‘In that sacred island dwelt/ A nymph to whom all hoofèd satyrs knelt,/ At whose white feet the languid Tritons poured/ Pearls’
Lamia’s initial state, as a SNAKE
‘a mournful voice’, ‘All pain but pity’
‘When from this wreathèd tomb shall I awaken!/ When move in a sweet body fit for life’
‘Ah miserable me!’
‘A palpitating snake’, ‘serpent prison house’
‘some penanced elf,/ Some demon’s mistress, or the demon’s self’
‘Her head was serpent, but ah, bitter-sweet!/ She had a woman’s mouth with all it’s pearls complete’
Lamia’s request to Hermes
‘I was a woman, let me have once more/ A woman’s shape and charming as before/ I love a youth of Corinth’
The relation of Hermes and the nymph
‘And towards her stepped: she like a moon in wane/ Faded before him, coward, could not restrain/ Her fearful sobs, self-folding like a flower’
Love in the fantastical is attainable; in reality love cannot last.
‘Nor grew they pale, as mortal lovers do’
Lamia’s transition
‘her elfin blood in madness ran’
‘her mouth foamed’
‘Her eyes in torture fixed’
‘convulsed in scarlet pain’
‘A deep volcanic yellow took her place’
‘She was undressed/ Of all her satires, greens and amethyst’
‘Nothing but pain and ugliness were left’
Lamia’s quest for Lycius
‘her new voice luting soft,/ Cried ‘Lycius! gentle Lycius!’
‘where she willed her spirit went’
‘her eyes/ Followed his steps’
Lamia ‘fell into a swooning love of him’
Lamia’s state after her transformation
The contradiction of her beauty…
‘Now a lady bright,/ A full born beauty new and exquisite’
‘A virgin purest lipped, yet in the lore/ Of love deep learnèd to the red hearts core’
‘As though in Cupid’s college she had spent/ Sweet days a lovely graduate’
Description of Lycius
‘Like a young Jove with calm uneasier face’
Lycius falls in love with Lamia immediately
‘So delicious were the words she sung,/ It seemed he had loved them a whole summer long.’
‘And soon his eyes had drunk her beauty up,/ Leabing no drop in the bewildering cup,/ And still the cup was full’
Foreshadowing of tragic end
‘Even as thou vanishest I shall die’
Lamia’s deceit
‘What canst thou say or do of charm enough/ To dull the nice remembrance of my home?’
‘it cannot be- Adieu!’ ‘Cruel lady, without any show of sorrow for her tender favourites woe’
Lycius in a trance like state
‘Out her new lips to his, and give afresh/ The life she had so tangled in her mesh’
‘As from one trance was awakening into another’
‘every word she spake enticed him on’
Sexual imagery
‘won his heart/ More pleasantly by playing woman’s part’
‘Lycius to all made eloquent reply,/ Marrying to ever word a twin born sigh’
Descriptions of Corinth
‘populous streets and temples lewd’
‘Men, women, rich and poor, in the cool hours,/ Shuffled their sandles’
‘threw their moving shadows on the walls’
