Lamia Flashcards
The poem’s opening suggests the theme of disenchantment because the creatures of Greek mythology, such as nymphs (mythical female inhabitants of forests and rivers) and satyrs (lustful woodland creatures who were half-man, half-goat) would be replaced by those of English fairy tales. King Oberon is the fairy king in Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream. By the time Keats was writing this poem those fairies too had faded from belief, displaced by Enlightenment rationality.
“Upon a time, before the faery broods / Drove Nymph and Satyr from the prosperous woods, / Before King Oberon’s bright diadem … Frighted away the Dryads and the Fauns.”
Here Lamia is complaining to the messenger god Hermes near the beginning of the poem. She is trapped in her serpent form and longs to be human again, so that she can pursue romantic love with a handsome youth named Lycius whom she has seen in a vision. For Lamia freedom from entrapment means taking on human form and pursuing romantic love.
“When from this wreathed tomb shall I awake! / When move in a sweet body fit for life, / And love, and pleasure, and the ruddy strife / Of hearts and lips!”
The god Hermes sees Lamia in her serpent form, he considers her possible identity, wondering if she is an elf forced to do some sort of penance by living as a serpent, or if she something more sinister, like a demon. The poem never fully clarifies who she is, leaving it up to the reader to decide.
“She seem’d, at once, some penanced lady elf / Some demon’s mistress, or the demon’s self.”
The narrator is here trying to distinguish himself from more fanciful poets by declaring that a real woman is better than any fantasy or ideal. He thus seems to position himself on the side of truthfulness, against imaginative fancy and deception. But Lamia is not exactly a real woman, though she tells Lycius, the young man with whom she is in love, that she is. Lamia is using illusion and deception to appear to be merely a woman.
“Let the mad poets say whate’er they please / Of the sweets of Fairies, Peris, Goddesses, / There is not such a treat among them all … As a real woman.”
Lamia deceives Lycius in order to keep his love. She tells him that she is nothing more than a woman, though this is not true; she is a serpent with magical powers.
“For that she was a woman, and without / Any more subtle fluid in her veins / Than throbbing blood, and that the self-same pains / Inhabited her frail-strung heart as his.”
Lycius says this to Lamia as she leads him to her house. He has just tried to hide from Apollonius, who was passing by. As much as he respects Apollonius, Lycius can sense that Apollonius would oppose his relationship with Lamia. Lycius recognizes the incompatibility of passion and reason, as represented by Lamia and Apollonius, and does not let the two meet. Later, he unsuccessfully tries to blend these two parts of his life.
“‘Tis Apollonius sage, my trusty guide / And good instructor; but to-night he seems / The ghost of folly haunting my sweet dreams.|”
The narrator muses on the two lovers who have just entered Lamia’s house. Her claims that to tell the “truth” to the reader, he cannot leave the lovers in this happy fairy-tale ending but must reveal the tragedy that follows. The narrator illustrates that a sad truth is more important than a happy facade.
“And but the flitter-winged verse must tell / For truth’s sake, what woe afterwards befel / ‘Twould humor many a heart to leave them thus, / Shut from the busy world of more incredulous.”
At the opening of Part 2 the narrator expresses a cynical attitude toward romantic love, which he suggests cannot last for anyone, rich or poor. This is one of several moments in which the narrator sets himself up as a teller of hard truths, not taken in by romantic ideals or fantasies.
“Love in a hut, with water and a crust / Is—love forgive us!—cinders, ashes, dust; / Love in a palace is perhaps at last / More grievous torment than a hermit’s fast.”
Lamia knows that thought and reason are opposed to the dream-like joy she shares with Lycius. This opposition is one of the core themes of the poem. Lycius’s being reminded of the world outside their relationship marks the end of their private bliss.
“The lady … Saw this with pain … and she began to moan and sigh / Because he mused beyond her, knowing well / That but a moment’s thought is passion’s passing bell.”
“Lycius is refusing Lamia’s plea not to invite guests to a feast. Even though Lycius loves her, he enjoys the power he has over her. This cruelty in love is part of the poem’s suggestion of the darker sides of romantic love. It also makes it clear that simply viewing Lycius as prey and Lamia as predator is inaccurate, or at best an oversimplification.”
“His passion, cruel grown, took on a hue / Fierce and sanguineous as ‘twas possible.”
This quote suggests that people do not want to have everything explained rationally (or scientifically), because that diminishes the wonder of certain awe-inspiring things, like a rainbow. Lamia is also one such thing. When the philosopher Apollonius identifies Lamia as a serpent she vanishes into thin air. These lines also indicate the narrator’s rebellion against the attempts of the Enlightenment to render everything understandable to human reason.
“Do not all charms fly / At the mere touch of cold philosophy? … Philosophy will clip an Angel’s wings, / Conquer all mysteries by rule and line, / Empty the haunted air, and gnomed mine.”
Here the speaker suggests that it is madness, not wisdom, for Lycius to invite the outside world into his private life with Lamia. This quote also foreshadows the tragedy to come.
“O senseless Lycius! Madman! wherefore flout / The silent-blessing fate, warm cloister’d hours, / And show to common eyes these secret bowers?”
Apollonius asks Lycius this after revealing Lamia to be a serpent. Apollonius believes Lamia is a predator but she becomes Apollonius’s prey, killed by his revelation of her identity. Lamia’s status as predator or prey shifts throughout the poem. Apollonius’s words also suggest he has a close relationship with Lycius, and may actually be trying to do what is best for him. His actions still appear cruel but he may truly think he is protecting Lycius.
“From every ill / Of life I have preserv’d thee to this day, / And shall I see thee made a serpent’s prey?”
Apollonius’s eyes see through Lamia’s illusions, and the metaphor of a sharp spear suggests his gaze is torture for her. His very gaze inflicts pain on Lamia because the illusion and enchantment that have supported her relationship with Lycius cannot withstand the cold eye of reason. Regardless of his real intentions, even if they are to protect Lycius’s well-being, his actions come across as cruel.
“Then Lamia breath’d death breath; the sophist’s eye, / Like a sharp spear, went through her utterly, / Keen, cruel, perceant, stinging.”
Like love or dreams or magic, the poem suggests, Lamia vanishes when faced with harsh reality. Apollonius reveals Lamia’s identity but this exposure does not benefit anyone. It kills not only Lamia but Lycius as well, suggesting that perhaps it would have been better if they had never faced reality. This suggests that the narrator’s sympathies lie with romance, illusion, and enchantment, even though he sets himself up as a voice of truth.
“Then with a frightful scream she vanished: / And Lycius’s arms were empty of delight, / As were his limbs of life, from that same night.”
