Lamia: Lamia

Question 1

‘Mournful voice,’

Answer 1

• Lamia is dehumanised as Keats creates ambiguity surrounding her physical form.
• First introduction to Lamia in the poem.
• Introduces her suffering immediately to the reader, evoking pathos in the readers.
• Is Lamia a villian or a victim?

Question 2

‘She was a gordian shape of dazzling hue, Vermillion spotted, golden, green and blue , striped like a zebra, freckled like a pard, eyed like a peacock, all crimson barred.’

Answer 2

• Colourful nature. Links to romantic ideologies. Ironically, Lamia is more powerful while enprisoned and miserable as a snake than as a human later in the poem.
• Literal downgrade of power –> mythical being to mortal being.
• ‘golden’ –> connotations of wealth, royalty. Lamia is both a character of high status and a prisoner.
• Predatorial imagery: blurs the line between villian and victim. –> Creates uncertainty.

Question 3

‘She seemed, at once, a penanced lady elf, some demon’s mistress, or the demon’s self.’

Answer 3

• ‘penanced lady elf,’ –> Lamia has been punished, reinforcing her character as a victim.
• Readers are encouraged to pity Lamia because of her entrapment and misery.
• ‘demon’s mistress, or demon’s self,’ Demons are fallen angels. Has Lamia already experienced a tragic fall?

Question 4

‘Stoop, Hermes, let me breathe upon thy brow And thou shalt see thy sweet nymph.’

Answer 4

• Display of power and dominance. Lamia has told a gold to kneel infront of her. Demonstrates Lamia’s harmartia of greed and selfishness -> Lamia betrays the Nymph for her own personal gain. –> reinforcing the conflicting victim vs victim theme.

Question 5

Still shone her crown; that vanished, also she melted and disappeared as suddenly,’

Answer 5

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Question 6

‘For she was a maid,’

Question 7

‘Soon his eyes had drunk her beauty up, Leaving no drop in the bewildering cup, and still the cup was full’

Question 8

‘The cruel lady, without any show
Of sorrow for her tender favourite’s woe,’

Question 9

• ‘So delicious were the words she sung,’
• ‘The life she had so tangled in her mesh
  And as he from one trance was wakening into another, she began to sing.’

Question 10

‘Soft voice hiss,’

Question 11

‘The lady’s cheek
Trembled; she nothing said, but pale and meek,
Arose and knelt before him, wept a rain
Of sorrows at his words;’

Question 12

‘Ha, the serpent! Certes, she
Was none. She burnt, she loved the tyranny
And, all subdued, consented to the hour,’

Answer 12

• ‘Burnt’, Anaphora, Lamia’s transformation has stripped her power. She has no choice but to obey Lycius.
• ‘She was none.’ Loss of Identity.

Question 13

‘And I neglect the holy rite for thee.’

Question 14

‘[Lycius] made close inquiry; from whose touch she shrank,’

Question 15

‘[Lamia] silently paced about, and as she went, in pale contented sort of discontent,’

Question 16

‘She faded at self-will […] when dreadful guests would come to spoil her solitude.’

Question 17

‘Lamia, no longer fair, there sat a deadly white.’

Question 18

‘The aching ghost.’

Question 19

‘Then Lamia breathed death-breath; the sophist’s eye,
Like a sharp, went through her utterly,
Keen, cruel, perceant, stinging: she, as well
As her weak hand could any meaning tell.
Motioned him to be silent;’

Question 20

‘Than with a frightful scream she vanished:’

Question 21

‘Her mouth foamed,’

Answer 21

• Semantic field of pain.
• Uncomfortable, vivid imagery.
• Sensory description of Lamia’s pain –> Emphasises her suffering.
• Evokes pathos.

Question 22

‘Her eyes in tortured fixed and anguish drear,’

Answer 22

• Semantic field of pain.
• Lamia is literally paralysed in pain.
• Sensory description of Lamia’s pain –> Emphasises her suffering.

Question 23

‘She writhed about, convulsed with scarlet pain;’

Answer 23

• Semantic field of pain.
• Lamia is literally paralysed in pain.
• Sensory description of Lamia’s pain –> Emphasises her suffering.

Question 24

‘spoilt all her silver mail and golden brede;’

Answer 24

• Semantic field of pain.
• Lamia is literally paralysed in pain.
• Sensory description of Lamia’s pain –> Emphasises her suffering.
• Keats places worth on Lamia’s silver and golds.

Question 25

‘Made gloom of all her frecklings, streaks and bars, eclipsed her crescents and licked up her stars;’

Answer 25

• ## Star and Moon imagery

Question 26

‘All her sapphires, green, and amethyst, and rubious-argent: all of these befreft, nothing but pain and ugliness were left.’

Question 27

All pain but pity; thus the lone voice spake:
‘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! Ah, miserable me!’

Question 28

‘a palpitating snake,
Bright, and…

Answer 28

cirque-couchant in a dusky brake.’

Question 29

touched with miseries,

Question 30

‘She had a woman’s mouth with all its pearls complete;’

Question 31

what could such eyes do there
But weep, and weep, that they were born so fair,

Question 32

smooth-lipped serpent, surely high inspired!
Thou beauteous wreath, with melancholy eyes,

Question 33

‘I was a woman, let me have once more
A woman’s shape, and charming as before.’

Question 34

‘Her eyes in torture fixed, and anguish drear,
Hot, glazed, and wide, with lid-lashes all sear,
Flashed phosphor and sharp sparks, without one to cooling tear.’

Question 35

She writhed about, convulsed with scarlet pain:

Question 36

A deep volcanian yellow took the place
Of all her milder-mooned body’s grace;

Question 37

And, as the lava ravishes the mead,
Spoilt all her silver mail and golden brede;

Question 38

Made gloom of all her frecklings, streaks and bars,

Question 39

‘Eclipsed her crescents, and licked up her stars
So that, in moments few, she was undressed
Of all her sapphires, greens, and amethyst,
And rubious-argent;’

Question 40

‘of all these bereft,
Nothing but pain and ugliness were left.’

Question 41

‘Still shone her crown; that vanished, also she Melted and disappeared as suddenly;’

Question 42

Whither fled Lamia, now a lady bright,
A full-born beauty new and exquisite?

Question 43

‘For she was a maid More beautiful than ever twisted braid,’