The Eve of St Agnes Flashcards
Stanza structure?
Spenserian stanzas - 8 lines of iambic pentameter followed by 1 line of iambic hexameter (12 syllables)
“Ah, bitter chill it was!”
Exclamation, “bitter” shows intensity. Pathetic fallacy
“The owl, for all his feathers, was a-cold”
Emphasises the cold - even owl is cold despite being adapted for it
“Silent was the flock in woolly fold”
Suggests lifelessness, flock is also a reference to religion - ‘Jesus is a shepherd’
“Numb were the Beadsman’s fingers, while he told / His rosary”
Despite the fact that they are moving, emphasises cold + cold atmosphere further. The Beadsman also shows that the poem is taking place in a wealthy environment, as people can afford Beadsman
“rosary”, “pious”, “heaven”, “sweet Virgin’s picture”, “prayer”
Religious imagery/religious lexis
Stanza 1 notes
Used to set the atmosphere - deathly, dark, religious.
“His prayer he saith, this patient, holy man”
Switches to past tense
“And back returneth, meagre, barefoot, wan”
Shows that he is poor and old, tripling for emphasis
“Along the chapel aisle by slow degrees”
Emphasises his age and how cold it is
“The sculptured dead, on each side, seem to freeze, / emprisoned in black, purgatorial rails”
Lack of movement, potentially meant to imply that everything is frozen.
“Purgatorial” also implies lost and waiting
“Knights, ladies, praying in dumb orat’tries, / He passeth by”
Gothic imagery
“ere Music’s golden tongue”
Metaphor. Introduces contrast between previous stanzas and the atmosphere in them
“But no - already had his deathbell rung: / The joys of all his life were said and sung”
Cesura jarrs rhythm of the line. Sudden shift to past tense following the cesura shows how close he is to death.
“St Agnes’ Eve”
Allows us to know the time of year
“Rough ashes sat he for his soul’s reprieve”
Reference to ‘ashes to ashes’ -> death
Stanza 4 notes
Movement and noise of the party contrasts with the mood of the early stanzas
Action is taking place in another part of the castle
“Silver, snarling trumpets”
Sibilance
“The carved angels, ever eager-eyed”
Gothic, deathly imagery (angels), assonance and alliteration
“With hair blown back, and wings put cross-wise on their / breasts”
Stillness, contrasts with the music and movement of the party
“At length burst…”
Sense of vivacity
“With plume, tiara, and all rich array”
Shows the wealth of the people at the party
Stanza 5 notes
Sense of bustle and movement
“These let us wish away, / And turn, sole-thoughted, to one Lady there”
Speaker directly addresses the reader with this interjection. Image of solitude and stillness contrasts again with the party
“On love, and winged St Agnes’ saintly care, / As she had heard old dames full many times declare”
Shows that she believes in the legend - important to the plot line
“Young virgins might have visions of delight”
V sound alliteration emphasises the need for sexual purity
“A soft adorings from their loves receive”
Assonance makes it seem softer and more gentle, and female purity is associated with gentleness
“Upon the honeyed middle of the night”
Metaphor, gives a sense of fantasy
“Lily white”
Reference to death - used in many of Keats’ poems, also a reference to purity
“But require / Of Heaven with upward eyes for all that they desire”
Have to trust in heaven, if they follow the rules they can get what they want, religious reference
Notes on party stanzas
Much more life, love, and movement than in the first stanzas. Increased enjambment gives a sense of movement and a faster pace to the slightly later stanzas
“Full of this whim was thoughtful Madeline”
She is young and naive - believes in the legend so strongly
“The music, yearning like a God in pain”
She’s not listening to the music, yearning so strongly - powerful simile
“Saw many a sweeping train / Pass by”
Enjambment - gives a sense of movement and flow
“Her maiden eyes divine”
Reference to religious purity - virgin and divine
“In vain / Came many a tip-toe, amorous cavalier, / And back retired”
Likely to be many rich suitors as we are aware of her wealth - the fact she is ignoring them is even more significant, emphasises how invested she is in the legend
“Danced along with vague, regardless eyes”
Disengaged with the party
“Breathing quick and short”
Possibly a sexual or sensual reference to her excitement
“The hallowed hour was near at hand”
H sounds emphasise her excitement
“Save to St Agnes and her lambs unshorn”
Image of purity
“So, purposing each moment to retire, / She lingered still.”
Cesura in line suggests anticipation
“Young Porphyro, with heart on fire / For Madeline”
Enjambment, showing an overflow of his passion, and fire also indicates passion
“She lingered still. Meantime, across the moors,…”
Madeline and Porphyro share a line of iambic pentameter which shows their togetherness. Usually the stanzas, owing to their Spenserian structure, contain separate events, but they share a stanza, and even a line, which shows the extent of their togetherness, even though his character has barely been introduced
“Fire”, “moonlight”, “gaze”, “speak, kneel, touch, kiss”
High concentration of romantic lexis, creates a contrast with the cold lifelessness of opening stanzas which emphasises the warmth of their love and its significance within the poem, but it may also foreshadow the tragic ending
“And he implores / All saints to give him sight of Madeline / Buy for one moment…” (stanza 9)
Enjambment shows her importance to him
“He ventures in”
Present tense - more immediate, foregrounds the danger
“He ventures in - let no buzzed whisper tell, / All eyes be muffled, or a hundred swords…” (stanza 10)
Lots of cesuras to slow the pace, and create suspense and tension. Makes entry to the castle seem more dangerous
“Love’s fev’rous citadel”, “barbarian hordes”, “hyena foemen” “hot-blooded lords”, “whole blood-thirsty race”
Hyperbolic descriptions of risk and danger to increases suspense. ALSO, link to Romeo and Juliet (act 2 scene 2) and the risks that Isabella and Lorenzo take
“Save one old beldame, weak in body and in soul”
The only person that will help him. She’s on her way to death
“Shuffling along”, “palsied hand”
Gives a sense of Angela’s age and fragility
“Dwarfish Hildebrand… He had a fever late, and in the fit / He cursed thee and thine”
Cursed him and his family even when he was ill - shows the extent at which he dislikes Porphyro and his family, which emphasises the danger he is in as he tries to enter.
“Flit like a ghost away”
Prophetic simile
“Ah, gossip dear, / we’re safe enough”
Porphyro seems slightly arrogant/overconfident when Angela warns him about the danger, and then dismisses it. This shows that he is infatuated with Madeline and he does not care about the danger, but also presents him as being slightly naive
“Or else these stones will be thy bier”
Bier = coffin, reference to death and to Romeo and Juliet
“Followed through a lowly arched way, brushing the cobwebs with his lofty plume…” (stanza 13)
More cold and deathly imagery - gothic
“Silent as a tomb”
Another simile that references death, foreshadows the tragic ending
“Are weaving piously”
Reference to religious purity
“Yet men will murder upon holy days”
Shows that he is still in danger
“To venture so: it fills me with amaze”
Double meaning - amazed to see him and amazed that he has made it as far as he has
“my lady fair the conjuror plays”
Believes in magic
“Like puzzled urchin”
Doesn’t understand the belief some women have
“Who keepeth closed a wondrous riddle-book”
Angela doesn’t enlighten him, also shows the mystery of the legend
“But soon his eyes grew brilliant”
Excited and amazed - shows the reader how much he loves her
“And he scarce could brook / Tears, at the thought of those enchantments cold, / And Madeline asleep in lap of legends old.”
Her vulnerability excites him + the possibility is exciting - he can take advantage of this
“Sudden a thought came…”
Shows the spontaneity of his plan
“Like a full-blown rose”
Sexual connotations of sexual excitement
“Flushing his brow”
Shows sexual/sensual excitement
“Made purple riot”
Sexual connotations
“Then he doth propose / A stratagem”
Shows his plan has not been thought through properly
“A cruel man and impious thou art”
Implies he is disrespecting God and implies he is hubristic
Notes about “Sudden a thought came like a full blown rose” stanza (16)
His plan is not said and is kept from the reader in order to create tension as we only see the reaction
The stanza is also made up of lots of short clauses and is fairly broken up, this slows the narrative pace and increases tension
“From wicked men like thee”
Foreshadowing
“‘O may I ne’er find grace”
Foreshadowing - sense of inevitability
“Weak voice shall whisper its last prayer” “ruffian passion”
Shows the contrast within his character
“Good Angela, believe me by these tears”
Shows his desperation - he needs to prove his moral goodness
“I will not harm her, by all saints I swear”
Shows how important she is to him, also shows that a part of him is caring and his motives are not evil
“And beard them, though they be more fanged than / wolves and bears”
Hyperbolic imagery and enjambment shows that he is overflowing with emotion
“A poor, weak, palsy-stricken, churchyard thing”
Asyndetic list to show how close she is to death
“Whose passing-bell may ere the midnight toll; whose prayers for thee…”
Angela references the Beadsman
“Angela gives promise that she will do / Whatever he shall wish, betide her weal or woe”
More examples of consequences that are given befoe we are told of the plan - creates more suspense
What is Angela’s function?
Intended to show warning and danger in the poem, shows role of old women in society, and she enables Porphyro to get to Madeline
How is a sense of chaos created?
There are lots of different speakers/narrators which creates tension and a sense of chaos (stanzas 16-18 have the narrator, Porphyro and Angela speaking)
“While legioned fairies…”, “And pale enchantment held her sleepy-eyed”
Fantastical and feminine imagery
“That he might see her beauty unespised”
He is infatuated with her, and that may be his hamartia, and this almost seems arrogant or hubrisitic
“Since Merlin paid his Demon all the monstrous debt”
Merlin has a tragic allusion to being entrapped, sinister negative reference
“Ah! thou must needs the lady wed”
Angela says he must marry her as those are the ways of the time - their relationship would break conservative ethics
“So saying, …” - stanza 21
This stanza shows how long the journey is to find Madeline - emphasises her isolation
There are lots of cesuras to slow the pace, and lots of enjambment to create suspense
“The lover’s endless minutes slowly passed”
Time taking longer to pass creates suspense
“Through many a dusky gallery”
Gothic imagery, also emphasises length of journey time
“The maiden’s chamber”
Reference to her virginity
“His poor guide hurried back with agues in her brain”
Doubting her actions
“Her faltering hand upon the balustrade”
Angela’s hand falters either because she is old or because she is doubting her actions
“Rose, like a missioned spirit, unaware”
Madeline is oblivious to what is happening
“With silver taper’s light”
Romantic imagery
“Now prepare / Young Porphyro”
The narrator interjects which creates suspense
“Aged gossip” , “Young Porphyro”
Contrasts of young and old and old and new
“She comes, she comes again”
Shows his voyeuristic nature
“Out went the taper as she hurried in”
Goes dark - associated with ignorance and has other negative connotations, also provides cohesion between this and the stanza before it
“Its little smoke, in pallid moonshine, died”
Romantic imagery, but also has negative connotations, and makes reference to death and mortality
“Her heart was voluble”
Romantic notion of being able to hear her heart
“As though as tongueless nightingale should swell / Her throat in vain, and die, heart-stifled…”
Emotive, painful imagery. Reference to death and lack of love is tragic foreshadowing
“A casement high and triple-arched there was”
Grand and expensive, shows her wealth
“Fruits and flowers”
Reference to fertility, and the fricative sounds highlight the natural imagery
“Diamonded”
Almost feminine imagery used when describing her room
“The tiger-moth’s deep-damasked wings”
More natural imagery, and fragility of the wings is a reference to feminine fragility
“‘Mong thousand heraldries”
Religious imagery
“Dim emblazonings”
Juxtaposition
“Blushed with the blood of queens and kings”
Link to the “flushing his brow” line, and this line is dark and deathly which contrasts with the rest of the stanza which has a lighter tone - tragic foreshadowing
“Wintry moon”
Romantic background
“Madeline’s fair breast”
Reference to purity and her virginity
“And on her silver cross soft amethyst, / And on her hair a glory, like a saint: / She seemed a splendid angel”
High concentration of religious lexis foregrounded by the anaphora
“Saint”, “angel”
Both of these are references to religion, but they are both also dead, more tragic foreshadowing
“Porphyro grew faint”
Shows his love for her, also a reminder that he is still there even though the rest of the stanza is about her - reminder of their coupledom?
“She knelt, so pure a thing”
Subordinate clause to reminder the reader of her purity
“Like a mermaid”
Supernatural simile, also shows Porphyro sensualising her
“But dares not look behind”
Shows how invested she still is in the legend and shows she is oblivious to Porphyro
“Trembling in her soft and chilly nest”
Bird imagery, romantic association with nature, and a reference to Isabella who is also described in relation to birds. Also gives a sense of secrecy
Notes about high concentration of caesuras in stanza 26
Slows the pace down to give a sense of sleepiness and drowsiness
“Flown, like a thought”
More bird references
“As though a rose should shut, and be a bud again”
Natural imagery
“Stolen to this paradise”
Positive, heavenly image
“And so entranced”
Reference to women’s ability to charm men - link to la belle dame
“And listened to her breathing”
Shows his wonder for her
“Listened to her breathing”, “when he heard”, “breathed himself”, “noiseless”
Emphasis of stanza 28 is in auditory imagery and there are lots of sensory images from stanzas 26-28
Significance of less religious imagery when they are together
Religious imagery decreases and more romantic to show their love but also present that their relationship disobeys typical religious rules? Madeline and Porphyro are young and naive
“Listened to her breathing… And breathed himself”
Shows their togetherness and creates suspense
“Hushed carpet, silent, stepped”
Sibilance suggests that he is quiet and clandestine
“A cloth of woven, crimson, gold, and jet”
Images of opulence and wealth
“Silver twilight”
Romantic imagery (and throughout the rest of the stanza)
“The hall door shuts again, and all the noise is gone”
Isolates the two of them
“Golden dishes in baskets bright”
Vibrant language to reference the vivacity of youth and passion, also shows opulence and wealth
“My seraph fair”, “my heaven”
Angelic and religious imagery, however an angel has died and so this is tragic foreshadowing
Notes on frequent use of personal pronoun in stanza 31
The repetition of the personal pronoun “I” shows thate he believes he is in control of her, as this would’ve been the status of a man in this society
Notes on extreme and hyperbolic language in stanza 31
Much of Porphyro’s speech is hyperbolic which would be typical of a ‘larger than life’ tragic hero
“Thus whispering, his warm, unnerved arm / Sank in her pillow”
Shows he maybe feels possessive of her - link to how feels in control of her
“Lustrous salvers”
Sexual connotations in the word ‘lust’ - more significant since they are together at this point
“Tumultuous”, “soft moan”
More sexual connotations
“‘La belle dame sans mercy”
Reference to the destructiveness of female beauty and love. Title of a poem he wrote later.
Also foreshadows the negative ending
“Her blue affrayed eyes wide open shone”
Shows her shock, but is deliberately ambiguous as to whether it is positive or negative
“And moan forth witless words with many a sigh”
More sexual connotations, and this also shows the extent of her shock
“How pallid, chill, and drear!”
Reference back to death and cold, even though this is the point at which Madeline is speaking to Porphyro. Shows a contrast of fantasy and reality.
Madeline’s reaction here is similar to Isabella’s was when she saw Lorenzo as a ghost - a reference to their reliance on men - anti- feminist point (evidenced later in the stanza with “if thou diest, my love, I know not where to go”)
Notes on the language in stanza 35
Lots of positive lexis, and the whole stanza is her speech
“Into her dream he melted”
Merging of fantasy and reality. He is also the active participant in the sentence which represents male dominance
“Throbbing star”
Phallic connotations
Notes on language in stanza 36
High concentration of natural imagery which gives positive connotations. This contrasts with the later negativity surrounding her reputation
“Like Love’s alarum pattering the sharp sleet / Against the window-panes”
This is the point at which the storm starts and it this is when they are committing their sinful act; much of the poem up to this point has been focused around Madeline’s virginity and purity, and it is when that is disrupted that the poem begins to become more negative
Notes on Madeline and Porphyro’s speech in stanza 37
The first and third lines both begin with “‘Tis dark”, and this parallel speech shows their unity. This comes straight after they have sex, and after the storm starts, so this may represent how they will both suffer the negative consequences
“Though thou forsakest a decieved thing”
Shows how she believes she will be ruined if he leaves, another reference to her dependency on him. This link to Isabella, as a tragic ending happens unless the lovers are together
“A dove forlorn”
Repeated bird imagery, although this one is more pathetic
“A famished pilgrim - saved by miracle”
The fact that Porphyro describes himself like this shows the strength of his love and also has a notion of him worshipping her. This is more religious imagery, but a reference of how female beauty and love can also have control over a man
“I will not rob thy nest”
More bird imagery
Notes on stanza 39
High concentration of cesuras to create suspense (stanza where they are escaping). There are also several exclamations to create a sense of urgency and suspense
“Arise - arise!”
Repetition to show urgency - it would be problematic if people saw them escape, so this creates more tension
“For there were sleeping dragons all around”
Metaphor. It shows that the people that would have been dangerous to them before are now asleep
“A chain-drooped lamp was flickering”
Gothic motif, creates a slight sense of danger
“Fluttered in the besieging wind’s uproar”
Auditory descriptions to engage the reader. Pathetic fallacy and personification. Creates a sense of danger
“They glide, like phantoms… Like phantoms… they glide”
Deathly, prophetic imagery which creates suspense. The repetition emphasises the danger
Notes on stanza 41
There is a shift to the present tense here to make it more immediate and therefore more tense. There are also lots of cesuras which also contribute to the tension created by the language.
“By one, and one, the bolts full easy slide”
Slow pace to imply that their escape is slow, which builds the tension
What is the effect of the gothic imagery in the last stanzas of the poem?
It creates a sense of lifelessness and death, which links the poem back to the beginning, giving it a cyclical nature, which is similar to that of ‘La Belle Dame Sans Merci”. The sense of lifelessness is also foreshadowing as it seems unusual that the tone of the poem is not more positive at this point since they are running away together, as that is what the poem has been building up to, but this negativity may be a reference to the fact that their relationship breaks conservative ethics
“The door upon its hinges groans”
Personification, contributes to the gothic description of the castle.
“These lovers fled away”
Fled has connotations of danger and guilt which is tragic. The guilt likely comes from the fact that they are breaking conservative ethics by engaging in premarital sex which has broken societal norms and Madeline’s religious nature.
“Into the storm”
Pathetic fallacy to foreshadow that, even though they have escaped the castle successfully, they cannot have a happy ending as they have broken conservative ethics (which is a tragic trope). Fleeing into the storm implies that there are negative consequences, but after the end of the poem
“The Baron dreamt of many a woe, / And all his warrior guest / [dreamt] Of witch, and demon, and large coffin-worm”
Negative dreams add more supernatural elements to the poem and are ghoulish and gothic. The coffin-worm is also a reference to death
Notes on the death of Angela and the Beadsman
Neither of them die a nice death, “Angela… / Died palsy-twitch, with meagre face deform”, and the Beadsman “slept among his ashes cold”. The Beadsman gives the poem more of a cyclical nature, further reinforcing all the foreshadowing and inevitability in the rest of the poem. Additionally, their deaths may be intended to foreshadow the deaths of the lovers, as they are both 2 sets of outsiders and so their fates may be interlinked, as both of them are isolated. This further shows tragic inevitability.
