Eve Of St. Agnes

Words: 305
Pages: 2

The Eve of St. Agnes was not by any means one of the most popular works written by Keats. However, it is considered to be “one of the most delightful poems in the English language” (Ian Jack Keats and the Mirror of Art 191). Similarly to La Belle Dame Sans Merci, St. Agnes is influenced by the idea of death, love, immortality, and most of all imagination. The poem is conceived from the superstitious beliefs of the St.Agnes Feast day where many kinds of routines are practiced by virgins to discover their future husbands. The poem tells of a young woman who is acting in these routines “in sort of wakeful swoon, [but] perplex’d she lay/ Until the poppied warmth of sleep oppress’d” her (Keats The Eve of St. Agnes 1820 L.236-237). She is tangled