The Eve of St. Agnes

“The Eve of St. Agnes” is a narrative poem by Romantic-era poet John Keats. The name comes from the Christian holy day of St. Agnes, on which a young woman could perform certain divinations to dream of her future husband. The poem uses archaic imagery and form to create a sense of immersion in the Middle Ages. It was written in 1819, shortly before Keats’s death, and went on to inspire several artistic works in various mediums.

Citation Note: The first number in each in-text citation refers to the stanza from which the quote is taken. The numbers after the period indicate the line number. For example, (2.9) refers to the 9th line in the 2nd Stanza.

Poet Biography

Though Keats was only 25 years old when he died, he became a renowned English poet from the second-generation Romantic era, a movement also associated with poets like Percy Bysshe Shelley and Lord Byron. While Keats’s work has had a measurable impact on the English literary canon, his poetry was only actively published for approximately four years before he died from tuberculosis.

Keats was born in London in 1795. Despite his parents’ wishes that he attend a prestigious school like Eton, their financial circumstances meant that Keats had to attend a smaller, more progressive school in Enfield. It was there that he developed his fascination with history and literature. Keats’s mother died of tuberculosis when he was 14, causing him to leave school early. He would move forward to study medicine and work as a surgeon’s assistant, eventually receiving his own apothecary license. However, he ultimately committed his energies towards literature instead.

In 1816, he published his first sonnet called “O Solitude.” Shortly after he released his first collection entitled Poems, which was harshly criticized but earned enough interest for him to continue in his writing. During his youth, he became socially involved with other prominent writers and artists of his day including Charles Lamb, John Hamilton Reynolds, and Leigh Hunt. He continued writing poetry, though his work would not receive widespread acclaim until after his death only a few years later.

Keats wrote “The Eve of St. Agnes” towards the end of his young life, when he began showing increasing signs of the same disease that killed his mother a decade earlier. At his doctor’s suggestion, Keats moved from London to Rome. He died in early 1821 after completing a series of six odes, including “Ode on a Grecian Urn,” which have become some of his most influential work.

Poem Text

Keats, John. “The Eve of St. Agnes.” 1820. Poetry Foundation.

Summary

It is a frigid cold night in January, and a Beadsman—a professional person of prayer—is praying in a chapel. He hears a surge of music as musicians prepare for an upcoming party. The castle fills with glamorous revelers, one of whom is the young woman Madeline. Madeline has heard that if she performs certain rituals on this night, the Eve of St. Agnes, she will dream of the man who will be her husband. Many knights approach her at the party, but her heart is only for Porphyro, her family’s sworn enemy.

Porphyro arrives at the castle in secret, driven by his love for Madeline. He knows that if anyone sees him, he will be killed immediately. He comes across Angela, a friend of his and Madeline’s old nurse, who reluctantly agrees to help him into Madeline’s room. Madeline, meanwhile, has conducted the bedtime rituals of St. Agnes and has fallen into a deep sleep in which she dreams of Porphyro. Porphyro prepares a feast in her room and wakes her, but she is initially unsure of what is reality and what is a dream. The real-life man in front of her is a stark contrast to the healthy, glowing lover of her dreams. She invites him back into her dream and her bed. After, Madeline is scared that Porphyro will abandon her; however, he asks Madeline to come away with him.

They flee from the castle, passing drunken partygoers on their way. The two escape to their new home. All the guests have bad dreams that night, and by morning, both Angela and the Beadsman have died.