Poetry: The Eve of St. Agnes

Overview

John Keats's "The Eve of St. Agnes" (1819) is a long narrative poem that unfolds a single, lushly imagined night. Set in a richly imagined medieval castle, it traces the secret nocturnal meeting of Madeline and Porphyro, two young lovers whose passion confronts familial and social barriers. The poem is notable for its sumptuous sensory language, its dramatic storytelling, and its use of Spenserian stanzas to create a flowing, hypnotic tempo.

Setting and Atmosphere

The poem opens on a cold, moonlit St. Agnes' Eve, a night steeped in superstitious ritual that promises prophetic dreams to maidens. Keats paints interiors of tapestries, fiery braziers, and warm candlelight against the chill of winter, producing a tactile atmosphere of velvet, scent, and music. The castle is at once a stage for romance and a waning medieval world: ornate and decaying, secretive and claustrophobic, where aristocratic display masks deeper desires.

Plot

Madeline prepares for the ritual that is said to conjure a vision of her future husband. She spends the night in prayer and ritualized stillness, attended by the aged nurse Angela and attended by the hush of servants and relatives. Porphyro, who loves Madeline but is barred by social distance, waits outside the castle with jealous, burning intent. He gains the help of Angela and a servant to infiltrate the household and hide within the warm, dim chambers.
As Madeline sleeps, Porphyro watches her and the poem lingers over the erotic tension of the scene, blending dream and wakefulness. When she wakes from her prophetic sleep she finds Porphyro there; the lovers take flight through the freezing night while the household awakens to anger and confusion. Keats leaves the moral frame ambiguous: the elopement feels both a triumph of passionate imagination over convention and an act of cunning that violates familial order.

Form and Language

Keats employs Spenserian stanzas, eight lines of iambic pentameter followed by a six-foot alexandrine, giving the poem a measured, songlike quality that suits its fairy-tale ambience. Language is intensely sensuous: color, scent, sound, and tactile detail accumulate into a nearly operatic tableaux. Keats alternates archaic phrasing and medievalisms with startlingly modern emotional directness, using synesthetic images and elaborate description to make the night itself feel alive and conspiratorial.

Themes and Interpretation

The poem dramatizes the tension between passionate desire and social constraint, between the private life of imagination and the public forces of family and custom. Dreams and ritual function as portals: Madeline's prophetic sleep provides the emotional logic for Porphyro's transgressive entrance, blurring the boundary between fantasy and justified action. Aging and youth also play through the characters, Angela's crafty complicity contrasts with the lovers' urgent vitality, suggesting that imagination can be an ally in youthful rebellion. There is a persistent ambivalence in the narrative: the escape feels both an affirmation of romantic love and a seduction that raises questions about consent and deception.
Keats's poem remains a pivotal example of Romantic medievalism, combining narrative richness with lyrical intensity. It endures because it stages desire as an aesthetic experience, letting sensual detail and imaginative longing fuse to create a vision of passion that is at once intoxicating and troubling.