Using Your Knowledge Of Stylistics, Explore Verses Xxx To Xlii Of The Eve Of St Agnes. Consider Also The Extract And To What Extent You Think The Critical Opinion Casts Light On Your Understanding Of The Text.

Keats' 'The Eve of St Agnes' explores forbidden love, and the belief that has become encompassed in this. With Porphyro being prevented from seeing Madeline due to a previous feud, she must believe that their love will become somehow fulfilled - and this is why she appears to participate in this romantic superstition of St. Agnes. Stanza XXXIV, describing Porphyro as "the vision of her sleep", appears to confirm Keats' belief in the romantic ideal of St. Agnes, yet this is quickly dashed - "There was a painful change, that nigh expell'd/The blisses of her dream so pure and deep". Porphyro can never live up to the heightened expectations developed in the dreams of Madeline, since as the critical extract details, Madeline prefers "her own forever absent dream-representation of [Porphyro's] voice and identity". Porphyro finds it impossible to recreate the "looks immortal" and "complainings dear" of her dream, and this therefore foreshadows the "eternal woe" that she will suffer in a life with the real, not imagined, Porphyro. This change in him causes her to "weep", and this both present and future sorrow is further emphasised by the pathetic fallacy of the outside weather: "Tis dark: the iced gusts still rave and beat". This Romantic theme runs throughout the poem, as her awakening from her dream quickly dashes the initial belief of Madeline in her eternal love.

Closely linked in with this theme of belief is that of religion. Both Porphyro and Madeline appear almost heavenly, and religious imagery runs throughout the poem. Madeline initially appears in an innocent "azure-lidded sleep", and wearing "blanched linen", giving her very definite angelic qualities. Equally, Porphyro's "glowing hand" draws godly connotations, enhanced further by the lightness of the "golden dishes" and "baskets bright" being laid out, drawing parallels with the archetypal light and glowing imagery of heaven. The reader is also reminded of da Vinci's 'The Last Supper', further suggesting the god-like qualities of Porphyro. The meal that he lays out is said to fill "the chilly room with perfume light", and this too echoes the coming of an angel or godly figure.

However, despite Porphyro's depiction as the dominant god over Madeline's mere angelic status, it is he that appears to be worshipping her. Certainly, the prayer-like imagery in his kneeling before her "with joined hands and piteous eye" suggests her ambivalence towards Porphyro, since he is not the replica of the man seen in her dreams, and he is instead forced to worship her, disrupting the 19th century power balance between male and female. This quasi-religious worshipping of Madeline is further

emphasised by Porphyro's reference to her as the "shrine", and himself as a "pilgrim". His subordination to Madeline is cemented by his request to be her "vassal blest". This is not even an assertion, and represents a realisation than he must adapt to Madeline's will to allow him to become anything approaching her 'dream lover'.

This ambivalence towards Porphyro is emphasised in stanza XXXVII. Madeline firstly utters, "No dream, alas! alas! and woe is mine!", with her repetition of "alas!" along with the use of exclamation emphasising her unhappiness at the real Porphyro not being akin to that in her dream. However, she soon appears to change her mind, describing how her heart is "lost" in that of Porphyro. This, however, is largely due to both her partially unawakened state coupled with the excitement of the sexual encounter with Porphyro that has just occurred. This delirious delusion also explains the following couplet, where she expressed how she has been "deceived" by Porphyro. It is not, however, the real Porphyro that has deceived her; it is the dream Porphyro, whose promise was far above that which the real Porphyro could deliver. This demonstrates the continued "narrative emphasis...on loss and unfulfilment", as Sandy suggests.

However, Sandy's intimation of the castle setting as romance's "last bastion" appears incorrect, since although Porphyro attempts romance with his playing of the