Narrative Poems: ‘The Eve of St Agnes’ by John Keats
· 17 min · S19 E8
Episode Narrative Poems: ‘The Eve of St Agnes’ by John Keats
According to legend, a young woman who observes certain rites on 20 January, the Eve of St Agnes, will see in her dreams the man she is going to marry. When John Keats found himself in Chichester on that day in 1819, he was inspired to write his own account.
In this episode, Seamus and Mark discuss Keats’s talent for sublime banality, the competing readings of the lover, Porphyro, and the poem's repurposing of Spenserian allegory for a contemporary love story.
Non-subscribers will only hear an extract from this episode. To listen to the full episode, and to all our other Close Readings series, sign up:
Apple Podcasts: https://lrb.me/applesignupnp
Other podcast apps: https://lrb.me/scsignupnp
Read more on Keats in the LRB:
John Bayley: https://lrb.me/npep801
Barbara Everett: https://lrb.me/npep802
Helen Vendler: https://lrb.me/npep803
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Shows are listed from Apple Podcasts' charts and directory, and Podcast Index where it is used. Every show and episode belongs to its publisher and plays from the publisher's own feed; this site hosts none of them. Explicit shows are for adult profiles only, and children’s profiles hear only children’s shows. More about this list.