"Dying into Life": Images of Fixity and Paradox in Three Poems by Keats

Abstract

<p>This thesis examines fixed and paradoxical images in three of Keats's narrative poems: Hyperion, The Eve of St. Agnes,: and Lamia. All three poems are concerned with the distinction Keats makes in his letters between the personality of the "man of power" and that of the "man of genius." My introduction explores this distinction by examining its genesis and growth in the letters.</p> <p>The three chapters that follow seek to explain how I Hyperion, The: Eve of St. Agnes, and Lamia give dramatic rendering to Keats's debate over the value of each personality-type. In all three poems, Keats explores the sterility of that attitude toward experience adopted by the "man of power" by describing it through images of fixity, where the sense of closure evoked by the images suggests the circumscription of the attitude. The paradoxical images used to describe the approach to life taken by the "man of genius" I attempt to evoke a contrasting sense of vigour. championing the speculative attitude by describing it in vital terms. The consistency of this representation makes it an important though hitherto largely unnoticed, element of these narrative poems.</p> <p>In my conclusion, I briefly suggest how this element informs other poems by Keats</p>