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The Eve of St. Agnes is a Romantic narrative poem of 42 Spenserian stanzas set in the Middle Ages. It was written by John Keats in 1819 and published in 1820. The poem was considered by many of Keats's contemporaries and the succeeding Victorians to be one of his finest and was influential in 19th-century literature.^[1]

The title comes from the day (or evening) before the feast of Saint Agnes (or St. Agnes' Eve). St. Agnes, the patron saint of virgins, died a martyr in 4th-century Rome. The eve falls on 20 January; the feast day on the 21st. The divinations referred to by Keats in this poem are referred to by John Aubrey in his Miscellanies (1696) as being associated with St. Agnes' night.^[2]

Background

Keats based his poem on the folk belief that a girl could see her future husband in a dream if she performed certain rites on the eve of St. Agnes; that is, she would go to bed without any supper, and transfer pins one by one from a pincushion to a sleeve while reciting the Lord’s Prayer.^[3] Then the proposed husband would appear in her dream.

A Scottish version of the ritual would involve young women meeting together on St. Agnes's Eve at midnight; they would go, one by one, into a remote field and throw in some grain, after which they repeated the following rhyme in a prayer to St. Agnes: "Agnes sweet, and Agnes fair, Hither, hither, now repair; Bonny Agnes, let me see The lad who is to marry me."^[3]

Keats started writing this seminal work while staying in Chichester. He travelled to Chichester, probably arriving on St. Agnes' Eve, 20 January 1819. It is said that the medieval architecture of Chichester inspired the great hall and house where Madeline lived. ^[4] A statue of Keats resides in Eastgate Square in Chichester to commemorate the fact he started this poem there. The statue was unveiled by Chichester-based actress Dame Patricia Routledge. ^[5]

In the original version of his poem, Keats emphasised the young lovers' sexuality, but his publishers, who feared public reaction, forced him to tone down the eroticism.^[6]

Plot

On a bitterly chill night, an elderly beadsman says his prayers in the chapel of the ancestral home of Madeline's family, where a loud party has begun.^[7] Madeline pines for the love of Porphyro, sworn enemy to her kin. She has heard 'old dames full many times declare' that she may receive sweet dreams of her lover if, on this night, St. Agnes' Eve, she retires to bed following the proper rituals.

Later that night, Porphyro makes his way to the castle and braves entry, seeking out Angela, an elderly woman friendly to his family, and importuning her to lead him to Madeline's room at night, where he may but gaze upon her sleeping form. Angela is persuaded only with difficulty, and first obtains some food from the banquet for them.^[7]

Concealed in an ornate, carved closet in Madeline's room, Porphyro watches as Madeline makes ready for bed. He creeps forth as she sleeps, to prepare a feast of rare delicacies. Madeline wakes and sees before her the same image she has seen in her dream and, thinking Porphyro part of it, receives him into her bed. Waking in full and realising her mistake, she tells Porphyro she cannot hate him for his deception since her heart is so much in his, but that if he goes now he leaves behind "A dove forlorn and lost / With sick unpruned wing".

Porphyro declares his love for Madeline and promises her a home with him over the southern moors. They flee from the castle, passing insensate, drunken revellers and rush into the night. Angela's death is revealed in the poem's final stanza and the beadsman, "after thousand aves told, / For aye unsought for slept among his ashes cold".

Commentary

Written in the Gothic style, the poem reflects "...many of the same concerns that Keats explores in his odes -- imagination, dreaming and vision, and life as a mixture of opposites."^[8] In it, Keats blends a medieval legend with a tale of star-crossed lovers, such as Romeo and Juliet and the traditional French romance Floris and Blancheflour.

Alluded to by others

Rudyard Kipling's short story "Wireless" (1902) has the narrator witnessing a recreation of the poem by a man in a trance who, by virtue of the similarities of his situation to that of Keats (he is a consumptive apothecary's assistant), becomes "tuned" to the poet.^[9]
H.P. Lovecraft's short story "The Outsider" features the final stanza of the poem as an epigraph.^[10]
Harry Clarke's The Eve of St. Agnes is a stained glass masterpiece inspired by the poem.^[11]
Robert Hunter’s The Silver Snarling Trumpet: The Birth of the Grateful Dead (2024 [1962]) takes its title from the fourth stanza of Keats’s poem.^[12]

References

^ Sperry, Stuart M. (1993). "Romance as Wish Fulfillment: The Eve of St. Agnes", in Romantic Poetry: Recent Revisionary Criticism edited by Karl Kroeber and Gene W. Ruoff. New Brunswick NJ: Rutgers University Press. pp. 373–85. ISBN 978-0813520100. Retrieved 24 May 2017.
^ "The Eve of St. Agnes", Bookshop.org
^ ^a ^b Castelow, Ellen. "Eve of St Agnes", Historic UK
^ "John Keats in Chichester". The History Guide.
^ "Take a seat next to Keats". Chichester Observer.
^ "Manuscript of ‘St Agnes Eve’ by John Keats", British Library
^ ^a ^b Michie, Allen. "Poetry Remembrance: John Keats, 'The Eve of St. Agnes' — Forever Young at 200", The Arts Fuse, 9 September 2020
^ Melani, Lilia. "The Eve of St. Agnes", Brooklyn College - CUNY, 19 February 2009
^ "Wireless". The Kipling Society.
^ ""The Outsider" by H. P. Lovecraft". www.hplovecraft.com. Retrieved 25 September 2022.
^ "The Eve of St Agnes by Harry Clarke". Hugh Lane Gallery.
^ Hunter, Robert (1962). The Silver Snarling Trumpet: The Birth of the Grateful Dead. New York: Hachette Books (published 2024).

External links

An omnibus collection of Keats' poetry at Standard Ebooks
'St. Agnes Eve', Text of 'St. Agnes' Eve' by Keats from Bartleby.
The Eve of St. Agnes at Internet Archive (scanned books color illustrated). Notable editions:
- The Eve of St. Agnes (1900) calligraphy by Ralph Fletcher Seymour, "Introduction" by Edmund Gosse
- The Eve of St. Agnes (1885) illus. by Edmund H. Garrett
The Theme of The Eve of St. Agnes in the Pre-Raphaelite Movement, An analysis of the poem at Victorianweb
The Eve of St. Agnes public domain audiobook at LibriVox

[sperry-1] Sperry, Stuart M. (1993). "Romance as Wish Fulfillment: The Eve of St. Agnes", in Romantic Poetry: Recent Revisionary Criticism edited by Karl Kroeber and Gene W. Ruoff. New Brunswick NJ: Rutgers University Press. pp. 373–85. ISBN 978-0813520100. Retrieved 24 May 2017.

[2] "The Eve of St. Agnes", Bookshop.org

[Castelow-3] Castelow, Ellen. "Eve of St Agnes", Historic UK

[4] "John Keats in Chichester". The History Guide.

[5] "Take a seat next to Keats". Chichester Observer.

[6] "Manuscript of ‘St Agnes Eve’ by John Keats", British Library

[Michie-7] Michie, Allen. "Poetry Remembrance: John Keats, 'The Eve of St. Agnes' — Forever Young at 200", The Arts Fuse, 9 September 2020

[8] Melani, Lilia. "The Eve of St. Agnes", Brooklyn College - CUNY, 19 February 2009

[9] "Wireless". The Kipling Society.

[10] ""The Outsider" by H. P. Lovecraft". www.hplovecraft.com. Retrieved 25 September 2022.

[11] "The Eve of St Agnes by Harry Clarke". Hugh Lane Gallery.

[12] Hunter, Robert (1962). The Silver Snarling Trumpet: The Birth of the Grateful Dead. New York: Hachette Books (published 2024).

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@@ Line 1: / Line 1: @@
+{{Short description|John Keats poem}}
-{{About|the poem by John Keats|information on the saint|Saint Agnes}}
+{{italic title}}
-{{No footnotes|date=March 2010}}{{Original research|date=March 2010}}
+{{About|the poem by John Keats|the poem by Alfred Tennyson|St. Agnes (poem)|information on the saint|Saint Agnes}}
+{{Multiple issues|
+{{Original research|date=March 2010}}
+{{Refimprove|date=April 2021}}
+}}
+{{Use dmy dates|date=November 2020}}
+[[File:Madeleine undressing – Eve of St Agnes, John Everett Millais.jpg|thumb|250px|''Eve of St Agnes'', [[John Everett Millais]] {{Circa|1863}}]]
-[[Image:Eve of St Agnes.jpg|thumb|250px| Madeleine undressing, painting by [[John Everett Millais]]]]'''"The Eve of St. Agnes"''' is a long poem (42 stanzas) by [[John Keats]], written in [[1819 in poetry|1819]] and published in [[1820 in poetry|1820]]. It is widely considered to be amongst his finest poems and was influential in [[19th century literature]]
+'''''The Eve of St. Agnes''''' is a [[Romantic poetry|Romantic]] narrative poem of 42 [[Spenserian stanza]]s set in the [[Middle Ages]]. It was written by [[John Keats]] in [[1819 in poetry|1819]] and published in [[1820 in poetry|1820]]. The poem was considered by many of Keats's contemporaries and the succeeding Victorians to be one of his finest and was influential in [[19th century in literature|19th-century literature]].<ref name="sperry">{{cite book|last1=Sperry|first1=Stuart M.|title="Romance as Wish Fulfillment: The Eve of St. Agnes", in Romantic Poetry: Recent Revisionary Criticism edited by Karl Kroeber and Gene W. Ruoff|date=1993|publisher=Rutgers University Press|location=New Brunswick NJ|isbn=978-0813520100|pages=373–85|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=IgZB4mj9ekYC&q=the+eve+of+saint+agnes+finest+keats&pg=PA373|access-date=24 May 2017}}</ref>
-The title comes from the day (or evening) before the [[feast day|feast]] of [[Saint Agnes]] (or '''St. Agnes' Eve'''). St. Agnes, the patron saint of virgins, died a [[martyr]] in fourth century Rome. The eve falls on January 20; the feast day on the [[January 21|21]]. The divinations referred to by Keats in this poem are referred to by [[John Aubrey]] in his ''Miscellanies'' (1696) as being associated with St. Agnes' night.
+The title comes from the day (or evening) before the [[feast day|feast]] of [[Saint Agnes]] (or '''St. Agnes' Eve'''). St. Agnes, the patron saint of virgins, died a [[martyr]] in 4th-century Rome. The eve falls on 20 January; the feast day on the 21st. The divinations referred to by Keats in this poem are referred to by [[John Aubrey]] in his ''Miscellanies'' (1696) as being associated with St. Agnes' night.<ref>[https://bookshop.org/books/the-eve-of-st-agnes-complete-edition/9788026891468 "The Eve of St. Agnes", Bookshop.org]</ref>
 ==Background==
-Keats based his poem on the superstition that a girl could see her future husband in a dream if she performed certain rites on the eve of St. Agnes; that is she would go to bed without any supper, undress herself so that she was completely naked and lie on her bed with her hands under the pillow and looking up to the heavens and not to look behind. Then the gay husband would appear in her room, rape her, and then he noticed that she had a massive penis.
+Keats based his poem on the folk belief that a girl could see her future husband in a dream if she performed certain rites on the eve of St. Agnes; that is, she would go to bed without any supper, and transfer pins one by one from a pincushion to a sleeve while reciting the Lord’s Prayer.<ref name=Castelow>[https://www.historic-uk.com/CultureUK/Eve-of-St-Agnes/ Castelow, Ellen. "Eve of St Agnes", Historic UK]</ref> Then the proposed husband would appear in her dream.
-A Scottish version of the ritual would involve young women meeting together on St. Agnes's Eve at midnight, they would go one by one, into a remote field and throw in some grain, after which they repeated the following rhyme in a prayer to St. Agnes:
+A Scottish version of the ritual would involve young women meeting together on St. Agnes's Eve at midnight; they would go, one by one, into a remote field and throw in some grain, after which they repeated the following rhyme in a prayer to St. Agnes: "Agnes sweet, and Agnes fair,
-''“ Agnes sweet, and Agnes fair,
 Hither, hither, now repair;
 Bonny Agnes, let me see
-The lad who is to marry me. ”''
+The lad who is to marry me."<ref name=Castelow/>
+Keats started writing this seminal work while staying in [[Chichester]]. He travelled to Chichester, probably arriving on St. Agnes' Eve, 20 January 1819. It is said that the medieval architecture of Chichester inspired the great hall and house where Madeline lived. <ref>{{cite web|url= https://thehistoryguide.co.uk/john-keats-in-chichester/|title=John Keats in Chichester|website=The History Guide }}</ref> A statue of Keats resides in Eastgate Square in Chichester to commemorate the fact he started this poem there. The statue was unveiled by Chichester-based actress Dame [[Patricia Routledge]]. <ref>{{cite web|url= https://www.chichester.co.uk/whats-on/take-seat-next-keats-841403 |title=Take a seat next to Keats|website=Chichester Observer}}</ref>
-In the original version of his poem, Keats emphasized the young lovers' sexuality, but his publishers, who feared public reaction, forced him to tone down the eroticism.
+In the original version of his poem, Keats emphasised the young lovers' sexuality, but his publishers, who feared public reaction, forced him to tone down the eroticism.<ref>[https://www.bl.uk/collection-items/manuscript-of-st-agnes-eve-by-john-keats# "Manuscript of ‘St Agnes Eve’ by John Keats", British Library]</ref>
 ==Plot==
-[[Image:Hunt William Holman The flight of Madeline and Porphyro during the Drunkenness attending the Revelry Eve of Saint Agnes.jpg|thumb|250px|The flight of Madeline and Porphyro, painting by [[William Holman Hunt]]]]
+[[File:Hunt William Holman The flight of Madeline and Porphyro during the Drunkenness attending the Revelry Eve of Saint Agnes.jpg|thumb|250px|''The flight of Madeline and Porphyro'', painting by [[William Holman Hunt]]]]
-On a bitterly chill night, an ancient [[beadsman]] performs his penances while in the castle of Madeline's warlike family, a bibulous revel has begun.  Madeline pines for the love of Porphyro, sworn enemy to her kin.   The old dames have told her she may receive sweet dreams of love from him if on this night, St. Agnes' Eve, she retires to bed under the proper ritual of silence and supine receptiveness.
+On a bitterly chill night, an elderly [[beadsman]] says his prayers in the chapel of the ancestral home of Madeline's family, where a loud party has begun.<ref name=Michie>[https://artsfuse.org/212726/poetry-remembrance-john-keats-the-eve-of-st-agnes-forever-young-at-200/ Michie, Allen. "Poetry Remembrance: John Keats, 'The Eve of St. Agnes' — Forever Young at 200", The Arts Fuse, 9 September 2020]</ref> Madeline pines for the love of Porphyro, sworn enemy to her kin. She has heard 'old dames full many times declare' that she may receive sweet dreams of her lover if, on this night, St. Agnes' Eve, she retires to bed following the proper rituals.
-As we might expect, Porphyro makes his way to the castle and braves entry, seeking out Angela, an elderly woman friendly to his family, and importuning her to lead him to Madeline's room at night where he may but gaze upon her sleeping form.  Angela is persuaded only with difficulty, saying she fears damnation if Porphyro does not afterward marry the girl.
+Later that night, Porphyro makes his way to the castle and braves entry, seeking out Angela, an elderly woman friendly to his family, and importuning her to lead him to Madeline's room at night, where he may but gaze upon her sleeping form. Angela is persuaded only with difficulty, and first obtains some food from the banquet for them.<ref name=Michie/>
-Concealed in an ornate carven closet in Madeline's room, Porphyro watches as Madeline makes ready for bed, and then, beholding her full beauty in the moonlight, creeps forth to prepare for her a feast of rare delicacies.  Madeline wakes and sees before her the same image she has seen in her dream, and thinking Porphyro part of it, receives him into her bed.  Awakening in full and realizing her mistake, she tells Porphyro she cannot hate him for his deception since her heart is so much in his, but that if he goes now he leaves behind "A dove forlorn and lost / With sick unpruned wing".
+Concealed in an ornate, carved closet in Madeline's room, Porphyro watches as Madeline makes ready for bed. He creeps forth as she sleeps, to prepare a feast of rare delicacies. Madeline wakes and sees before her the same image she has seen in her dream and, thinking Porphyro part of it, receives him into her bed. Waking in full and realising her mistake, she tells Porphyro she cannot hate him for his deception since her heart is so much in his, but that if he goes now he leaves behind "A dove forlorn and lost / With sick unpruned wing".
-Porphyro declares his love for Madeline and promises her a home with him over the southern moors.  They escape the castle past insensate revelers, and flee into the night.  The beadsman, "His thousand Aves told / For aye unsought-for slept among his ashes cold".
+Porphyro declares his love for Madeline and promises her a home with him over the southern moors.  They flee from the castle, passing insensate, drunken revellers and rush into the night. Angela's death is revealed in the poem's final stanza and the beadsman, "after thousand aves told, / For aye unsought for slept among his ashes cold".
+==Commentary==
+Written in the Gothic style, the poem reflects "...many of the same concerns that Keats explores in his odes -- imagination, dreaming and vision, and life as a mixture of opposites."<ref>[http://academic.brooklyn.cuny.edu/english/melani/cs6/st_agnes.html Melani, Lilia. "The Eve of St. Agnes", Brooklyn College - CUNY, 19 February 2009]</ref> In it, Keats blends a medieval legend with a tale of star-crossed lovers, such as ''Romeo and Juliet'' and the traditional French romance ''[[Floris and Blancheflour]]''.
+==Alluded to by others==
+*[[Rudyard Kipling]]'s short story "[[Wireless (short story)|Wireless]]" (1902) has the narrator witnessing a recreation of the poem by a man in a trance who, by virtue of the similarities of his situation to that of Keats (he is a consumptive apothecary's assistant), becomes "tuned" to the poet.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.kiplingsociety.co.uk/rg_wireless1.htm|title=Wireless|website=The Kipling Society}}</ref>
+*[[H. P. Lovecraft|H.P. Lovecraft]]'s short story "[[The Outsider (short story)|The Outsider]]" features the final stanza of the poem as an epigraph.<ref>{{Cite web |title="The Outsider" by H. P. Lovecraft |url=https://www.hplovecraft.com/writings/texts/fiction/o.aspx |access-date=2022-09-25 |website=www.hplovecraft.com}}</ref>
+*[[Harry Clarke]]'s ''The Eve of St. Agnes'' is a stained glass masterpiece inspired by the poem.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://hughlane.ie/arts_artists/stained-glass-room-featuring-windows-by-harry-clarke/|title=The Eve of St Agnes by Harry Clarke|website=Hugh Lane Gallery}}</ref>
+*[[Robert Hunter (lyricist)|Robert Hunter’s]] ''The Silver Snarling Trumpet: The Birth of the Grateful Dead'' (2024 [1962]) takes its title from the fourth stanza of Keats’s poem.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Hunter |first=Robert |title=The Silver Snarling Trumpet: The Birth of the Grateful Dead |date=1962 |publisher=Hachette Books |location=New York |publication-date=2024}}</ref>
+==References==
+{{reflist}}
 ==External links==
 {{Wikisource|The Eve of St. Agnes}}
+* {{StandardEbooks|Standard Ebooks URL=https://standardebooks.org/ebooks/john-keats/poetry|Display Name=An omnibus collection of Keats' poetry|noitalics=true}}
 * [http://www.bartleby.com/126/39.html 'St. Agnes Eve'], Text of 'St. Agnes' Eve' by Keats from Bartleby.
-* [http://www.archive.org/search.php?query=title%3Aeve%20agnes%20AND%20mediatype%3Atexts 'The Eve of St. Agnes'] at [[Internet Archive]] (scanned books color illustrated). Notable editions:
+* [https://archive.org/search.php?query=title%3Aeve%20agnes%20AND%20mediatype%3Atexts ''The Eve of St. Agnes''] at [[Internet Archive]] (scanned books color illustrated). Notable editions:
-**[http://www.archive.org/details/eveofstagnespoem00keat 'The Eve of St. Agnes'] (1900) calligraphy by [[Ralph Fletcher Seymour]], "Introduction" by [[Edmund Gosse]]
+**[https://archive.org/details/eveofstagnespoem00keat ''The Eve of St. Agnes''] (1900) calligraphy by [[Ralph Fletcher Seymour]], "Introduction" by [[Edmund Gosse]]
-**[http://www.archive.org/details/eveofstagnes00keatuoft 'The Eve of St. Agnes'] (1885) illus. by [[Edmund H. Garrett]]
+**[https://archive.org/details/eveofstagnes00keatuoft ''The Eve of St. Agnes''] (1885) illus. by [[Edmund H. Garrett]]
-* [http://www.victorianweb.org/painting/prb/ringel12.html The Theme of "The Eve of St. Agnes" in the Pre-Raphaelite Movement], An analysis of the poem at Victorianweb
+* [http://www.victorianweb.org/painting/prb/ringel12.html The Theme of ''The Eve of St. Agnes'' in the Pre-Raphaelite Movement], An analysis of the poem at Victorianweb
+* {{librivox book | title=The Eve of St. Agnes | author=John Keats}}
-*[http://academic.brooklyn.cuny.edu/english/melani/cs6/st_agnes.html CUNY Brooklyn page on the Eve of St Agnes]
+{{John Keats}}
 {{DEFAULTSORT:Eve of St. Agnes, The}}
@@ Line 42: / Line 64: @@
 [[Category:Poetry by John Keats]]
 [[Category:1820 poems]]
-[[be-x-old:Конадзень сьвятой Агнэсы]]

v t e John Keats
Bibliography	John Keats bibliography
Poetry collections	1819 odes (1819) "Ode on a Grecian Urn" "Ode on Indolence" "Ode on Melancholy" "Ode to a Nightingale" "Ode to Psyche" "To Autumn"
Short poems	"On First Looking into Chapman's Homer" (1815) "To Kosciusko" (1816) "You say you love; but with a voice" (1817) "On Sitting Down to Read King Lear Once Again" (1818) "When I have Fears that I may Cease to Be" (1818) "The Eve of Saint Mark" (1819) "La Belle Dame sans Merci" (1819) "Bright star, would I were stedfast as thou art" (1820)
Long poems	Sleep and Poetry (1817) Endymion (1817) Isabella, or the Pot of Basil (1818) Hyperion (1818) Lamia (1819) The Eve of St. Agnes (1819) The Fall of Hyperion: A Dream (1819)
People	Fanny Brawne Charles Armitage Brown Charles Cowden Clarke Charles Wentworth Dilke Benjamin Haydon Leigh Hunt George Keats John Hamilton Reynolds Joseph Severn Percy Bysshe Shelley (Adonais) John Taylor
Related	Keats House Keats–Shelley Memorial House "negative capability" Keats and His Nightingale: A Blind Date Bright Star Statue of John Keats, Moorgate