Lamia and Other Poems

John Keats’ "Lamia" and "La Belle Dame Merci" were very early pieces of Gothic literature that bring life to the conventions of the gothic. Like other "second generation" Romantic poets, he sought to revive the early political and social radicalism of the "first generation". Inspired by events such as the French Revolution and other chaotic uprisings, he rebelled against the rigid and predictable ideals of neo-classicism, which was rational, imposing, and relied heavily on form and structure. Hence Keats’s poetry was everything that the classical was not — disordered, illogical, supernaturalised, and conventions that stunned the neo-classical world. So more than bringing life to conventions of the gothic, Keats brought life to the literary world by rebelling with conventions that were completely different and foreign.

Related Topics:
John Keats - Gothic literature - Romantic - French Revolution - Neo-classicism - Poetry

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The setting of "Lamia" is both fantastical radical. For example, in "Lamia", the beginning of the poem gives us an example of such a setting:

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:"Upon a time, before the faery broods

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:Drove Nymph and Satyr from the prosperous woods"

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— already, from line one, we have a setting that’s very supernatural and very isolated, two important features of the Gothic. It also suggests it is in a lost period, a time before any that we can recall — it like Keats is the sole bearer of this information. The setting is also very concerned with nature. Nature is an important element of Gothic setting, and Keats brings life to that idea by personifying it to a point where it can be referred to as a character in the poem. For example,

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:"From rushes green and cowslip’d lawns"

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that was

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:"breathing upon the flowers his passion new,

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:and wound with many a river to its head".

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The creature Lamia herself is even described as an animal, with nature playing a large part in the description e.g:

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:"Striped like a Zebra, freckled like a pard, Eyed like a peacock".

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Hence, like Frankenstein, nature plays a large part in "Lamia", but in slightly more supernatural sense. The supernaturalist nature of Keats’ "Lamia" is also a convention that is brought to life in the poem. For example, not only is Lamia described as being connected with nature, but she is described as supernatural e.g.

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:"She was a Gordian shape of dazzling hue",

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and she is composed of both of both mortal and immortal elements, which was extremely unusual in literature at the time, e.g.

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:"Her head was serpent, but ah, bitter-sweet,

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:she had a woman’s mouth, with all it’s pearls complete".

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Hence Keats brings the unusual convention of the supernatural to life by intertwining familiar and unfamiliar elements when describing Lamia. Sexual temptation is another convention of the Gothic that Keats uses in "Lamia". He brings this convention to life because rarely was extreme sexual temptation used in neo-classical texts. He also makes it unusual by creating the desire of a mortal for an immortal being. Lamia is described as a temptress, e.g.:

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:"...some penanced lady elf,

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:some demon’s mistress, or the demon’s self".

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This is also a biblical allusion, which are scattered throughout Keats’ poem. They serve to counteract the neo-classical references by alluding to less recommended stories and figures, such, in this case, as the devil. Lamia herself seems to parallel the serpent from the Garden of Eden, and there are references to the Book Of Genesis. Not only are there religious references, but other references include Milton’s Paradise Lost, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, and, importantly, Greek mythology, for example, "Apollo’s presence". Confinement and claustrophobia are also utilised in the poem.

Related Topics:
Garden of Eden - Genesis - Paradise Lost - Midsummer Night’s Dream - Greek mythology - Claustrophobia

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