Suitable for students studying John Keats for Section B of Paper Three (Poetry) on the Edexcel A-level English Literature 2015 specification.
40 essay plans on all of the John Keats poems included in the specification, including Hyperion, On the Sea and To Sleep.
Essay plans cover contextual factor...
John Keats Essay Plans
Explore Keats’ presentation of sexuality in ‘The Eve of St Agnes’ and ‘Belle Dame’.
Sexuality = sexual feelings/orientation to a particular gender
Form/structure
Narrative poem – although Keats deeply describes the feelings experienced by
Porphyro and Madeline (‘his pained heart/made purple riot’, ‘began to weep’), it is
perhaps less personal and relatable for the reader because it is not expressed in the
first poem; as subjective thinkers, Romantic poets like Keats might have been
imposing their own value-laden judgements on what sexuality is like
Spenserian stanzas = rejection of rational/logical thought processes in favour of
instinct and fluidity (symbolic of the freeness of sexuality?)
No enjambment between stanzas – despite ambiguous references to sex (‘as the
rose/blendeth its odour with the violet’), Madeline’s sexuality is not uncontrollable =
subverts the Victorian idea that, once virginity was lost, a woman could never be
‘pure’ again
Ballad is often used in tales which tell a warning – perhaps Keats uses the form of a
ballad in ‘Belle Dame’ to warn the readers about embracing their sexual desires
because it ultimately leads to their abandonment ‘on the cold hill side’ (monosyllabic
= emotional emptiness and desexualisation)
Perhaps Keats uses the alexandrine meter in the final line of each Spenserian stanza
in ‘St Agnes’ to illustrate the powerlessness of women over their sexual identities (‘St
Agnes’ moon hath set’)
Meanwhile, the iambic trimeter in ‘Belle Dame’ has a sinister effect (‘and her eyes
were wild’) – submitting to sexual desire could be the knight’s hamartia
Key points
Purity – ‘Porphyro grew faint:/she knelt, so pure a thing, so free from mortal taint’ =
seduced by Madeline’s angel-like status (‘like a saint’, ‘splendid angel’) = negative
capability (he wants Madeline, yet giving in to his sexual desires would take away her
‘pure’ identity’)
Meanwhile, the only purity expressed in Belle Dame is nature/death – ‘cold hill’s
side’, ‘lily on thy brow’ = negative image of sexuality
Food/consumption – ‘sweet moan, ‘gave me relish sweet’ (seduction via food = a
primitive desire? A means of making the knight under the faery’s ‘thrall’); ‘candied
apple, quince, and plum, and gourd’, ‘jellies smoother than the creamy curd’, ‘lucent
syrops’ (sensuous and luxurious, as emphasised by the assonantal and sibilant sound
devices)
Desires – Porphyro has a ‘heart on fire’ for Madeline = intensely in love with her?;
contrasts with the first person narrative of Belle Dame who seems to be quite
detached from the events (describes the faery and what happened = reflection on
his relationship = not consumed with intense desires in the moment unlike
Porphyro)
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