John Keats' Letters of Benjamin Bailey

After reading Keats' letter to Benjamin Bailey, attempt to explain the last two lines.

"The first thing that strikes me on hea[r]ing a Misfortune having befalled another is. "Well it cannot be helped.- he will have the pleasure of trying the resources of his spirits, and I beg now my dear Bailey that hereafter should you observe anything cold in me not to [put] it to the account of heartlessness but abstraction-for I assure you I sometimes feel not the influence of a Passion or Affection during a whole week-and so long this sometimes continues I begin to suspect myself and the geniuness of my feelings at other times-thinking them a few barren Tragedy-tears."

Here Keats expresses that when something awful happens to someone he knows or hears of, that he doesn't feel sorry for them he sort of envies them. This person will get to be unsettled and will actually have to try to repair something by whatever way he choices. It's almost as though Keats doesn't feel he is allowed this sort of living. He doesn't want his friend to find him cruel in this thinking as it does sound a bit cruel, he wants Bailey to know he means it not in that manner. He feels like that sort of living, with different though not good experiences is inspiring. He feels that should he isn't really stirred by much and sort of envies their stirring. He feels that as he is sometimes without "Passion or Affection" for so long that he sometimes questions his other emotions.

Ode on a Grecian Urn

In the poem, the speaker ADDRESSES and QUESTIONS the urn (just as Blake's speakers address and question the animals in "The Lamb" and "The Tiger). What does he say to and about the urn? What does the urn represent for him?

The speaker addresses the urn as "still unravish'd bride of quietness", "foster-child of silence and slow-time", and "Sylvan historian", which all lead the reader to assume this urn is still, unmoving and continuing to be so. Though there is some controversy on the term "still" here, where it could be taken to mean "motionless" or "as yet", however this doesn't effect how still and motionless the urn itself is. Though "still unravish'd" might imply the urn has secrets yet to tell which would be perfectly appropriate as the speaker has yet to unravel his own tale of the urn.
He asks the urn of the stories it holds. The speaker then goes on to describe the urn's beautiful outside not as decoration, but like a frozen scene, a story of its own. "Fair youth, beneath the tree, thou canst leave//Thy songs, nor ever can those trees be bare" "Who are these coming to the sacrifice?" "O mysterious priest,//Lead'st thou that heifer lowing at the skies,//And all her silken flanks with garlands drest?" He's mentioning each details as though it is a true scene that will never change. The urn is seen as the perfect thing, it has all it needs and these people upon it will never age nor change. The speaker almost idolizes the beauty of the urn that will watch humankind age and fade.

The Eve of St. Agnes

Having read the footnote, discuss how the story illustrates the superstition mentioned there.

In the footnotes, the superstition involved with St. Agnes Eve is that when a "chaste young woman performs the proper ritual, she will dream of her future husband". The ritual as illustrated in the reading is skipping dinner "as supperless to bed they must retire", then they are to lie in bed on their backs with their face looking up "couch supine their beauties, lily white;//Nor look behind, nor sideways, but require//Of heaven with upwards eyes for all that they desire."

Madeline does these things, daydreaming the evening away as she waits to go to bed and hopefully dream of her husband. Here though, Porphyro makes her dream come true. Whether she truly dreamed of him is difficult to call I'd say, but he hid in her bedroom to whisper and play to her with gifts as she slept. A tricky boy, but smart in a way because his tending to her while she slept would surely inspire her dreams.

On First Looking into Chapman's Homer

I use "the speaker" here because, though it's significant that Keats wrote this poem in one night at the age of 21, what matters is HOW he expresses the speaker's wonder. What metaphor does he use for reading? How does Keats incorporate this metaphor throughout the poem? This is another sonnet, so you might want to also consider what Keats does with the fourteen-line, iambic pentameter, rhymed form.
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The speaker here is in utter awe of the piece of writing. The metaphor he uses for reading is that he has "travell'd in the realms of gold//And many good states and kingdoms seen" Meaning he's read many books, stories, and enjoyed much of what he's found and been brought attention to. He has read much based from the way of Greek literature, "Round many western islands have I been//Which bards in fealty to Apollo hold." He had been told that Homer was the top of these writers, but he hadn't understood, "Oft of one wide expanse had I been told//That deep-brow'd Homer rules as his demesne;//Yet did never I breathe its pure serene". When he heard Chapman's telling of Homer, he felt as though this was something new and yet undiscovered, "Then I felt like some watcher of the skies//When a new planet swims into his ken" Also "like stout Cortez when with eagle eyes//He star'd at the Pacific-And all his men//Look'd at each other with a wild surmise-//Silent, upon a peak in Darien." Basically, Keats feels like Chapman's version of Homer is awe-inspiring and utterly new in comparison to others he'd have come across. The way he expresses it though is as is life is all traveling and each new book is like a new kingdom waiting to be visited.

Well, in my experience sonnets are often used in admiration of something or someone, which makes its use quite appropriate. The speaker is obviously in awe of the writing. He makes interesting use of the rhyme scheme, but I'm thrown by the final line. He uses what I think is the Petrarchan style, but there is no noticeable rhyme for that final line. I can't imagine that wouldn't be deliberate though, or maybe I'm just not catching something. The whole thing flows beautifully still.