Weather With You

My plan for this week was to study Hyperion and post my thoughts about it. But then I got side tracked by Keats's letters to Fanny Brawne and The Eve of St. Agnes. Um, wow.

Along with everything else it is, The Eve of St. Agnes is very atmospheric. My favorite book ever is Wuthering Heights, which I first read at 16 and which I reread every few years to make sure it's still my favorite (it is). I love so much about that story, but one of the things I love most is how the crazy, out-of-control emotions are mirrored by the crazy, out-of-control weather. It's unusual for me to like a book where none of the characters themselves are very likable. I want to root for the good guy. But in Wuthering Heights I find myself despising the selfishness of Cathy and Heathcliff, yet still wanting them to somehow get what they want. It's brilliant.

I guess The Eve of St. Agnes, in part at least, affects me the same way. Neither of the characters is particularly likable; Madeline is naive and chooses dreams over reality and Porphyro's plot is, shall we say, not honorable. And yet, I wanted everything to work out for them. Keats's use of language is so powerful in this poem, and his descriptions of the cold, the revelry in the palace, and the 'elfin storm' at the end are so masterful- you feel it and see it.

I'll leave you with the opening of the poem, the description of the cold. But if you haven't done so, you have to read the whole thing. Promise me. And let me know what you think.

St. Agnes' Eve- Ah, bitter chill it was!
The owl, for all his feathers, was a-cold;
The hare limp'd trembling through the frozen grass,
And silent was the flock in wooly fold:
Numb were the Beadsman's fingers while he told
His rosary, and while his frosted breath,
Like pious incense from a censor old,
Seem'd taking flight for heaven....