How Does Keats Combine The Sensuous And The Sexual In Stanza’s 25 And 26?
Keats uses imagery to appeal to the senses stanza’s 25 and 26. He also uses description that is sexually oriented in some way. For example in stanza 25 he writes “And threw warm gules on Madeline’s fair breast,” here we can see how uses the description of the “warm” and “fair breast” to appeal to our visual and feeling senses. Instead of using cold breast he uses “warm” “breast”. This is more sexually arousing than using the description of a cold breast. This piece of description is sexually oriented because of the use of heat in a cold wintry night. Another piece of description, which appeals to the senses, is the “Rose-bloom” light falling on her hands. This line makes us visualise the light shining through the stained glass window. As you can see from the first 3 lines in the poem how much imagery is used in a sexual or used in a way that appeals to or gratifies the senses. Another piece of imagery in the poem is the “silver cross soft amethyst”. The “silver” “amethyst” is both colours. The amethyst is a purple or violet form of transparent quartz used as a gemstone. What is ironic is that supposedly the wearer of the stone (amethyst) to dream. Which is what the woman wants to do. This line creates imagery in the reader’s head because of the vibrant and rare colours used of the amethyst and the bright silver. On the second to last line of the poem it says, “Porphyro grew faint”. He grows faint because he sees her praying. In those days watching a woman like this would be called courtly love. This is because he does not touch her but observes her and even a smile from a woman in those days would make a persons day.
