Keats’ style is kept within this poem throughout. His wonderful use of splendid language, sharply etched setting and vibrant mood, continue to make the poem one of the most popular romantic tales of today, yet still keeping Keats’ trademark of imagination, dreaming and vision, and life as a mixture of opposites. This all adds to the idea that this poem is just ‘a romantic tapestry of colour’ or a ‘series of pretty pictures’ [Jack Sillenger].
However, analysis of the poem proves that this is not simply a colourful tapestry. The lovers are portrayed as being almost in a dream world, “As though a rose should shut, and be bud again.” In contrast, however, the beadsman is very much living in reality. He faces the cold, cruel world outside, “Numb were the beadsman’s fingers, while he told/His rosary, and while his frosted breath,” The beadsman almost knows of his upcoming death and so does not bother to join in the feasting with the others, instead he sits alone and prays for his soul. This contrast with the beadsman and the two lovers, gives the poem another depth to its appearance of a beautiful love story.
More hidden depths to the poem proving it is not just a colourful tapestry is that Porphyro was the archetypal hero of the time, although his presentation can be interpreted today as being something of a villain; Madeline being the deluded victim in Porphyro’s scheming and plotting. Although Porphyro arrives at the castle with no agenda, only to see Madeline, until “Sudden a thought came like a full-blown rose”. After Porphyro thinks up his plan, and the actions that follow, is when he can be perceived as a villain of trickery. Porphyro’s almost voyeuristic tendencies while watching Madeline can also be perceived as villainous for the time period within which the poem is set, “And listened to her breathing…”
Dream and reality also lends itself to the depth Keats creates in his poetry. This appears in ‘Eve of St. Agnes’ in the form of the two lovers being in a dream and most other things in the poem being reality. As the lovers are caught up in each others love, “…Meantime the frost-wind blows”, the storm outside rages, creating a contrast to the warm cosiness of Porphyro and Madeline. Also within this dream world of the two lovers, there is the idea of Madeline being in a state of dreaming yet it is quite real that Porphyro is with her in her bed. The beadsman is also facing reality unlike the two lovers, he is in the sad and cold trying to pray for his sins before he dies, whereas the lovers are upstairs being sinful yet happy. This may have been a reflection upon the ineffectiveness of religion from Keats, creating another hidden meaning to his poem.
Many have seen this poem as just a beautiful poem and read no more into the meanings and the depths Keats has excruciatingly taken time to create, that is why critics can easily say such things as Douglas Bush and Jack Sillenger, however there are those that will agree that there are hidden agenda’s within this poem, such as that of M. R. Ridley, another editor of Keats’ letters, who states, that ‘The Eve of St. Agnes’ is “not far short of perfection.”