Extracts from this document...

Introduction

Lamia is a Narrative Poem in Which Keats Seems More Interested in Describing Than Narrating, Do You Agree? In the poem "Lamia" Keats uses a considerable amount of description on Lamia. I agree with the statement that Keats seems more interested in describing than narrating. This poem has a large amount of description in it, with a large proportion of description to Lamia. "Lamia" is a long, complex poem. The title character, Lamia, is as strange as the poem itself. Part I of the poem opens with Hermes, messenger of the Gods, in search of a beautiful nymph for whom he has stolen light from Olympus. Keats uses a lot of description in this poem to create different feelings such as sympathy and sometimes to even make a character seem beautiful on the outside but somewhat mystical and sly on the inside. For example, in the beginning of the poem, Keats describes Lamia the snake as a very striking creature "Vermillion spotted, golden, green, and blue." ...read more.

Middle

This is the only way he would be able to portray his imagination and dreams. We can see that he likes to live out his dreams by looking at the description of the wedding. He has created a wonderful picturesque setting for the wedding and everything in the wedding is luxury. "There ran a stream of lamps straight on from wall to wall." In this piece of description Keats is describing the walls and how they are covered in lamps. Keats wouldn't have been able to afford this in his time and this is how he lived out his wishes. We can see by this poem the extent to which Keats uses his imagination to create wonderful settings and astonishing creatures. Another thing fictional creature he has created is the nymph. He has also made this nymph to be very striking. He may also have done this to bring his fantasies to life in his poems. ...read more.

Conclusion

the end of this poem is a turning point for the readers ambiguous understanding of Lamia. So far we get the impression that Lamia is a sly and selfish woman because of the incident with Hermes and the nymph. It is only towards the end of the poem that Keats starts to use different description to what he was describing her as before. 'The deep-recessed vision: -all was blight;' This piece of description shows us how Keats describes her differently to the beautiful descriptions of her at the beginning of the poem. This piece of description almost makes us feel sorry for her again and it makes the readers have a second thought about what Lamia is like and what Lamia really wanted. In this poem Keats evidently uses much description on Lamia and sometimes to create a sense of sympathy and sorrow for her. Without this description we would not have such strong feelings on Lamia and what we think of her. The large quantity of description allows different readers to express different views on Lamia. Mohsin Sharif English Literature Mrs. Long ...read more.

This student written piece of work is one of many that can be found in our AS and A Level John Keats section.