Literary Analysis
In their early years at the Academy, Millais and Hunt got a hold of a book of Keat's poetry and were inspired to create paintings based on specific poems. For Hunt, the poem of The Eve of St. Agnes (also known as The Flight of Madeline and Porphyro during the Drunkenness Attending the Revelry) was the motivation for the piece he created under the same name.
The story follows the love of Madeline and Porphyro, the two main characters. However, it is being told from the unique perspective of the Beadsman, a professional man of prayer who is staying in the same castle where the story is unfolding. In the castle of Madeline’s family, there is a large celebration being held in honor of St. Agnes. Madeline is anxious during the party as she has been told that young women have had dreams revealing their true love on this very night. Porphyro is desperately in love with Madeline and breaks into the castle so that he can the one she sees first, but cannot be discovered as her family will kill him if they do. Guided by a servant named Angela, Porphyro hides in Madeline’s room and wakens her by playing the lute. He convinces her to run away with him to the southern moors where they can live together free from her family.
Below are excerpts from John Keats’ poem The Eve of St. Agnes. Read the stanzas quietly once and then read them aloud a second time. Notice the language and expression Keats uses as he describes this scene. Keep in mind how this literary piece could have impacted the artistic mind of Hunt as he read it for the first time.
Stanzas 39-41
“Hark! ’tis an elfin-storm from faery land,
Of haggard seeming, but a boon indeed:
Arise—arise! the morning is at hand;—
The bloated wassaillers will never heed:—
Let us away, my love, with happy speed;
There are no ears to hear, or eyes to see,—
Drown’d all in Rhenish and the sleepy mead:
Awake! arise! my love, and fearless be,
For o’er the southern moors I have a home for thee.”
She hurried at his words, beset with fears,
For there were sleeping dragons all around,
At glaring watch, perhaps, with ready spears—
Down the wide stairs a darkling way they found.—
In all the house was heard no human sound.
A chain-droop’d lamp was flickering by each door;
The arras, rich with horseman, hawk, and hound,
Flutter’d in the besieging wind’s uproar;
And the long carpets rose along the gusty floor.
They glide, like phantoms, into the wide hall;
Like phantoms, to the iron porch, they glide;
Where lay the Porter, in uneasy sprawl,
With a huge empty flaggon by his side:
The wakeful bloodhound rose, and shook his hide,
But his sagacious eye an inmate owns:
By one, and one, the bolts full easy slide:—
The chains lie silent on the footworn stones;—
The key turns, and the door upon its hinges groans.
Reflect: Re-examine Hunts’ painting again for another 3 minutes. After reading the poem, what do you notice? How has your perspective changed? How does this painting exemplify the evolving philosophies of the brotherhood concerning art?
This page has paths:
- The Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood: Founding Members Isabella Anderson