- This article is about the poem by John Keats. For information on the saint, see Saint Agnes.
The Eve of St. Agnes is a long poem by John Keats, written in 1819 and published in 1820. It is widely considered to be amongst his finest poems and was widely influential in 19th century literature. The title comes from the day (or evening) before the feast of Saint Agnes (or St. Agnes' Eve). The eve falls on January 20; the feast day on the 21. The divinations referred to by Keats in this poem are referred to by John Aubrey in his Miscellanies (1696) as being associated with St Agnes' night.
Background
"The Eve of Saint Agnes" was written immediately after Keats met Fanny Brawne , who would eventually become his fiancée in October 1819. The basis of the poem is the superstition that a woman would see her future husband if she performed a certain ritual on the eve of Saint Agnes. If she were to go to bed without looking behind her back, her future partner would appear in a dream, eat with her and kiss her. In his original version, Keats emphasised the sensuality but his publishers persuaded him to change the wording so as to avoid a controversy.
Similar rituals of divination designed to obtain visions of a future spouse were also associated with Halloween.
Importance
The poem contrasts young love with a hostile outside world and addresses many of the same themes tackled in his odes. It is a long narrative full of sensuality and imagination. It was a widely influential poem on fellow romantics and its pictorial quality influenced the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood in art.
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