TEOSA analysis

Question 1

The statues and carvings in “The Eve of St. Agnes” symbolize two things: ….

Answer 1

… the chilly inevitability of death, and the immortalizing power of art.

Question 2

What can be inferred from the description of Porphyro as “pale as smooth-sculptured stone”?

Answer 2

• He will not fade; he is an immortal lover perhaps.
• Madeline mistakenly thinks he has died when she sees him

Question 3

What can be inferred from the feast P prepares?

Answer 3

• All of the foods that Porphyro lays out are sweet, rich, scented, and exotic. Everything is “sooth[]” (or smooth) and “creamy,” “candied” and “spiced.” This banquet appeals to every sense including hearing: “From silken Samarcand to cedar’d Lebanon.”
• He provides only “dainties”, delectable luxuries. Porphyro is inviting Madeline to revel in pleasure with him, immersing herself in the world of the senses. Could also be a symbol of his own insubstantiality.

Question 4

What is significant about the juxtaposition of hot and cold?

Answer 4

There is a “bitter chill” that surrounds Madeline and Porphyro’s “heart[s] on fire.” That chill is often associated with the elderly and the dead: the “icy hoods and mails” of the people carved on the stone tombs, the “ashes cold” in which the Beadsman dies.
- They are ‘flushed’ and Madeline wears jewels ‘warmed’ by her skin.
- The passions of youth are inevitably extinguished.

Question 5

Whose form/style influenced the poem?

Answer 5

• Spenser, it is written in Spenserian stanzas
• A nine-line stanza that uses eight lines of iambic pentameter and one line of iambic hexameter.
• ABABBCBCC
• medieval romance

Question 6

How is the stained-glass window described?

Answer 6

“the arras, rich with horseman, haw, and hound, / Flutter’d in the besieging wind’s uproar; / And the long carpets rose along the gusty floor,”
- Another testament to art’s longevityH

Question 7

How have some critics interpreted the poem?

Answer 7

A confession of his love for Fanny Brawne. Written shortly after they fell in love. He maybe felt their love was a bright spark against a dull world, and had maybe felt like a voyeur for so long: aware of her presence, but never interacting with her tangibly.