The opening stanzas of ‘The Eve of St. Agnes’ show many examples of the effectiveness of Keatsnarrative.
The voice telling the story of this poem is established in the very first line – this narrative voice begins the poem by introducing us to a story clearly set in the distant past. The ‘Ah’ in this gives us the impression of someone thinking back to a memory, something they haven’t thought of in a long time, although the way that the narrator refers to the future shows us that he does in fact know what will happen in this story. The effect of this narrative voice is also the feeling that we are being told something directly – someone is telling us specifically this story, and we get the impression it is not an inane venture; there is some reason this person is speaking to us, and this builds a kind of curious suspense. The narrative voice, in the very first line, grabs the reader’s interest with the exclamation “Ah, bitter chill it was!” This poem will not just be an impartial account of an event; it will be a passionate, compelling story. The use of archaic language indicates that the narrator is perhaps old, or that the story was set long in the past.

These opening stanzas are exceptionally good at capturing the reader through appealing to the senses. “Bitter chill”; “Numb”; “Silent”; the first stanza alone is filled with multiple sensuous aids to the reader. Keats makes us feel, hear, and smell the atmosphere in the opening scene; our fingers turn numb as the Beadsman’s, we can hear the silence in the chapel, and it all builds up the sense of atmosphere. The air is cold, all is frozen, there is silence, and we connect all these things with the ideal of purity, which is mirrored again in the Beadsman – he paying penance for all those things considered impure; hearing ‘Music’s golden tongue’ (another sensuous aid), he stays awake ‘for sinner’s sake to grieve’. It is early January, and not only cold, but the beginning days of a new year – traditionally a time ambitious with fasting, and new resolution; a fresh page to write. This Beadsman is determined - fighting cold and self-denial to keep his purity - while those inside in the warm, all singing and dancing, in the Beadsman’s eyes have given up already.

These first stanzas are filled with comparisons and contrast. The two key themes of this whole poem contrast in their extremes in this opening scene. The first three stanzas open this poem with the description of a cold, old, stone Catholic chapel. Every single line here suggests asceticism, religion and purity. The Beadsman’s rosary, “pious incense” from a censer (another religious reference), a “flight for heaven” (a very relevant image when considering purity), the “sweet Virgin”, “purgatorial rails” imprisoning the “sculptur’d dead” within the church as though they themselves even in death are being denied their freedom for religious purity.

This theme of purity, and the character of the beadsman are both contrasted completely with the theme of desire, and all the characters (who we learn little about) enjoying its rewards. When the Beadsman hears upon “Music’s golden tongue” as he exits the chapel, we are introduced to his moral opposite. Here, outside, in the cold, the Beadsman is suffering to pay penance. He is living through torture (“Rough ashes sat”) and self-denial for is soul’s reprieve. In-doors, in the warm, music is playing. We imagine people dancing, laughing, singing, and enjoying all the worldly values they can. Even though lesser sins, these are the result of falling to temptation and desire – the things that the pure, cold, god-fearing beadsman must avoid for his religious values to uphold, and grant him the happiness he searches for, after his death. The beadsman is old, “the joys of all his life were said and sung”. Those indoors are speaking, and singing – the exact opposite to the Beadsman. All these contrasts get the reader to experience the complete extremes of the poem’s themes.

Keats uses many techniques to grab the reader’s attention throughout these stanzas. He uses rhyme to give the poem rhythm, he creates a narrator as a whole character that the reader can relate to, and through whom Keats can convey passion, and his own comments on the events and characters in the poem. Keats contrasts themes, ideals, characters, and setting in this poem, and creates a great sense of curiosity.


“Suffering and pleasure are never far apart in Keats’ poetry”

This statement is often true, and in many ways. ‘The Eve of St. Agnes’ is a poem centred about the idea of deliberate suffering, and its links with pleasure; that is, both physical and emotional.

The Beadsman is an interesting character to bring up on this point, because he is portrayed with a mix of both physical and emotional pain and pleasure. The Beadsman is sacrificing the current physical pleasure (“Rough ashes sat he”), for pain instead, in search of a religiously-related pleasure (“for his soul’s reprieve”) later on in his life, or death. He and Madeline are a good pair to contrast and compare, for both are the only characters with faith enough in anything, to not succumb to temptation and give in to desire initially. Madeline is sacrificing her day physically, in that she will not eat, and will not turn her head, in the faith that this sacrifice (and sacrifice is not so far from pain, in ways) will bring her pleasure later on. However, it is interesting to note that, while both Madeline and the Beadsman are acting austerely, Madeline is doing so to be rewarded with exactly that which the Beadsman is avoiding, and considers impure, especially from his religious point of view.

Age is also interesting to consider when studying the relationship between pain and pleasure in this poem. Both main young characters in this poem are, essentially, in search of physical and emotional pleasure; Madeline denies herself food, and restricts her sight so that she may chance to meet her future love, and husband. “Young virgins might have visions of delight” also hints towards the possibility of physical pleasure, too. Porphyro is also in search for pleasure, although his wishes seem more physical than Madeline’s do (despite his explanation that he will face death if he should “look with ruffian passion in her face”). Both of the elderly main characters are not in search of the same physical pleasure. While the Beadsman is looking for fulfilment, it is not through the same passion as Porphyro and Madeline have for the other (in Madeline’s case, image of the other). You could argue that the Beadsman feels similar passion for God. However, it is a far more wise and rational (in a sense) a passion – he is old, “The joys of all his life were said and sung:”, this is a passion not based on whim, impulse, or lust, but more a faith in search of hope as he is dying (again, the idea of death as pain, and the transit into heaven as pleasure, and both of these almost as one, are both explored as in the first stanzas of this poem).

Throughout the poem, the suffering of the characters is intensified, as is the pleasure that they experience. In the beginning three stanzas, for instance, the cold and the temptation to break his holy values that the Beadsman experiences is emphasised; “Bitter chill”, “Numb”, “his weak spirit”, “Flatter’d to tears this aged man and poor;”, our perception of the Beadsman’s suffering is accentuated by the repeated references to the conditions he is in (e.g. the cold in the chapel). In the same way, stanzas 36 and 37 accentuate the couple’s pleasure as “into her dream Porphyro melted” – “like a throbbing star seen mid the sapphire heaven’s deep repose”.

The statement “Suffering and pleasure are never far apart in Keats’ poetry” is often very true, especially in “The Eve of St. Agnes”. The poem “The Eve of St. Agnes” explores to great length the links between pain, and its path to pleasure.