LAMIA. This narrative poem in couplets was written by Keats in 1819 and published, to gether with 'Isabella' and Eve of Saint Agnes' in 1820. Keats founded his poem on an incident given by Burton in the 'Anatomy of Melancholy) from Philistratus, concerning the marriage of a Corinthian youth to a serpent woman or Lamia. At their wedding her real nature is detected by the philosopher Apollo nius, and on being denounced she vanished. The story belones to a familiar type of folklore in cident, commonly known as the °swan-maiden motive ,° of which Coleridge's is another example in literature. Keats does not, like Coleridge, emphasize the supernatural sug gestiveness of his material, but is interested rather in its picturesque and emotional values. He prefaces the meeting of Lamia and Lycius by a brilliant description of the serpent and an account of her transformation by Hermes into a woman. Lycius is enthralled by Love and
the enchantment endures until the fatal desire comes upon him to marry the maiden in the presence of his friends. The close of the poem is made to illustrate Keats' favorite idea of the antagonism between the life of feeling and ab stract reflection. Apollonius, who comes un invited to the feast, represents the chilling phi losophy which destroys the illusions of poetry and romance. The poet's sympathies are all with the enamored lovers. In style and versi fication shows traces of the influence of Dryden. The rich sensuousness of 'The Eve of Saint Agnes' here takes on an almost metallic brilliancy, but the poem is little in ferior as a work of art. For references see article ODE ON A GRECIAN URN.