Keats' Poems and Letters

Keats' Poems and Letters Glossary

Anaphora

Poetic device in which the same, or similar, words are used to begin successive phrases for rhetorical/poetic effect

Andromeda

A princess in ancient Greek mythology. Andromeda's mother angers the god Poseidon, and Andromeda herself is chained to a rock and offered as a sacrifice to the monster of the sea, but is ultimately saved by the hero Perseus.

Apostrophe

A poetic device in which a narrator directly addresses an absent/abstract person or thing

Aurorean

Like or of the dawn

Beadsman

A pauper who prays on behalf of wealthy patrons

Beldame

An old woman

Censer

An ornament used for burning incense

Chameleon Poet

Keats describes the character of a poet as resembling that of a chameleon; the poet has no character and only reflects the environment in which he finds himself.

Dryad

A wood-nymph in ancient Greek mythology

Eremite

A hermit or social recluse, often spiritual or religious

Fane

A temple or shrine

Fans

Wings

Fragrant zone

A belt made of flowers

Gleaner

One who gathers the grain left behind by reapers

Hippocrene

An ancient Greek fountain, sacred to the Muses and considered a source of poetic inspiration.

Iambic pentameter

A type of poetic meter composed of five pairs of "iambs" or "iambic feet." An iamb is a two-syllable pair in which the second syllable is stressed.

Negative Capability

The ability of an artist or thinker to exist comfortably in the presence of "uncertainties, Mysteries, [and] doubts," rather than trying to situate every phenomenon in an overarching logical or philosophical system. Keats describes his theory of "Negative Capability" in a letter to his brothers George and Tom, which was written on December 21, 1818.

Numbers

Verses of a poem

Petrarchan sonnet

A fourteen-line poem in rhyming iambic pentameter, beginning with an octet that follows a ABBA ABBA rhyme scheme and concluding with a sestet with a flexible rhyme scheme

Pinions

Feathers essential to flight, on the outer part of a bird's wing

Psyche

A Greek mortal-turned-goddess who married Cupid/Eros and was made immortal

Shakespearean/English sonnet

A fourteen-line poem composed in rhyming iambic pentameter. This type of sonnet begins with three quatrains (stanzas of four lines each) and concludes with a rhyming couplet.

Stanza

A division of a poem, often involving a fixed number of lines, a set type of meter, and a clear rhyme scheme

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