English Literature / Unit 13 ENL 1219 short lesson, about 20 seconds
The Eve of St. Agnes
Captions available
The idea
The Eve of St. Agnes, written in eighteen nineteen in forty-two Spenserian stanzas and set in the Middle Ages, tells how Porphyro steals into a hostile castle on St. Agnes' Eve and elopes with Madeline into the storm. Its imagery is richly sensuous.
In practice
A cold castle, a warm chamber, an escape.
Where people slip
The sensuous detail is the poem's method.
Your place on the trail
Every lesson rests on earlier ones and opens later ones. Tap any to jump.
Something wrong in this lesson? Flag it · Sources for English Literature