sonnet on the sea - COMPLETE

Context - Personal

Inspired by trip to Isle of Wight. Supposedly inspired by King Lear passage: ‘Do you not hear the sea?’ keats saw lots of death at the time of being a surgeon, concerns with mortality?

Context - historican

‘Hecate’ ‘sea nymphs’ = Greece culture/philhellenism. popular in the 19th century.

‘feast them upon the wideness of the sea’

restorative power of nature.

‘sea nymph’

beautiful women who had some guardianship over the sea. worshipped as divinities of the sea. Had the opportunity to be more free sexually. symbolise gentleness and unpredictable aspects of the sea.

‘Heaven’ and ‘Hecate’

grouping the sea with a religious figure shows pantheistic ideology, idolising it.

‘gluts twice ten thousand caverns’ ‘mighty swell’

power of nature

‘sit ye near some Cavern’s Mouth and brood’

flaneur.

‘gentle temper found’

versatile nature of the sea. contrasts with ‘mighty swell’. emphasises usefulness and importance of nature due to its versatility. complexity of nature.

themes

man’s relationship with nature ‘sit.. and brood’, mortality ‘ eternal whisperings around,’ ‘comfort’ = ‘feast them upon the wideness of the sea’

‘hecate’

goddess of magic. philhellenism has resurfaced from ancient greece, showing the unchanging nature and linking that to the sea, something which is constantly changing.