![Book Cover of Lamia](/image/book/lamia.webp)
Lamia
by John Keats
'Lamia' Summary
The poem tells how the god Hermes hears of a nymph who is more beautiful than all. Hermes, searching for the nymph, instead comes across Lamia, trapped in the form of a serpent. She reveals the previously invisible nymph to him and in return he restores her human form. She goes to seek a youth of Corinth, Lycius, while Hermes and his nymph depart together into the woods. The relationship between Lycius and Lamia, however, is destroyed when the sage Apollonius reveals Lamia's true identity at their wedding feast, whereupon she seemingly disappears and Lycius dies of grief.
According to Michael O'Neill, Lamia in the poem "is treated ambivalently but with considerable sympathy", making "a sharp contrast with the more leisurely and seemingly uncritical use of romance in [the] two narrative poems that follow....the hapless Lycius is caught between the reductive rationalism of Apollonius and the bewitching illusoriness of Lamia."
Book Details
Author
![John Keats image](/thumbs/image/author/john-keats.webp)
John Keats
England
John Keats was an English poet of the second generation of Romantic poets, with Lord Byron and Percy Bysshe Shelley. His poems had been in publication for less than four years when he died of tubercul...
More on John KeatsDownload eBooks
Listen/Download Audiobook
Related books
![Women I'm Not Married To Cover image](/thumbs/image/book/women-im-not-married-to.webp)
Women I'm Not Married To by Franklin Pierce Adams
Imagine a world where all the women you're not married to are the ones you could have married... Women I'm Not Married To is a collection of poems by...
![In the Seven Woods Cover image](/thumbs/image/book/in-the-seven-woods.webp)
In the Seven Woods by William Butler Yeats
In the Seven Woods: Being Poems Chiefly of the Irish Heroic Age is a volume of poems by W. B. Yeats, published in 1903 by Elizabeth Yeats's Dun Emer P...
![Tithonus Cover image](/thumbs/image/book/tithonus.webp)
Tithonus by Lord Alfred Tennyson
In the realm of Greek mythology, Tithonus, the Trojan prince, is granted the gift of immortality by his beloved goddess, Eos. However, in a cruel twis...
![Random Readings In Racy Rhyme: A Repast For The Recluse, A Refreshment For The Railway Reader Cover image](/thumbs/image/book/random-readings-in-racy-rhyme-a-repast-for-the-recluse-a-refreshment-for-the-railway-reader.webp)
Random Readings In Racy Rhyme: A Repast For The Recluse, A Refreshment For The Railway Reader by Charles Harwood Greene
This poetry showcases Greene's wit and humor, as he explores various topics ranging from love and romance to the everyday struggles of life. The poems...
![Collected Poems 1901-1918 Cover image](/thumbs/image/book/collected-poems-1901-1918.webp)
Collected Poems 1901-1918 by Walter de la Mare
Early poems written by Walter de la Mare. de la Mare is best remembered for his works for children.
![Stanzas Written in His Library Cover image](/thumbs/image/book/stanzas-written-in-his-library.webp)
Stanzas Written in His Library by Robert Southey
A meditation on the power of books and the importance of learning. The poem begins with the speaker reflecting on the books that surround him in his...
![Chants for Socialists Cover image](/thumbs/image/book/chants-for-socialists.webp)
Chants for Socialists by William Morris
As well as being influential in the Arts and Crafts Movement and writing numerous poems and novels, William Morris was deeply involved in political re...
![Rampolli Cover image](/thumbs/image/book/rampolli.webp)
Rampolli by George MacDonald
Enter the enchanting world of George MacDonald's "Rampolli," a captivating collection of essays and poems that weaves a tapestry of profound thoughts...
![A Fish Story Cover image](/thumbs/image/book/a-fish-story.webp)
A Fish Story by Clara Doty Bates
It tells the story of a little fish and his adventures in the water. The poem was first published in 1898 in "St. Nicholas Magazine," a popular Americ...
![Wheels - The Fifth Cycle Cover image](/thumbs/image/book/wheels-the-fifth-cycle.webp)
Wheels - The Fifth Cycle by Aldous Huxley
In the early 20th century, a group of young poets gather in London to challenge the status quo and create a new kind of poetry. Wheels - The Fifth Cy...
Reviews for Lamia
No reviews posted or approved, yet...