Answer to a Sonnet by J.h.reynolds
Answer to a Sonnet by J.h.reynolds - context Summary
Poetic Response, 1818
Composed in 1818 as a poetic reply to J.H. Reynolds, Keats’s sonnet praises the color blue through clustered images of sky, celestial bodies, sea, and flowers. Written as an exchange between close literary friends, it moves from abstract cosmic and aquatic associations to intimate human feeling, ending by equating blue’s highest power with its presence "in an Eye," linking aesthetic color to personal destiny.
Read Complete Analyses"Dark eyes are dearer far Than those that mock the hyacinthine bell." Blue! 'Tis the life of heaven,—the domain Of Cynthia,—the wide palace of the sun,— The tent of Hesperus, and all his train,— The bosomer of clouds, gold, gray, and dun. Blue! 'Tis the life of waters:—Ocean And all its vassal streams, pools numberless, May rage, and foam, and fret, but never can Subside, if not to dark-blue nativeness. Blue! gentle cousin of the forest-green, Married to green in all the sweetest flowers— Forget-me-not,—the blue-bell,—and, that queen Of secrecy, the violet: what strange powers Hast thou, as a mere shadow! But how great, When in an Eye thou art alive with fate!
Feel free to be first to leave comment.