On Sitting Down to Read King Lear Once Again
On Sitting Down to Read King Lear Once Again - form Summary
Sonnet Invoking Shakespeare
Keats composes a sonnet as a self-aware act of rereading Shakespeare's King Lear. The tight fourteen-line form frames a shift from romantic, lyrical distraction to solemn engagement with tragic drama. Addressing Shakespeare and Albion, the speaker asks to avoid empty dreams and instead be renewed—evoked by the Phoenix image—to pursue the intense moral and emotional struggle of the play. The sonnet’s structure contains and propels this inward resolution.
Read Complete AnalysesO golden-tongued Romance with serene lute! Fair plumed Syren! Queen of far away! Leave melodizing on this wintry day, Shut up thine olden pages, and be mute: Adieu! for once again the fierce dispute, Betwixt damnation and impassion'd clay Must I burn through; once more humbly assay The bitter-sweet of this Shakespearian fruit. Chief Poet! and ye clouds of Albion, Begetters of our deep eternal theme, When through the old oak forest I am gone, Let me not wander in a barren dream, But when I am consumed in the fire, Give me new Phoenix wings to fly at my desire.
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