ENGLISH LITERATURE (CBSE/UGC NET)

Detailed explanation-1: -’Lamia’s’ verse form is heroic couplets: lines of iambic pentameter, rhyming aabbcc etc. This verse form was first introduced to England by Geoffrey Chaucer, who used it for many of the ‘Canterbury Tales’.

Detailed explanation-2: -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.

Detailed explanation-3: -Ultimately, the foreshadowing of death and inevitability laced throughout Lamia, and the arguably obnoxious ignorance of Lycius in making no attempt to truly fight against his fate – he more submits himself to be ‘tangled’ in Lamia’s ‘mesh’ – combine to ultimately limit the catharsis felt by Lycius’ tragic downfall.

Detailed explanation-4: -John Keats’s Lamia puts the reader in negative capability intentionally. The reader is made to question the motives and character of all the characters in the poem. Lamia and Lycius are both ambiguous. In part two, the true intent of their actions shifts and changes.