From Tales of Old Romance to Wormy Circumstance: Aesthetic Tradition, Metamorphosis and Legacy of Keats's Medievalism

"From Tales of Old Romance to Wormy Circumstance: Aesthetic Tradition, Metamorphosis and Legacy of Keats's Medievalism" My thesis aims to provide an aesthetic reading of Keats's medieval poems and their visual legacy. The selected poems illustrate Keats's developing aesthetics, discussing first on "Calidore, A Fragment" and "Specimen of an Induction to a Poem" from his 1817 debut collection Poems and then the more widely known "Isabella, or A Pot of Basil", "La Belle Dame sans Merci" and "The Eve of St. Agnes". This selection shows the direction of Keats's medievalism that reconsiders tales of "chivalry" ("Specimen", 1) and "Old Romance" ("Isabella", 387) as they become affected by "wormy circumstance" ("Isabella", 385). These later works are interpreted by the Pre-Raphaelites who contribute to the popularisation and eternalisation of Keats's poetry. The two research questions this thesis develops are 1. What is the aesthetic evolution of Keats's medievalism? and 2. How is Keats's later medievalism adapted in Pre- Raphaelite visual art, and to what extent these visual interpretations are loyal to their sources? The discussion is divided into five chapters. In the first I will outline the basic features of the Romantic medieval revival, Keats's early medievalism and the critical state of the art in this..