O Solitude! If I Must With Thee Dwell

Question 1

key themes

Answer 1

• nature vs man
• religion
• solitude vs companionship
• escape

Question 2

nature vs man

Answer 2

• enjambent “let me thy vigils keep/Mongst boughs pavillion’s”: influence of nature - clear + prominent effect on man
• tangible nouns turn abstract (rivers, building, bee TO mind, thought, spirit): accepts nature is a dream + understands reality while nature consumed his thoughts
• apostrophe (Solitude): presented as almost human, following him, changed definition of man
• juxtaposition: man and nature can’t coexis

Question 3

religion

Answer 3

• “Climb with me the steep”: pathway to heaven (nature) - Keats not a religious man but romanticism and idealises nature
• religious imagery (vigils, soul’s, bliss, haunts, spirits): definition of heaven is nature rather than any truly religious belieds

Question 4

solitude vs companionship

Answer 4

• personal pronouns: Keats often talks about his life alone + romantics focus on the individual
  volta: companionship with someone would bring him more joy (Fanny)
• becomes content with solitude - relies its loneliness + peace (held disdain for living in London when studying at hospital)

Question 5

escape

Answer 5

• theme of escapism reflects views of desires to escape pan eg saw daily at Guy’s hospital
• trying to escape too nature (“Climb with me the steep”)
  steps and slops - journey (good time + bad ties - ‘vale of soul-making’)
  nothing is still and flat - wont ever be content unless he’s in nature with a companion

Question 6

form

Answer 6

• octet: introduced nature as best alternative
• volta: change in tone and rhyme scheme
  -sestet: solution to problemsintroduced(comapinionship)
  -iambic pentameter: natural spoekn -cadence
  rhyme scheme: little difference from standard
  -casera + enjabment
  -apostrophe
  -6 short phrases before ; and 2 full stops: breathlessness + excitement, flow of nature
• abrupt move away from city in line 3, imperative

Question 7

imagery/ AO1

Answer 7

• formal: archaic forms, medical associations
  -desperate/pleading: exclamation is, disgornised vocabulary contrasted with simplicity oof animals, volta
  -awe: causers, mix of abstract and tangible nouns
  -desire: lexi is of the mind and pleasure
  -calm: longer phrases, repetition of “I” sound, sibilance and frictaive “f” sound gave light, free tone to second half, 1st half: heavy sounds used (“b” “d”) that contract representation of freedom Keats feel sin nature

Question 8

context - Guy’s Hospital

Answer 8

• Keats joined in 1815 as a surgical student
• exposed to many cases of death + disease
• theme of escapism reflect desire to escape daily pains
• experienced inner conflict over perusing being a poet of being a doctor, criticism from other poets

Question 9

context - romanticism

Answer 9

• rejected industrialisation + escape into nature detailed in poem is reflective of Keat embracing nature as a source of comfort
  -internalised fear of hospital experience links to how Keats views sublime as beyond measurable
  -personal pronouns “I”, romantic ideal of self + personal perspective that Keats tied to present in his worlds
  -emphasis on imagination conveyed through semantic field of thought, links to romantic belief of importance of imagination

Question 10

context - historical

Answer 10

-1815: Napoleon defeated at Waterloo, Britain left in a state of social inequality trying to return to peacetime conditions
- Keats experienced inequality whilst studying in London + showed desires to escape confides of societal restriction that dictated his power and social standing

Question 11

context - Keats + women

Answer 11

• concluding sestets: reference to wanting a companion to spend his solitude with (who the comapanion hes referring to is has been heavily debated by critics)
• tone: reflects a respectful distance with sense of delicacy that he often used regarding women (wanting to idealise them)

Question 12

context - death

Answer 12

• experienced a lot of death
• 1804: father died in riding accident
  -1810: mother died of TB - Keats watched over
• shows close connection with death + first hand experience seeing the deportation of those he loved
  influence desires to escape functioning of society to nature (death treated in a calmer sense)

Question 13

context - classical

Answer 13

• “foxglove”
  positive view: chemicals used to heal heart conditions
  negative view” too much can kill toy + picking the flowers said to offend faeries