Topic:
Sonnet on the Sea – by John Keats
Key Points/Arguments
Structure Literary/Dramatic Devices Critical Quotations (p.) Context + Contextual Quotations
‘whisperings’, ‘desolate shores’, Highly sensory poem – Keats
14 line, Petrarchan sonnet ‘mighty swell’, ‘scarcely with the said to be depressed when he
First 8 lines at hightide very smallest shell’ – sibilance went to the Isle of White
Strong apostrophic volta mirrors sea and reflects secrecy,
Last 6 lines of tiredness and tide lack of power enhanced by Shows sea being regenerative,
going out sibilance‘mighty’ – dangerous, power vs Fragility
poweful acts of sea (supernatural,
transcendal About the calming, placatory
‘till the spell of Hecate’ – poses nature of the scene – troubled by
problem language of consumption, tension
‘thousand caverns’ – power of devouring nature/ being
encroaching, hyperbole devoured by nature
‘for days from whence it
sometime fell’ – more static and Happy, amazing ocean, but
lost of monosyllabic language something lingering beneath us
‘found’ etc that can consume us (sinister
‘found’, ‘unbound’ – undertones)
commanding couplet, modifies
problems, not delicate quatral The sublime – greatness caused
Sonnet on the Sea – by John Keats
Key Points/Arguments
Structure Literary/Dramatic Devices Critical Quotations (p.) Context + Contextual Quotations
‘whisperings’, ‘desolate shores’, Highly sensory poem – Keats
14 line, Petrarchan sonnet ‘mighty swell’, ‘scarcely with the said to be depressed when he
First 8 lines at hightide very smallest shell’ – sibilance went to the Isle of White
Strong apostrophic volta mirrors sea and reflects secrecy,
Last 6 lines of tiredness and tide lack of power enhanced by Shows sea being regenerative,
going out sibilance‘mighty’ – dangerous, power vs Fragility
poweful acts of sea (supernatural,
transcendal About the calming, placatory
‘till the spell of Hecate’ – poses nature of the scene – troubled by
problem language of consumption, tension
‘thousand caverns’ – power of devouring nature/ being
encroaching, hyperbole devoured by nature
‘for days from whence it
sometime fell’ – more static and Happy, amazing ocean, but
lost of monosyllabic language something lingering beneath us
‘found’ etc that can consume us (sinister
‘found’, ‘unbound’ – undertones)
commanding couplet, modifies
problems, not delicate quatral The sublime – greatness caused
