The Eve of St. Agnes

“St. Agnes' Eve” by Alfred, Lord Tennyson (1837)

This poem from the same era by one of Keats’s near-contemporaries offers another look into this storied holiday.

“Ode to a Nightingale” by John Keats (1819)

One of Keats’s most famous works, written in the same year as “The Eve of St. Agnes,” shares Keats’s unique voice and attention to lyrical detail.

“Adonais: An Elegy on the Death of John Keats” by Percy Bysshe Shelley (1821)

Written in honor of Keats by one of his contemporaries in the second-generation Romantic era, Shelley uses the same structure of Spenserian stanzas as “The Eve of St. Agnes.”

“Eve of St. Agnes” by Ellen Castelow

The online history magazine Historic UK provides an overview of this traditional holiday, the saint that governs it, and the folk rituals associated with this night that inspired Keats’s poem.

“Wireless” by Rudyard Kipling (1902)

Kipling’s short story takes an innovative approach to “The Eve of St. Agnes” by having a fictional character channel the spirit of Keats through his creative process.