38 minAudiobook9 minSummaryRead it, hear it, the 15-minute summary, and print and large print at costPaperback · 6 × 9 in · 32 pagesHardcover · 6 × 9 in · 32 pagesAbout this book
What happens to love when a searching eye threatens the beauty that holds it together?
In John Keats’s long story poem Lamia, Hermes searches a forest for a hidden nymph. A speaking serpent offers him help in return for a change of shape. As a beautiful woman, Lamia meets Lycius, a young student of philosophy in Corinth, and draws him into her enchanted world.
Lamia and Lycius find refuge in a palace she conjures, among carved cedar, columns and glowing lamps. But Lycius wants to show their love to the world. His old teacher, Apollonius, sees with a cooler, doubting eye. Their different ways of looking bring wonder, desire and reason into uneasy conflict.
What you’ll discover
- A bargain in the forest Meet Hermes and the speaking serpent as their wishes draw them into a magical bargain.
- Love behind palace walls Enter Lamia’s richly imagined refuge, where private passion seeks shelter from the world outside.
- Beauty under a searching eye Explore the uneasy question of what clear sight reveals, and what it may put at risk.
- Rich images and sharp humour Follow a narrator who steps forward to speak, bringing wit alongside the poem’s sensuous detail.
- A tale in rhyming pairs Discover how Keats carries myth and feeling through the linked sounds of heroic couplets.
Is it for you?
This poem suits readers who enjoy myth, rich description and short stories in verse, and anyone curious about Keats beyond his odes. If you want fast action or plain, spare language, its crowded imagery may feel heavy.
What’s inside
The key ideas, in the 15-minute summary
- A god hunts and finds a serpent
- A bargain changes serpent into woman
- Lamia meets Lycius on the road
- Love in a palace hidden from the world
- Cold philosophy and the fear of the clear eye
- How Keats tells the tale
Who’s who
- LamiaA serpent who longs to live as a woman, and who wins that wish by a bargain, then uses her charm to win love.
- LyciusA young man of Corinth and a student of philosophy who falls hard for Lamia and wants to show her to the world.
- HermesThe messenger god who leaves Olympus to find a hidden nymph and strikes a deal with the serpent to win her.
- ApolloniusThe older philosopher who taught Lycius and who looks at the world with a cool, searching and doubting eye.
- The nymphA hidden spirit of the forest whom Hermes loves and cannot find without help, and who is glad to be found.
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- 15-minute summary
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- Hardcover
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- Large print paperback
- 8.5 × 11 in. Printing soon: leave your email under Paperback or Hardcover above.
- Large print hardcover
- 8.5 × 11 in. Printing soon: leave your email under Paperback or Hardcover above.
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Language: English
“Do not all charms fly / At the mere touch of cold philosophy?”
From the 15-minute summary · Key idea 1 of 6
A god hunts and finds a serpent
The poem opens in the age when fairies and nymphs still lived in the woods and the gods walked among them. Hermes, the messenger of Jove, leaves Olympus and slips down to an island forest. He is not here on any errand for the king of the gods. He is looking for a nymph he has fallen in love with, one who stays out of sight of every god and man.
He cannot find her. As he searches, he hears a voice sobbing and complaining in the thickets. It is not a girl in tears but a serpent, and Keats paints her in a long and glittering passage. Her skin is striped and spotted with gold, green, scarlet and silver, and she seems to shine like something made of jewels and fire. She is beautiful and a little frightening at the same time.
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The author
John Keats
1795–1821 · English Romantic poet
John Keats was an English Romantic poet who, before his death at twenty-five, produced some of the most celebrated verse in the language. Lamia, his narrative poem of a serpent transformed into a beautiful woman, showcases his lush imagery and fascination with myth.
“Do not all charms fly / At the mere touch of cold philosophy?”
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What is Lamia by Keats about?
It is a story poem about a serpent who becomes a woman through a bargain with the god Hermes, then loves a young man of Corinth. It asks what happens to beauty and love when they meet cold reason.
Who is Lamia in Greek myth?
In Greek legend a Lamia is a female creature, often part serpent, who lures and harms men. Keats draws on a version of the tale retold by Philostratus and Robert Burton, but he gives her more feeling and sympathy.
What does the line about cold philosophy and the rainbow mean?
It expresses a fear that science and logic strip wonder from the world, so that something like a rainbow loses its magic once it is explained and put on a list. The poem leaves the question open.
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