Lamia

Lamia is a narrative poem written by the English Romantic poet John Keats in 1819 and first published in his 1820 collection, Lamia, Isabella, The Eve of St. Agnes, and Other Poems. Keats composed the work during a period of intense creative output, drawing inspiration from Robert Burton’s seventeenth-century text, The Anatomy of Melancholy. The poem explores the tragic intersection of myth and reality, focusing on the story of a serpent transformed into a woman who seeks to live among humans, only to face destruction when confronted by the cold rationality of the philosopher Apollonius.

The poem is widely regarded as one of Keats’s most sophisticated treatments of the tension between imagination and philosophy. Stylistically, Keats utilized the heroic couplet, influenced by the structure of John Dryden’s work, to create a lush, sensory narrative that challenges the reader to sympathize with the supernatural protagonist. While the 1820 volume was published shortly before the poet's death, and thus did not see the full breadth of his later critical acclaim, it remains a cornerstone of English Romantic literature, celebrated for its complex characterization and melancholic tone.