Endymion: A Poetic Romance

Fiction | Poem | Adult | Published in 1818

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Poem Analysis

Themes

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Literary Devices

Further Reading & Resources

Related Poems

“Hymn to Apollo” by John Keats (1815)

This poem by Keats focuses on the Greek god Apollo, who appears in Endymion. Both works mention him as the charioteer of the sun, as an archer, and as a musician. However, “Hymn to Apollo” is a short lyric poem—a very different style than the long epic romance Endymion.

“Ode to a Nightingale” by John Keats (1815)

The nightingale briefly appears in Endymion, near the end of the poem. Endymion tells his sister, “the nightingale, upperched high, / And cloister'd among cool and bunched leaves– / She sings but to her love, nor e'er conceives / How tiptoe Night holds back her dark-grey hood” (Lines 829-832). In Keats’s “Ode to a Nightingale,” the bird takes center stage. This poem includes other elements that appear in Endymion, such as the “Queen-Moon,” dryads, and the sea. It is longer than Keats’s “Hymn to Apollo,” but far shorter than Endymion.

“Lycidas” by John Milton (1637)

“Lycidas” is a pastoral elegy, a poem that memorializes a subject using the idiom and imagery of classical pastoral works. John Milton, one of the most influential English poets and originator of the English epic with Paradise Lost, would have a large impact on Keats through his work. “Lycidas” in particular shares many of the themes and styles utilized by Keats in Endymion. The subject of the shepherd is common to many Romantic works, but the complex device of a song within a poem, the Hymn to Pan in Endymion and the song of the “uncouth swain” (186), is rare. Furthermore, both poems are densely allusive, referencing dozens of separate classical works, historical events, and even biblical notes in a manner established by Milton and Petrarch that would define British Romanticism of Keats’ time.

Further Literary Resources

“Selections from Keats’s Letters” hosted on the Poetry Foundation website

Keats, as a result of his tragic early death, does not leave us as broad a sample of his poetic works as many others. At the same time, his letters demonstrate much of his thought processes and poetic theories, as well as his responses to the criticism that attacked much of his work. Furthermore, the relationships that would define his adult life and death come into stark view in his letters. The concept of “negative capability,” a core of his poetic theory, and many contemporary studies of poetry, is found in these letters, and can provide insight into his poetic works.

“Selene and Endymion Sarcophagi” hosted on the Mount Holyoke College website

This website was created by Emily Lankiewicz for Professor Bergmann’s "Love and Metamorphosis" class at Mount Holyoke College. It features images of Selene and Endymion on Sarcophagi from the Metropolitan Museum of Art along with commentary about the myth. Endymion was a popular figure for visual artists working in a variety of forms, not just poets.

“Diana and Endymion” by Jean Honoré Fragonard, c. 1753/1756

This French oil painting is digitally hosted on the National Gallery of Art website. It is another visual example of the myth of Endymion. Selene, the moon goddess, is also referred to as Diana, and Fragonard includes Cupid—who also appears in Keats’s Endymion—in his painting. The National Gallery of Art website also offers context about the myth.