Topic > The use of romanticism in John Keats's Hymn to the Psyche

This poem exemplifies romanticism through passionate imagery, “In the silence, flowers with fresh roots, with perfumed eyes/ Blue, silver-white and Tire in bud, / They lay breathing calmly, on the grass” (Keats 191). The speaker saw or dreamed of seeing the winged goddess Psyche while wandering in a forest. Keats personifies flowers and gives them breath. It also makes them "lay," which is an atypical description of the flowers because they grow upward from their roots. Keats gives body and breath to these plants, also reaching the senses of smell, sight and touch. The flowers are sexualized, like a woman's body, as they lie on the "flowerbed" ground. These images further the scene the speaker imagines, which is “two fair creatures, lying side by side / In the deepest grass, under the ring-roof” (Keats 191). He is able to elicit the sights and sounds of humanity, through nature, which he masters at a young age. The roof is also personified by speaking in a low voice. He is placing human qualities on objects like the roof and the flowers, instead of the two creatures, which gives the poem a greater feel