Randy Joly

4/26/17

Beauty in the Unknown

In John Keats Lamia, Keats uses the title creature to represent something that is

unknowable to both the characters and the reader. This mysterious figure is found beautiful

because of this unknowability that surrounds her. This representation of the lamia is used by

Keats to argue against the destruction of beauty within nature and art by the rising of scientific

study of life and its mysteries. I will prove this claim through an observation of the lamias form

and description, and how this form elicits our perceptions of desire. I will then tie this perceived

beauty back to the destruction of the lamia by Apollonius. To support my claim, I will be

implementing evidence from Orrin Wangs Coming Attractions: Lamia and Cinematic

Sensation.

Within Lamia, there is a very specific stanza from which my claim draws most credence;

a stanza which points to the destructive nature of 19th century sciences. Within the throng of the

wedding celebration, there is a break in the narrative that examines the true nature of science.

Keats queries Do not all charms fly / At the mere touch of cold philosophy? and explains that

Philosophy will clip an angels wings, / Conquer all mysteries by rule and lineUnweave a

rainbow (2.229-237). These claims against philosophy (science) outline the notion that science

destroys the magical beauty within nature. By uncovering the unexplained mysteries found

within nature through rule and line, philosophy takes away the mystery behind the object and

leave them lacking the charm it once held to the observer. Without that unknowable attribute it
holds, there is no draw within the subject; there is no beauty within the mystery. Within Keats

poem, the subject which holds this mystery and is ultimately ruined is the lamia herself.

The visual mystery of the lamia begins with Keats primary description of the creature.

The lamia is first described as She was a gordian shape of dazzling hue, / Vermillion-spotted,

golden, green, and blue which immediately brings to mind the image of a rainbow, the primary

image by which Keats treats with the unknown (1.47-48). Keats further visualizes her as Striped

like a zebra, freckled like a pard, / Eyed like a peacock, and all crimson barrd (1.49-50). Wang

uses these passages to visualize the gaudily overwhelming visual form of the lamia which

Hermes and the reader look atand cannot quite see or capture (Wang, 486). The culmination

of various colors and features provide an unreadable form that evades perception. The lamia is an

ultimate figure for the unknown. Wangs interpretation of the lamia as a creature encompassing

sensation, or a pervasion of the senses, can be used to better understand the mysterious beauty

behind the lamia.

A large portion of Wangs essay argues that the sensational appearance of the lamia is

caused by her being both an object eliciting desire and an object demanding desire. Wang

portrays this notion through the lamias eyes and the Lacanian gaze which is more exactly this

point of us not being seen; the looked upon gaze is therefore always mysterious, at some level

always the sign of desire's unknowability (489). This unknowable desire found within the lamia

is what attracts us to her because we find within her gaze a call for interpretation. The gaze that

we perceive looks back upon us with no readable desire being shown. This blank gaze causes us

to look for the desire underneath and we end up projecting desires upon the object. This

sensation is overall quite similar to the way we envision nature and art in general: as a force

which expresses no desire, yet has interpretations and desires projected onto it by its intrigued
observers. By removing the gaze which keeps us enamored to the possibility of an underlying

meaning, you take away the very attribute that made it desirous.

Moving back to the topic of philology, we can see within the poem that science is the

subject that ultimately removes the gaze from our perception. Apollonius, a character

encompassing the philosophic image, has seen past the lamias enchanting gaze with his eyes in

which There was no recognition (2.260). As Apollonius looks upon the lamia with his

perceant, stinging eyes, he sees past the gaze to the emptiness beneath and knows there is no

desires being projected, which corresponds to how philology will Unweave a rainbow (237).

By stripping the subject of their unknowable factor, you leave nothing to be desired. There is no

beauty left to project upon the subject, and no desires being projected back. With the unveiling of

the lamias true nature, the creature vanishes from sight and Lycius is left empty of delight

(307). With nothing left to look upon, the individual is left with no mystery to delight in and no

joy to be found.

As we look upon the subject of art and poetry, we can see how the mind projects desire

onto the subject. The works that keep us most intrigued are the works that leave questions

unanswered. Looking at works such as Samuel Coleridges Christabel or William Polidoris The

Vampyre, we see pieces that confuse the reader, but keep them coming for more. The very

inscrutable nature of the piece is what gives it its charm. The reader is left to project his own

interpretations and ideas onto the work to fit his own desires. The explanation of the mystery

would ruin this beautiful image that the reader has constructed. Although the words would still

be pretty, there would be no hidden meaning to look for and no reason to come back to view the

work. In the same way that the lamias hidden nature feeds into the desires of onlookers, the

mysterious beauty of poetry is formed through its hidden features. Keats thought that science
was taking away from poetrys beauty by uncovering the secrets behind the very subjects they

portrayed. By taking away these mysteries, they take away the inherent desire within the reader,

which left the pieces lacking the charm they once exhibited. By writing Lamia, Keats was

seeking to depict this fact in a way that both spoke to the reader while eliciting desire from the

reader. By underlaying the lamia as the mysterious subject of desire, the disappearance of her

body at the end of the poem leaves an undefined knowledge within the reader of the importance

of the unknown and the dangers of knowing.

 Bibliography

Keats, John. Lamia. The Broadview Anthology of Romantic Poetry. Edited by Laura

Buzzard, Broadview Press, 2016, pp. 960-969.

Wang, Orrin N. C. Coming Attractions: "Lamia" and Cinematic Sensation. Studies in

Romanticism, Vol. 42, No. 4 (Winter, 2003), Boston University, pp. 461-500.