What is Negative Capability?
Negative Capability - a concept which prizes intuition and uncertainty above reason and knowledge
What happens in Lamia?
Lamia (serpent-turned-woman) while she is a serpent, could send her spirit wherever she wanted and on one of her spirit journeys, she had seen Lycius. As a woman, she reappears and stands along the road where she knows Lycius will be on his way to Corinth. When she sees him, she asks him if he will leave her on her own on this stretch of road. Lycius falls in love with her after one look, they both walk to Corinth and they live in a mansion. In the mansion, they live as husband and wife. Lycius then says they should get married and he invites their friends to the wedding. Lamia doesn’t want to invite all their friends but she finally agrees down to Lycius encouraging her. She agrees as long as the philosopher Apollonius is not invited. While he is away inviting guests, Lamia uses her powers to get invisible servants to decorate the room and put out food. Lycius' guests arrive (Lamia has no friends/relatives in Corinth) and they were amazed - they had not expected it to look this grand. However, Apollonius arrives uninvited. At the peak of the wedding, Apollonius starts to stare at Lamia which makes her uncomfortable. Why Lycius asks her why she is uncomfortable, she doesn’t answer. Lycius tells Apollonius to stop staring at Lamia and when he looks again, he says; "A serpent!” After this is said, Lamia disappears and when she is gone, Lycius dies.
What does Andrew Motion say about Keats in context?
‘Keats is the great exception, according to received wisdom. He collapses onto a sickbed while his contemporaries leap to the barricades. He listens to the song of the nightingale while they catch the chant of the mob. He celebrates the alternative power of the imagination, while they describe the shadows of dark satanic mills.
This view of Keats seriously distorts the reality of his work, but it has been nurtured for almost the whole of his posthumous existence.’
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