Thanks for this post!! Re: what kind of tension? - I feel it as an only gently-tense "before the storm" kind of thing, where we're seeing a bit of Lycius on his own so we can relate to him as an individual character who can then, from neutrality, be whipped up one way or another by Lamia. I suppose this ties into the "calm uneager face" thing, to see that he's not a thirsty angry man but sort of stoic, even as a charioteer? Maybe that's the work the "uneager" line is doing?
I'm struggling to make sense of "Jove heard his vows, and better'd his desire; / For by some freakful chance he made retire / From his companions, and set forth to walk," Who is bettering whose desire? Is it Jove seeing Lycius's offering and raising his bar, and as punishment making Lycius walk away from his friends and be gloomy? I'm not sure how this is "freakful chance" then, unless the point is that it just seems that way to Lycius.
And then a few lines later, I'm confused by how he's "thoughtless at first but ere eve's star appeared / his phantasy was lost." Surely being "thoughtless" and "losing a phantasy" go well together, so why the "but"? Unless the "phantasy" was replacing articulated thought. I feel like there's some logic going on that's going over my head.
This section does seem a bit heavy-handed and dense!
I think Keats is definitely trying to draw a line between 'thought' which is rational and 'feeling' which relates to the world of dream/imagination/art/faith. As the poem goes on, at least, it becomes in some ways about that divide. But you're right, at this point in the poem it feels a bit vague - we're used to considering daydreaming to be a kind of thinking, rather than its opposite.
Like your defense of 'uneager'! I couldn't work out what was going on with Jove either which was why I skipped over it!!
Thanks for this post!! Re: what kind of tension? - I feel it as an only gently-tense "before the storm" kind of thing, where we're seeing a bit of Lycius on his own so we can relate to him as an individual character who can then, from neutrality, be whipped up one way or another by Lamia. I suppose this ties into the "calm uneager face" thing, to see that he's not a thirsty angry man but sort of stoic, even as a charioteer? Maybe that's the work the "uneager" line is doing?
I'm struggling to make sense of "Jove heard his vows, and better'd his desire; / For by some freakful chance he made retire / From his companions, and set forth to walk," Who is bettering whose desire? Is it Jove seeing Lycius's offering and raising his bar, and as punishment making Lycius walk away from his friends and be gloomy? I'm not sure how this is "freakful chance" then, unless the point is that it just seems that way to Lycius.
And then a few lines later, I'm confused by how he's "thoughtless at first but ere eve's star appeared / his phantasy was lost." Surely being "thoughtless" and "losing a phantasy" go well together, so why the "but"? Unless the "phantasy" was replacing articulated thought. I feel like there's some logic going on that's going over my head.
This section does seem a bit heavy-handed and dense!
I think Keats is definitely trying to draw a line between 'thought' which is rational and 'feeling' which relates to the world of dream/imagination/art/faith. As the poem goes on, at least, it becomes in some ways about that divide. But you're right, at this point in the poem it feels a bit vague - we're used to considering daydreaming to be a kind of thinking, rather than its opposite.
Like your defense of 'uneager'! I couldn't work out what was going on with Jove either which was why I skipped over it!!
Thanks Clare this has made me laugh at the end of a long mad day - the swooning! The bants!