The Eve of St Agnes

By John Keats

Narrated by Denis Daly

The Eve of St. Agnes was first published in 1820 in a collection containing many of Keat's best-known poems. Several of these were retellings of stories that were popular in the Middle Ages and earlier times.

The title refers to the feast of St Agnes, a Fourth Century martyr, who is the patron saint of virgins. The main characters are Madeline and her lover Porphyro, who persuades an elderly friend of the family, to arrange for him to visit Madeline on the evening of the feast day. After an anguished discussion, the lovers escape from the castle where Madeline is immured and set out for life together on the southern moors. Their flight is not detected at the time due to the noisy and drunken reveling associated with the feast.