Do you not see how necessary a world of pains and troubles is to school an intelligence and make it a soul?
John KeatsRead
Like a mermaid in sea-weed, she dreams awake, trembling in her soft and chilly nest.
Interpretation
What this quote means
This quote evokes the idea of beauty and the transient nature of dreams and imagination.
In this quote, John Keats paints a vivid picture of a mermaid, symbolizing beauty and mystery, who exists in a world of dreams and imagination. The imagery of being intertwined with sea-weed suggests a connection to nature and the allure of the unknown, highlighting the delicate balance between reality and dreams, while the mermaid's trembling indicates vulnerability and the ephemeral nature of her existence in this tranquil yet cold environment.
Themes
DreamsBeautyNatureImaginationVulnerability
In practice
Example use cases
This quote can be used in a poetry reading to illustrate the connection between nature and dreams.
More from John Keats
All quotes βAre there not thousands in the world who love their fellows even to the death, who feel the giant agony of the world, and more, like slaves to poor humanity, labor for mortal good?
John KeatsRead
Ask yourself my love whether you are not very cruel to have so entrammelled me, so destroyed my freedom. Will you confess this in the Letter you must write immediately, and do all you can to console me in it β make it rich as a draught of poppies to intoxicate me βwrite the softest words and kiss them that I may at least touch my lips where yours have been. For myself I know not how to express my devotion to so fair a form: I want a brighter word than bright, a fairer word than fair.
John KeatsRead
Faded the flower and all its budded charms,Faded the sight of beauty from my eyes,Faded the shape of beauty from my arms,Faded the voice, warmth, whiteness, paradise!Vanishd unseasonably
John KeatsRead
I think we may class the lawyer in the natural history of monsters.
John KeatsRead
...I leaped headlong into the Sea, and thereby have become more acquainted with the Soundings, the quicksands, and the rocks, than if I had stayed upon the green shore, and piped a silly pipe, and took tea and comfortable advice.
John KeatsRead
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