In “The Eve of St. Agnes,” John Keats tells the story of Madeline, a young woman who attends to the rituals of St. Agnes’ Eve in hopes of seeing a dream of her future husband that night. The man who she hopes to see in her dream, Porphyro, arrives in person that very night to see Madeline at great risk since her family has an apparently vicious hatred for his. With the help of an elderly woman, Angela, Porphyro seeks to use the ritual as an opportunity for a romantic tryst with Madeline. Published in 1819, this story of forbidden love is told in forty two “spenserian stanzas” (Damrosch 988). It is written very much in the Gothic style, the most notable evidence of this being the description of the setting as well as the reliance upon magical or supernatural imagery.