An analysis and response to John Keats' "Lamia", involving his concept of negative capability and the question of truth in the Romantic era.

The Romantic era, which was the period of time following the Enlightenment, existed to eradicate the idea that innovation, produced from research and reason, was the basis for truth. Writers of the Romantic era, such as John Keats, believed that imagination, not rationalization, was the foundation truth was built upon. Of this Keats says, "The Imagination may be compared to Adam's dream--He awoke and found it truth" (Rodriguez, Keats, 49). Even though the duration of his …

…attempting to define and confine Lamia's nature to their record of common things, they destroy her imagination--her own perceptions on beauty and truth, "Do not all charms fly at the mere touch of cold philosophy" (II-229-230)? The dream that was Lamia's, the reason for her to become a woman, was Lycius, the young Corinthian she was in love with. When Apollonius inflicts his philosophy on Lamia, her dream is destroyed, and with it Lycius.