This Living Hand

Imagery:

·         this living hand

·         of earnest grasping

·         icy silence of the tomb

·         heart of dry blood

·         in my veins red life might stream again

Interpretation:

            In “This Living Hand” by John Keats, very interesting imagery is created in this short yet fascinating poem. Keats shows this imagery when he starts the poem off as being full of darkness and despair which could be possibly describing the eventual end of his life. When Keats writes “earnest grasping” (line 2), it seems more dramatic then what one might think. This is because when I think of grasping, I think of desperately holding onto something as though I am not going to let it go. I believe that Keats is describing a love that he has for someone and is trying to describe how he feels. He mentions the “icy silence of the tomb” (line 3), which could mean that he is talking about his heart because whoever the poem is for might not realize how he feels.

            Keats continues on with this somewhat dark tone in line 4 when he writes “thine own heart of dry blood” and this imagery is very interesting because he seems to be hoping that his love would reach theirs so that his can once again be filled with “red life”. This is also interesting imagery because as he describes his heart being filled with red life, I think it means to be filled with blood again because blood could be seen as life inside someone’s heart. Towards the end of the poem Keats begins to lose the dark tone and creates a feeling of hope and explains to his lover that even though he may one day die he believes that their love could last longer and that he hopes she would accept it. I believe that Keats uses this imagery of death and love throughout the poem and he writes one half of the poem using dark tones and the rest using light and hopeful tones. Although it may seem he feels discouraged at first, the last line of the poem “I hold it towards you” explains what he really feels.