John Keats : This Living Hand

John Keats : This Living Hand

This living hand, now warm and capable

Of earnest grasping, would, if it were cold

And in the icy silence of the tomb,

So haunt thy days and chill thy dreaming nights

That thou wouldst wish thine own heart dry of blood

So in my veins red life might stream again,

And thou be conscience-calm'd—see here it is—

I hold it towards you.

· Living hand

· Warm

· Capable

· Grasping at something

· Icy, cold tomb

· Her Heart drying of blood

o Guilt

· Give blood back to veins

o Overcome by guilt, comes back to author

“This Living Hand” by John Keats reflects a man’s desire to reach out and hold the hand of the woman he loves or fancies. The initial symbolism of the poem demonstrates to the audience that at the moment of the writing of this poem, the author has yet to go outside his comfort zone but soon he grasps out, seemingly towards a lover, and immediately begins to fret over the “cold” or rejection. He continues by discussing the icy silence of a tomb, which could represent the awkward silence following a rejection while giving the reader the impression that he would die should this occur.

The poem continues directed at the woman the author loves who seemingly rejected him stating that she will feel so terrible that she caused such great pain that she would be willing to breathe life back into him. Such is demonstrated to the reader through the symbolism of the drying blood of her heart and the life in his veins returning. In the end of the poem, the author offers his love her conscience back, after she accepts him as her lover.

It seems to me that the entirety of this poem occurs within the mind of the man trying to acquire the love of a woman. It depicts the struggles that men go through in asking a member of the opposite sex out. The author discusses the worry and fear that goes through the mind of an individual in love and said individual’s plans for overcoming rejection, in this case through guilt.

The images of the poem convey the deeper meaning of a lover’s inner battle through simply the warmth, or coldness, of a hand. Without such imagery the poem would offer no deeper meaning and would not be thought provoking in the mildest sense. However, symbolism offers many different interpretations, no one being better than another, leading to arguments amongst many scholars. Such is the nature of poetry.