A poet's heart under the hammer
On the Sale by Auction of Keats' Love Letters
"Who break the crystal of a poet's heart"
Poem
These are the letters which Endymion wroteTo one he loved in secret, and apart.And now the brawlers of the auction martBargain and bid for each poor blotted note,Ay! for each separate pulse of passion quoteThe merchant’s price. I think they love not artWho break the crystal of a poet’s heartThat small and sickly eyes may glare and gloat.
Is it not said that many years ago,In a far Eastern town, some soldiers ranWith torches through the midnight, and beganTo wrangle for mean raiment, and to throwDice for the garments of a wretched man,Not knowing the God’s wonder, or His woe?
In brief
SummaryThe speaker reflects on an auction of the love letters that Keats, here called Endymion, wrote in secret to the one he loved. The dealers of the sale-room bargain for 'each poor blotted note' and set a merchant's price on every 'pulse of passion', and the speaker judges that people who break open a poet's heart for gloating eyes do not love art. In the sestet he compares them to the soldiers who, long ago in an Eastern town, threw dice for the garments of 'a wretched man', not knowing the God's wonder or His woe.
Key themes
"These are the letters which Endymion wrote"
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The octave presents the letters: 'These are the letters which Endymion wrote / To one he loved in secret, and apart.' Endymion stands for Keats, named in the title. Now 'the brawlers of the auction mart / Bargain and bid for each poor blotted note', and for 'each separate pulse of passion' quote the merchant's price. The speaker gives his verdict: 'I think they love not art / Who break the crystal of a poet's heart / That small and sickly eyes may glare and gloat.'
The sestet turns to a comparison, framed as a question. 'Is it not said', the speaker asks, that many years ago, 'In a far Eastern town', soldiers ran through the midnight with torches, began 'To wrangle for mean raiment', and threw 'Dice for the garments of a wretched man, / Not knowing the God's wonder, or His woe?' The scene recalls the Gospel account of the soldiers casting lots for Christ's clothes, so the sale of a poet's private letters becomes a small repetition of that sacrilege.
Characters
Keats
The poet as Endymion
Named in the title and called 'Endymion' in the first line. He wrote the letters 'To one he loved in secret, and apart'. In the sestet he is set beside the 'wretched man' whose garments soldiers diced for, so that the sale of his letters becomes a kind of desecration.
The bidders
Brawlers of the auction mart
The dealers and buyers who 'Bargain and bid for each poor blotted note' and put a price on each 'pulse of passion'. The speaker says they 'love not art', and likens them to the soldiers who diced for a wretched man's garments.
The wretched man
The God unrecognised
The figure of the sestet, whose garments soldiers dice for 'In a far Eastern town'. He is not named, but 'the God's wonder, or His woe' marks him as Christ, unrecognised by the men who share out his clothes.
Themes
Art against commerce
The octave sets the language of love against the language of trade. Keats's letters are 'each poor blotted note' and 'each separate pulse of passion', while the buyers are 'brawlers of the auction mart' who 'Bargain and bid' and quote 'The merchant's price'. The speaker's verdict, 'I think they love not art', denies that collecting a poet's relics is any kind of reverence.
Privacy exposed
The letters were written 'To one he loved in secret, and apart', and the sale drags that secret into view. The image of breaking 'the crystal of a poet's heart' makes the heart fragile and clear, and the only purpose of the breaking is 'That small and sickly eyes may glare and gloat'. The speaker's anger is at the exposure as much as at the price.
The poet as Christ
The sestet raises the grievance to a sacred level. Soldiers in 'a far Eastern town' wrangle 'for mean raiment' and throw 'Dice for the garments of a wretched man', not knowing 'the God's wonder, or His woe'. Setting the auction beside that scene makes Keats a suffering, holy figure, and the bidders ignorant men dividing his remains.
Context
The title names the occasion: a public auction of love letters written by John Keats. The poem is a sonnet in the Italian form, with an octave rhyming ABBAABBA that sets out the grievance and a sestet rhyming CDDCDC that answers it with a question about the soldiers who diced for Christ's garments. The whole of that sestet is a single sentence, ending on 'His woe'.
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