The Eve of St. Mark
The Eve of St. Mark is a fragment of a poem by John Keats. It was written in February of 1819, and it is usally assumed to be written about a legend that says that if you watch the church from 11:00 to 1:00 on St. Mark's Eve (April 24), for three years in a row, then on the third year you will see images of those who are going to die that year pass by into the church. The poem, as it stands, says nothing of this, but simply talks of a young girl, Bertha, sitting up late reading on St. Mark's Eve. Keats' probably first heard of this legend from Isabella Jones, who also inspired "The Eve of St. Agnes," written about the same time. If that is indeed the subject of this poem, as one can only assume, it can be speculated as well that it was his own haunting fear of death that made him abandon it. Sometime in 1818 Keats became convinced that he had exactly three years left to live; he was almost exactly right. There is no evidence that by 1819 this fear had left him; quite the contrary. Much of his work of this year is covered in death-imagery. "Now more than ever seems it rich to die," he wrote, in "Ode to a Nightingale." "When I have fears that I may cease to be," and "This living hand, now warm and capable" are also good examples. While medical knowledge at the time would have made it impossible for him to know for certain that he was already infected with tuberculosis, there is plenty of evidence that he was at least marginally aware of it. Not only was he trained as a surgeon himself, but he had already watched his mother and younger brother die of the same illness, and by 1819 was taking considerable pains to avoid over-exerting himself, and to stay out of the cold.
However, with no complete thoughts or story, we are left with, well, what Keats does best. Here we have a collection of images, or a lonely walk through a quiet country town at dusk. A young girl sits up late, surrounded by shadows and quiet sounds.
- "The Eve of St. Mark", in The Poetical Works of John Keats (1884)
- "The Eve of St. Mark", in The complete poetical works and letters of John Keats (1899), edited by Horace Elisha Scudder