O Solitude! if I must dwell with thee

• Themes

  • nature
  • the mind
  • imagination
  • solitude
  • industrialisation
• Structure

  • fourteen-line sonnet that is contained within one block of text. The sonnet follows the traditional Petrarchan or Italian form.
  • poem is in one octet or set of eight lines, and one sestet or set of six.
  • The poem follows a rhyme scheme of ABBAABBA CDDCDC. It is the norm within Petrarchan sonnets to utilize the ABBA pattern in the first eight lines.
  • The next six are often for interpretation.
  • In regards to the meter, it is also very well structured. The lines follow a pattern of iambic pentameter.
• "Let it not be among the jumbled heap of murky buildings"


  • Talking about the city - a common theme in Keat's poems - the conditions of London were disgusting and Keats as a medical student would know what this means for health - he always wanted to escape the city and go to the countryside
  • If he has to be alone, he doesn't want it to be in the city
• "Its flowery slopes, it's crystal swell"


  • The lines are choppy and the syntax is incomplete. At the end of line three Keats doesn’t finish the sentence but interrupts it with a dash to indicate excitement. The short phrases suggest pleasure and immaturity as if the speaker doesn’t know what to describe first.
  • Keats' poetry is characteristically dense. Here we have the river described succinctly as ‘river crystal swell’, conveying the idea of movement and clarity..
• "Let me thy vigils keep 'mongst boughs pavillion'd"


  • The speaker is still addressing ‘Solitude’ when he refers to ‘thy vigils’, implying that he doesn’t mind wakefulness and alone-ness if he is enjoying nature.
  • The verb ‘pavillion’d’ is built from a noun and suggests the tented bowers and sanctuaries of Medieval Romances, a genre that Keats often refers to.
• "Yet the sweet converse of an innocent mind

  • the ‘sweet converse of an innocent mind’ is what would give him pleasure. open to interpretation, but the speaker seems to be seeking a companion who lacks worldliness or sophistication. That is, someone ‘innocent’.
  • This is an interesting insight into Keats' psyche. He later talks about ‘kindred spirits’, suggesting that he too has an ‘innocent mind’. For all his intelligence and education, he valued simple, open-minded people. The ‘thoughts refine’d’ also suggest purity. At this stage of his life he wasn’t tainted by cynicism.