John Keats: The Eve of St. Agnes

John Keats was an English poet who unfortunately died at the young age of 24. His poetry was constantly being attacked. He was known for his elaborate word choice and sensual imagery, which his publishers constantly had to ask him to edit.
In his lengthy poem, The Eve of St. Agnes, Keats describes a young woman who is taking part in St. Agnes’ day, which as legend has it, a young virgin who takes part in certain rituals may dream of her future husband. Agnes is the patron saint of virgins. I love the way Keats describes the legend in stanza 6,

“…Young virgins might have visions of delight,
And soft adorings from their loves receive,
Upon the honey’d middle of the night,
If ceremonies due they did aright…
Of Heaven with upward eyes for all that they desire (p. 427)”.

The idea of having a dream of your future husband and it being a ritualistic thing that one partakes in seems rather strange to me, but the words that Keats chooses to describe the scene makes it seem like such a romantic and elegant experience. Keats goes on to describe Madeline as she “sigh’d for Agnes’ dreams, the sweetest of the year (p. 427)”. The reader easily sees that Madeline is thoroughly looking forward to this experience and it means a lot to her to know who her future husband may be.
Then in Stanza 9, Keats writes

“...Meantime, across the moors,
Had come young Porphyro,with heart on fire
For Madeline.
All saints to give him sight of Madeline…
That he might gaze and worship all unseen:
Perchance speak, kneel, touch, kiss-- in sooth such things have been (p. 428)”.

According to the footnote, “porphyra” signifies royalty and nobility and was also an antagonist of Christianity a few decades before the martyrdom of St. Agnes. We can already see a sort of Romeo and Juliet story possibly coming forth; a story of a young boy and girl from different families, but deeply in love. For the next few stanzas, Keats describes a situation very similar to Romeo and Juliet where the maid helps Porphyno get into Madeliene’s chambers without the rest of the family knowing. Madeline awakes and Keats writes in stanza 34 -35,

“the vision of her sleep:
There was a painful change, that night expell'd
The blisses of her dream so pure and deep
at which fair Madeline began to weep,
And moan forth witless words with many a sigh;
While still her gaze on Porphyro would keep;
Who knelt, with joined hands and piteous eye,
Fearing to move or speak, she look’d so dreamingly
… Oh leave me not in this eternal woe,
For if thou diest, my Love, I know not where to go (p. 433)”.

In Dr. Glance’s pod cast he hints that this story may not be as simple as a love story, but there is some sort of irony about their love. In this stanza, I have a hard time pointing out anything that shows that what they feel for each other is anything but true love. Was anyone else able to find something that would point to anything? One thing I did struggle with is figuring out which parts was Madeline dreaming and which parts were reality.