Throughout the history of literature, imagery and symbolism have played an important role in how literary works are interpreted and in how these interpretations have changed over time. Not only are imagery and symbolism important in novels and short stories, but they also form the basis of poetry and how poetry relates to the reader. Symbolism and imagery are most important in poetry because poems are generally longer than novels and short stories; therefore it is more difficult to create a poem that can have various meanings while remaining quite short. What is particularly important is the time period in which the poems were written, how diction was used, and what certain words meant at that time as opposed to their meaning today. One such example comes from the Romantic era and is the poem “The Eve of St. Peter”. . Agnes”, by John Keats. In “The Eve of Saint Agnes,” imagery, diction, and symbolism combine to outwardly represent the climax of the poem: it is the moment when Porphyro and Madeline come together and mate. This also extends to the author's view of reality and imagination, the climax is also a point of imagination versus reality in the context of Porphyro and Madeline. Leading up to the poem's climax are key words, phrases and of course images that symbolize what is to come, the union of the two teenagers – a coldness and warmth that reflect the way youth and adulthood are perceived. The use of imagination against reality is most clearly evidenced in the stanzas before and after the climax of the poem, as it causes the reader to question whether or not the story is the Madeline's dream or if it is actually real. The opening stanzas of “The Eve of Saint Agnes” have a chilling, bitter imagery that brings the reader from the middle of the paper...to reality. The Beadman and Angela succumb to death and reality because they lost sight of what it meant to dream and imagine, as found in the second stanza; “He passes by; and his feeble mind cannot think how much they may suffer in frozen hoods and mails. »Works CitedFogle, Richard Harter. The imagery of Keats and Shelley; A comparative study. Chapel Hill: Univ. by North Carolina Press, 1949. Print.Gradman, Barry. “The eve of Saint Agnes: the honeyed middle of the night.” Metamorphosis in Keats. New York: New York University Press, 1980. 64-79. Print. Wasserman, Earl R. and John Keats. “The Eve of Saint Agnes.” Finest Tone: The Major Poems of Keats. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins Press, 1953. 84-137. Print.Wigod, Jacob. The Dark Room: The Growth of Tragic Consciousness in Keats. Salzburg: Inst. f. English. Sprache u. Literature, Univ. Salzburg, 1972. Print.