Tense changes are interesting in this poem--especially the ways in which Keats seems to move in and out of the past tense as he tells the story. He also seems to use the future tense with regard to Porphyro--which makes sense, I suppose, as he is always yearning away from the past to the future, and the possibilities that it brings.
Look at this picture by William Holman Hunt--isn't it interesting how he has imagined the scene? Everyone looks almost as though they are under the spell of Sleeping Beauty's castle, except that they're drunk after the party (rathr un-fairy-tale-like), while Porphyro and Madeleine creep past. Notice, though how this time they don't want to break the spell, whereas in the fairy-tale they do.
Actually, look at this site for some lovely, huge versions of paintings about the poem.
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