La+Belle+Dame+Sans+Merci



  L __ a Belle Dame sans Merci __ //the beautiful lady without pity//  John Keats

 O what can ail thee, knight-at-arms, Alone and palely loitering? The sedge has withered from the lake, And no birds sing. O what can ail thee, knight-at-arms, So haggard and so woe-begone? The squirrel's granary is full, And the harvest's done.

I see a lily on thy brow, With anguish moist and fever dew, And on thy cheeks a fading rose Fast witherth too. "I met a lady in the meads, <span style="font-size: 70%; font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;">Full beautiful- a faery's child,  <span style="font-size: 70%; font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;">Her hair was long, her foot was light,  <span style="font-size: 70%; font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;">And her eyes were wild.  <span style="font-size: 70%; font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;"> "I made a garland for her head,  <span style="font-size: 70%; font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;">And bracelets too, and fragrant zone;  <span style="font-size: 70%; font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;">She looked at me as she did love  <span style="font-size: 70%; font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;">And made sweet moan. <span style="font-size: 70%; font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;">"I set her on my pacing steed, <span style="font-size: 70%; font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;">And nothing else saw all day long;  <span style="font-size: 70%; font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;">For sidelong would she bend, and sing  <span style="font-size: 70%; font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;">A faery's song.   <span style="font-size: 70%; font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;">"She found me roots of relish sweet,  <span style="font-size: 70%; font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;">And honey wild, and manna-dew;  <span style="font-size: 70%; font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;">And sure in language strange she said,  <span style="font-size: 70%; font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;">'I love thee true.' <span style="font-size: 70%; font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;">"She took me to her elfin grot, <span style="font-size: 70%; font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;">And there she wept and sighed full sore,  <span style="font-size: 70%; font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;">And there I shut her wild, wild eyes,  <span style="font-size: 70%; font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;">With kisses four.   <span style="font-size: 70%; font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;">"And there she lullèd me asleep,  <span style="font-size: 70%; font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;">And there I dreamed- ah! woe betide!- <span style="font-size: 70%; font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;">The latest dream I ever dreamed  <span style="font-size: 70%; font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;">On the cold hill's side. <span style="font-size: 70%; font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;">"I saw pale kings, and princes too, <span style="font-size: 70%; font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;">Pale warriors, death-pale were they all:  <span style="font-size: 70%; font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;">They cried- "//La Belle Dame sans Merci//  <span style="font-size: 70%; font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;">Hath thee in thrall!' <span style="font-size: 70%; font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;">"I saw their starved lips in the gloam, <span style="font-size: 70%; font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;">With horrid warning gapèd wide,  <span style="font-size: 70%; font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;">And I awoke, and found me here,  <span style="font-size: 70%; font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;">On the cold hill's side.   <span style="font-size: 70%; font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;">"And this is why I sojourn here  <span style="font-size: 70%; font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;">Alone and palely loitering,  <span style="font-size: 70%; font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;">Though the sedge is withered from the lake,  <span style="font-size: 70%; font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;">And no birds sing."

<span style="display: block; font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; text-align: left;">  A __Brief History of John Keats__

<span style="display: block; font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; text-align: left;"> <span style="font-size: 90%; font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;"> A highly accomplished poet, John Keats is often recognized as one of the most influential poets in English Romanticism. Despite his work being constantly criticized, his posthumous influence has inspired many others- namely, Alfred Tennyson, and Keats remains one of the most interesting characters in the history of poetry.

On October 31, 1795, John Keats was born in London. His father was a livery-stable keeper who died in 1805, via a throw from a horse. John was only eight years old. Six years later his mother died of tuberculosis, leaving John and his three younger siblings under the care of Richard Abbey and John Rowland Sandell. It was in 1810, while studying at Enfield School, that his interest in literature first sparked, tended by one Charles Cowden Clarke. However, Abbey withdrew him from his studies at fifteen and he was instead apprenticed to an apothecary. Although he received his license in 1816, he opted to devote his life to his poetry.

This decision pulled him into a literary circle led by Leigh Hunt, editor of the //Examiner.// Mr. Hunt published two of Keats' first sonnets, //On First Looking into Chapman's Homer// and //O Solitude//. In 1817, Keats published //Poems by John Keats//, a relatively comprehensive collection of his work up to that point in time. The next year, he released a Greek myth-inspired epic romance, //Endymion,// which did not really dig its niche in the public's heart and, for a time, severely discouraged Keats' muse.

During this period, Keats returned home to care for his younger brother, Tom who was ill with tuberculosis- a disease that would later prove to truly have plagued his family. During the illness, Keats did little- he had made the acquaintance of a young girl called Fanny Brawne, but his pain over his brother's nearing death blinded out what would eventually become attraction, then engagement. Although financial instability would never enable their marriage, a fact that Keats often found himself despondent over, from Fanny Brawne to Rome and his subsequent death was the most productive period of Keats' life. It was soon after his meeting with Fanny that Keats truly made himself deserving of the title great, with three of the most strikingly beautiful poems ever written: //Ode on a Grecian Urn//, //Ode to a Nightingale// and //Ode on Melancholy//, and until his death, Keats continued with some of his most famous poems. //La Belle Dame sans Merci//. //Lamia//. //To Autumn//. //Hyperion//, though never finished, is still considered a great work, and although they differed a little from his more 'serious' writing, Keats wrote a number of sonnets on or to Fanny.

Who knows what John Keats could have become, should he have lived past his twenty-fifth year? It is a great pity that by 1821, he'd succumbed completely to the illness that had already ravaged his family, and, in the company of Joseph Severn, who became a great friend and companion of Keats, as well as the artist of several of his portraits, John Keats died at 11 o' clock on Friday, the 23rd of February. <span style="display: block; font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; text-align: left;">

<span style="font-size: 70%; font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;"> || Alone and palely loitering? The sedge has withered from the lake, And no birds sing.
 * = <span style="display: block; font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; text-align: left;"> P__araphrase__
 * = <span style="display: block; font-size: 80%; font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; text-align: center;">O what can ail thee, knight-at-arms,

O what can ail thee, knight-at-arms, So haggard and so woe-begone? The squirrel's granary is full, And the harvest's done.

I see a lily on thy brow, With anguish moist and fever dew, And on thy cheeks a fading rose Fast witherth too.

"I met a lady in the meads, Full beautiful- a faery's child, Her hair was long, her foot was light, And her eyes were wild.

"I made a garland for her head, And bracelets too, and fragrant zone; She looked at me as she did love And made sweet moan.

"I set her on my pacing steed, And nothing else saw all day long; For sidelong would she bend, and sing A faery's song.

"She found me roots of relish sweet, And honey wild, and manna-dew; And sure in language strange she said, 'I love thee true.'

"She took me to her elfin grot, And there she wept and sighed full sore, And there I shut her wild, wild eyes, With kisses four.

"And there she lullèd me asleep, And there I dreamed- ah! woe betide!- The latest dream I ever dreamed On the cold hill's side.

"I saw pale kings, and princes too, Pale warriors, death-pale were they all: They cried- "La Belle Dame sans Merci Hath thee in thrall!'

"I saw their starved lips in the gloam, With horrid warning gapèd wide, And I awoke, and found me here, On the cold hill's side.

"And this is why I sojourn here Alone and palely loitering, Though the sedge is withered from the lake, And no birds sing." ||= <span style="display: block; font-size: 80%; font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; text-align: center;">What is troubling you, knight-at-arms, All alone and waiting about? The grass has died off around the lake And the birds don't sing.

What is troubling you, knight-at-arms, So tired and immersed in sorrow? The squirrel’s storehouse is full And the harvest’s over.

You are as pale as a lily flower And sweating, as if you suffer from illness, And on your cheeks the blush of life Quickly fades away.

“I met a lady in the meadow, As beautiful as a faery’s child, With long hair, a dancer's step And wild eyes.

“I made a crown of flowers for her hair, Bracelets, and a belt of flowers She looked at me as if she loved [me] And gave a soft moan.

“I set her on my restless horse And my mind was consumed by her presence For sideways she would bend and sing The song of a faery.

“She found me sweet relish roots And wild honey, and the hardened, sugary sap of certain trees, And surely, in a foreign language she said ‘I love you truly.'

“She took me to her faery grotto And there she wept and sighed strongly, And there I put her gently to sleep With four kisses.

“And there she calmed me to sleep And then I dreamed- and suffering befalls! The last dream I ever dreamed On the cold side of the hill.

“I saw pale kings, and princes as well, And pale warriors, all ghostlike and deathly, They cried- ‘The beautiful lady without pity Has enslaved you!’

“I saw their perishing lips in the gloom Gaped wide with horrid warning, And I woke up, and found myself here, On the cold side of the hill.

“And this is why I linger here, All alone and waiting about, Though the grass has died off around the lake And the birds don't sing.” || <span style="display: block; font-size: 80%; font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; text-align: center;">

<span style="display: block; font-size: 80%; font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; text-align: center;"> <span style="display: block; font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; text-align: left;"> <span style="display: block; font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; text-align: left;"> P__oetic Structure__  <span style="display: block; font-size: 80%; font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; text-align: center;"> <span style="display: block; font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; text-align: left;">   <span style="display: block; font-size: 80%; font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; text-align: center;"> <span style="display: block; font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; text-align: left;"> <span style="display: block; font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: 13px; font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;"> One of the most common forms of poetry throughout the centuries has been the folk ballad. In La Belle Dame sans Merci, Keats utilises a traditional structure, but maintains much of his own writing style when doing so- keeping the pastoral, almost colloquial flavor while adding in the intruigue of his own poetic fashion.

<span style="display: block; font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; text-align: left;"> <span style="display: block; font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: 13px; font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;"> Taking the French title (and much of the plotline) from a fifteenth-century French court poet, Alain Chartier, Keats maintains the quatrain, alternating stress lines and ABCB rhyme scheme of a typical folk ballad, but the last line in each stanza is catalectic. It is significantly shorter with only four or five syllables each (two feet), as opposed to the normal eight syllables per line (four feet). This not only emphasises the last line of each stanza, but it also lends an aura of discord to the poem that, had the line been stretched to full length, may have been lost. Although La Belle Dame sans Merci is only twelve stanzas long (forty-eight lines) - which could be interpreted as a nod to the knight's all-too-brief romance-, it is distinctly powerful, and is one of the most famous traditional ballads ever written. <span style="display: block; font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; text-align: left;"> <span style="display: block; font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: 13px; font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;">     <span style="display: block; font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; text-align: left;"> <span style="display: block; font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: 13px; font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;"> <span style="display: block; font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; text-align: left;"> <span style="display: block; font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: 13px; font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;">

<span style="display: block; font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; text-align: left;"> <span style="display: block; font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; text-align: left;"> <span style="display: block; font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; text-align: left;">John Keats uses allusion in La Belle Dame sans Merci, when he casually references a faery to stimulate an exuberant mental picture. He uses allusion in the phrases: "Full beautiful- A faerie's child", "A faery's song", and "elfin grot." His use of allusion exemplifies the beautiful woman's mystique and awe aspiring qualities. Keats uses emjambement (continuation of lines without punctuation) in: “And on thy cheeks a fading rose/ Fast witherth too.” or “The latest dream I ever dreamed/ On the cold hill's side." This creates a rythmic flow to the poem. John Keats uses metaphors and symbolism when he compares "a lily on thy brow" to paleness, and "a fading rose" to fading beauty, stimulating vivid imagery. This imagery brings life to the knight's distinctive sentiments and emotions. Keats uses repetition by repeating: "On the cold hill's side" and "O what can ail thee, knight-at-arms." His use of repetition adds to the smooth qualities and enchanting storyline, creating a consistent ballad. Keats uses the abcb rhyming scheme to compose the subtle rhythm of a smooth and flowing storyline, instead of using a rigid rhyming scheme (e.g. abab, abba) for a more direct approach.   || <span style="display: block; font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; text-align: left;"> <span style="display: block; font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; text-align: left;"> <span style="display: block; font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; text-align: left;"> <span style="display: block; font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; text-align: left;"> A__nalysis and Meaning__
 * = <span style="display: block; font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; text-align: left;"> P__oetic Devices__

<span style="display: block; font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; text-align: left;"> <span style="display: block; font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; text-align: left;">//La Belle Dame sans Merci//: literally, "The Beautiful Lady without Pity/Mercy." One of John Keats' most famous poems, although originally waved off by the poet as a work far short of a masterpiece, //La Belle Dame sans Merci// is truly beautiful in its ambiguous nature- although we cannot really define the real meaning of the poem, we can marvel at the possibilities.

Narratively, the story is clear. An anonymous passerby comes upon a knight in a saddened state and asks what is wrong. The knight answers with his story of love and abandonment for and by a beautiful lady. The characters are described in a minimalist manner, simple language lends a feeling of folksiness, and the mix of realistic and unearthly detail give the poem an aura of mystery.

The first character, although not actually introduced, is the speaker, the narrator of the poem. He (or she, for we don’t really know) appears to just be a concerned passerby who, in reciting the poem, describes no more than what factually happened. But taking character analyzation a step further yields some interesting possibilities. Perhaps the speaker imagines the knight’s “woe-begone” condition, and the knight is not so ailed after all. Perhaps there isn’t a knight at all, and the poem is simply the falsity of a madman.

In stanzas I and II, the first line (“O, what can ail thee, knight-at-arms,”) is the same. However, by way of an institution called incremental repetition, in which a line is repeated with small variation, the second line of stanza I is “Alone and palely loitering” and the second line of stanza II is “So haggard and so woe-begone.” In the first stanza, the speaker describes the knight’s physical state (which, if we assume that the speaker is an unbiased, rational sort), is exactly how the knight was. However, in the second stanza, the speaker describes a mental or emotional state- is it merely what the speaker believes the knight to feel, or is the speaker more of an omnipotent sort, who knows truly what the knight feels?

In stanza III, the knight is described using allusions to flowers and nature. His paleness, pallor, is like that of a lily- a traditional symbol of death. The rose, beauty, “fast withereth” from his cheeks. The dew, perspiration, on his forehead, is sickness as it pulls him closer to dying.

The description of the area the knight loiters in is particularly interesting, though. Why, asks the speaker, is the knight hanging around in a wither’d, songless place like this? But perhaps there is hope. The squirrels granary is full- enough to last the winter and bring a new rising in the spring. Perhaps our poor knight has a chance, once he overcomes his longing for his long lost lady.

The knight’s tale can be split up relatively cleanly into three parts: the meeting and courtship, then the middle, the climax of the story, where the knight is taken back to her 'elfin grot,' and finally when he ends up alone on the hill. At the end of the poem, his speech echoes the first stanzas. This is an example of circular movement in the poem, which, like many ancient cultures believed of the circle, lends a feeling of eternity. Clearly, the knight will be hanging around for a while.

As the knight begins speaking, he obviously holds dominance over the lady. “I met,” he says. “I made,” he says. “I set her.” But his status changes at line 29, when la dame “took [him] to her elfin grot,” when she “wept and sighed full sore,” when she “lulléd him asleep.” Is this the poetic manifestation of her growing enchantment over him?

Over one sixth of the poem is dedicated to his dream, the “latest dream [he] ever dreamed on the cold hill’s side.” In this dream (dare we call it a nightmare?), the knight sees kings, princes and warriors- interestingly, all men of consequence. These are, presumably, la belle dame’s prior lovers. Although political satire could be intended, it is also conceivable that notre femme fatale simply likes this kind of guy. Or perhaps the knight naturally dreams of his own class.

Whatever is meant by the dream, that “is why [he] sojourn[s] [t]here, alone and palely loitering.” His use of ‘sojourn’ perhaps implies an extended stay, and the repetition of stanza I encourages that, given the circular nature of the poem.

La Belle Dame is the third major character, and like the others, she is shadowy in nature. Although we can somewhat see her effect on the knight, we don’t actually understand her as a character. Why? Well, for one, we see her through the knight and the knight through the narrator. There’s a three person margin of error here, for the knight doesn’t understand her, the narrator doesn’t understand the knight, and obviously, we-the-readers don’t completely understand the narrator, otherwise there’d be no need for poetry analysis. We already understand why we don’t understand the narrator. It’s because poems are shifty little creatures, forests in which information readily hides, and some information isn’t even in the poem in the first place. We understand why the narrator doesn’t understand the knight. It’s because neither the narrator or the knight are well-defined characters. But why doesn’t the knight understand la dame? Well, as a mortal, the knight isn’t even supposed to understand the whims of a “faery’s child.” In fact, they don’t even speak the same language, which may work out alright (See: “Michelle, ma belle,” Beatles, 1965), but in this case, the “language strange” with which la dame speaks doesn’t help much.

Because la dame is such a shaded character, there are many assumptions or ideas we can formulate about her. Was she just imagination personified? Sometimes it seems so. She sings a “faery’s song,” where the word ‘faery’ definitely appears to symbolize imagination (magic being, as far as we can tell, nonexistent), and ‘song’, or music or more broadly, art, is normally inspired by it. In that case, perhaps the knight was absorbed in the pleasures of an ideal world- beauty, love, music- even food (in the days of less surplus, honey and other such sweet treats were most definitely items of an ideal world), and his refusal to return to the real world led to his downfall. Perhaps the denizens in his dream were the people of the real world calling him back, for although often we may not describe perfectly healthy people as pale and starved, compared to la dame’s ideal beauty, anyone could look like that. <span style="display: block; font-size: 70%; font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; text-align: center;"> <span style="display: block; font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; text-align: left;"> <span style="display: block; font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; text-align: left;">A very different view on the lady is the most commonly accepted interpretation of her, as the archetypal femme fatale (literally ‘deadly woman’ in French.) Seductive, beautiful, vowing her love and giving him gifts, she leads him to destruction, as the dream he has would imply that she’s done to countless others. It makes sense, as well- in the folk ballad genre, to which //La Belle Dame// belongs, love and how it destroys people is a common theme. <span style="display: block; font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; text-align: left;"> <span style="display: block; font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; text-align: left;">The poem is likely vague by design; intended to make the reader sit and think, wonder what it could mean- just as scholars have done for decades after he'd written it. There are obvious possibilities and there are obscure ideas- many, perhaps, that have not been mentioned- and each is as likely as the last when the question of what the poem actually means arises. When Keats died at twenty-five, he took the last chance to ever know his intent with him, and though critics and scholars may think and argue for centuries more, the poem shall remain as ambiguous as the day it was written- wherein lies, perhaps, the true beauty of La Belle Dame sans Merci.

<span style="display: block; font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; text-align: left;"> <span style="display: block; font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; text-align: left;">   <span style="display: block; font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; text-align: left;"> <span style="display: block; font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; text-align: left;"> <span style="display: block; font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; text-align: left;"><span style="display: block; color: rgb(109, 59, 88); text-align: center;">References/Works Cited Poetic Term: Onomatopoeia

<span style="display: block; font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; text-align: left;"> <span style="display: block; font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; text-align: left;">