La Belle Dame Sans Merci Introduction The Title

La Belle Dame Sans Merci

Introduction • The Title: The beautiful Lady without pity • The title was taken from an old French court poem by Alain Chartier. Keats wrote the poem on April 21, 1819, about 2 years before he died. . It appears in the course of a letter to his brother George. At the time, Keats was upset over a trap that had been played on his brother by a lover. He was undecided about whether to enter into a relationship with Fanny Brawne then. All these experiences probably went into the making of this powerful ballad.

Make some notes on Context • • Keats was one of the leading writers of the Romantic movement, along with other poets such as Wordsworth, Shelley and Byron He however was a ‘later’ Romantic and explored Romantic themes of the power of love and nature. Keats was particularly interested in art and culture; in his famous poems Ode on a Grecian Urn and Ode to a Nightingale, he explores the permanence of art and its ability to outlive its creator – Keats saw life as transitory and brief, while he believed that art and beauty could live on to inspire people in the distant future Romantic poetry was characterised by lyrical, descriptive language La Belle Dame Sans Merci was written not long before Keats’ death from tuberculosis Both his parent’s and his sister died from TB – as he himself was. Initially he trained as a ‘doctor’ (apothecary) but gave this up to become a writer He would have been aware of the serious nature of his illness when writing the poem; it is possible that this influenced its subject and tone Keats died at the young age of 26 in Rome.

Romanticism • The Romantic period in English literature is considered from the mid 1780 s to the mid-1820. There are two generations in the Romantic movement. The first generation included William Blake and William Wordsworth. And the most important and influential poets of the second generation are Lord Byron, Percy Bysshe Shelly and John Keats. Besides, the Romantic movement arose mainly because of the French Revolution. The effect of the revolution was extraordinary. At that time, the whole social world is under a unsteady condition. So, there are very important common interests and concerns cared by the poets.

• The Story: • The narrator/speaker meets a sickly looking knight and asks him what the matter is. The knight recounts the story of how he met a beautiful, wildlooking lady in a meadow who was half human and half fairy. After a day of love, when both the knight and the woman exchanged gifts, the beautiful woman sang him to sleep and the knight had a terrible dream: he saw pale kings, princes, and who told him that she that ‘La Belle Dame sans Merci’ had him in her power. When he woke, he was cold and alone on the side of a hill. That, he tells the narrator/speaker is why he looks unwell and wanders aimlessly.

Structure of the poem Many critics say the poem has 2 sections but I think it has 4. Critics say the first 3 stanzas are the narrator/speaker asking a knight what is wrong and the remaining 9 stanzas are the knight explaining what has happened. But I feel these 9 stanzas can be divided into 3 sections - stanzas IV – to halfway though VI – the knight explains what he did/gave to the Lady - VI to IX – what the Lady did/gave to the knight - X and XI are the knight’s dream - The last stanza is largely a repeat of the first stanza

First 3 stanzas – the speaker and the knight • We are given a clear setting/time of year here: what is it and how does this affect the tone? • In what way do lines 3 and 4 of stanzas 1 and 2 present contrasting (jutxaposing) views of life? What might be the significance of this? • In the first two lines of stanzas 1 and 2, the anonymous speaker asks a question. The first line of each question is identical while the second lines differ. What is the difference and how does this build an impression of the knight? (This repetition with slight variation is called incremental repetition and is characteristic of the folk ballad. ) • Stanza 3 uses metaphors of flowers what do these suggest along with the repetition of the fricative ‘f’ in this stanza • What impact do think the impact of the repetition of the fricative ‘f’ has in stanza 3 ? • As you read these opening stanzas, what do you notice about the rhythm and meter of the poem? Look in particular at the final line of each stanza.

Stanzas IV – VI - the knight takes over the narrative • In stanzas 4, 5 and 6, how does Keats use language to suggest the dominance of the knight? • How does Keats use language in stanza 4 to create an impression of ‘la belle dame’? In what way does she seem enchanting and mysterious, yet also seductive and dangerous? • How does the image of a “fairy” suggest ? What about her hair and her eyes ? • How can we tell that the knight is utterly enthralled by this lady? Is there a suggestion of supernatural enchantment? • What could the penultimate line in Stanza V suggest ? • Do you think there any anything connotations in Stanza V ? • What does the 2 nd line of stanza 6 suggest about the way the knight was thinking ?

Stanza VI to VII – The Lady • • How has the dominance shifted in stanzas 7 and 8? In stanza 7 what are the biblical allusions and why are they there ? Does ‘language strange’ indicate he could trust her ? In stanza 8, how does Keats use language to suggest that the world described by the knight is remote and captivating? • In contrast with this infatuation however, Keats introduces a hint of sadness in the eighth stanza when the beautiful lady ‘wept, and sigh’d full sore’. This could be interpreted as being part of her seduction, or is she herself doomed to capture young knights and spirit them away – possibly hinted at in stanza 10? • What is the effect of the repetition of ‘wild’ as well as the sibilance in stanza 8? • What is the effect of the repetition of ‘and’ in these stanzas?

Stanza IX – XI – The dream • How is the knight’s voice and language presented in stanza 9. • How does his tale of woe contrast with the gentleness of the words ‘lulled’ and ‘dreamt’? • In stanza 10, what is the significance of a) the status of the men he dreams about, and b) their paleness? • Can a political meaning be read into the poem based on the fact that the men are all kings, princes and warriors? Or is there a simpler explanation for their status? • Explore the nightmarish imagery used in stanza 11. What is the effect of the warning of these previous victims? What is the significance of the place the knight finds himself in when he wakes? • How does the final stanza suggest that the knight is back among the realities of the world? • The use of the word ‘sojourn’ implies the knight will suffer in this way for some time – is there any other evidence to suggest his entrapment in the final stanza? • In what way is the ending ambiguous?

Ballad • Ballad is a poem (song) that tells a simple story and every detail and every connotation must be carefully considered. Besides, In this poem, why they acted as described is never discussed because it is also a characteristic of Ballads. • Ballads are written in four line stanzas, and often the second and fourth lines rhyme.

Rhythm and Rhyme • Ballad Stanza: four lines with alternating iambic tetrameter and iambic trimeter. • “La Belle Dame sans Merci” utilizes ballad stanzas in which the first three lines are iambic tetrameter and the fourth line is shorter, usually with four or five syllables. What is the impact of this form ? • The rhyme is repeated throughout – ABCB. This is the ballad format that is a result of the oral tradition of the ballad and lets the listener know what is happening and what is important

AO 4 The writing style of the Romantic poets are unique. Keats associated poems with dreaming. Moreover, some traits of Romanticism we can find in Keats’ poem are that there are fascination of nature, wandering, and the sickness as opposed to health. Also, emotionalism is the trait of the poem, and it means there is feeling expressed, not reason. What’s more, the poem was written in antique forms. He used his imagination, tried to elicit the atmosphere of ancient times. And there came a medieval type poem. What other poems in the anthology could this connect to ?

AO 5 Which of these interpretations do you agree with • The lady symbolises imagination. She takes the knight to an ideal world; he becomes enraptured by the pleasures of the imagination—but the visionary experience is fleeting; the human being cannot live in this realm, a fact which the dreamer chooses to ignore. The knight's refusal to let go of the joys of the imagination destroys his life in the real world. • The lady represents the ideal, and the poem is about the relationship of the real and the ideal. The knight rejects the real world with its real fulfillments for an ideal which cannot exist in the real world. In giving himself entirely to the dream of the ideal, he destroys his life in the real world. • The lady is evil and belongs to a tradition of ‘femmes fatales’. She seduces him with her beauty, with her accomplishments, with her avowal of love, and with sensuality. The destructiveness of love is a common theme in the folk ballad. How would a feminist view this meaning ? • The knight is self-deluded. He enthralls himself by placing the ‘belle dame’ on his horse and making garlands for her. He ignores warning signs and continues to desire her, despite the wasteland he finds himself in and despite the warning of his dream. The poem is a warning about obsessional love.