La Belle Dame sans Merci Flashcards
‘alone and palely loitering’
The repetition of this at the end of the poem suggests that the lingering will go on indefinitely. Also gives weight to the fact that the action of the poem is minimal and that the importance of the general atmosphere supersedes the importance of the plot. Cyclical structure reflects the cycle of life where when they first meet he is innocent but as the poem continues we can see how the actions of the lady lead to the inevitable and tragic death of the knight. Lexical field of isolation.
‘the sedge has withered from the lake and no birds sing’
Grey landscape symbolises psychological ramifications of deep emotional attachment. The purgatorial space signals a sense of entrapment. Lack of life and harmony in nature. The pace of the first verse is slow, and this line is particularly heavy, with a dragging rhythm, appropriate for the depressed mood of the knight. Link the natural imagery with the conventions of the romatics as a poetic genre.
‘knight-at-arms so haggard and so woe-begone’
The status of a knight as strong, brave and noble is juxtaposed with the situation. Note the repetition of ‘so’, to reinforce the knight’s misery. Also, the repetition of the opening question ‘what can ail thee?’ is a refrain that leads into the story. Link the status of the knight to Aristotle’s classification of a tragedy, the tragic hero falls from grace.
‘a fading rose fast withereth too’
Metaphor for dying love. Echoes of nature and their connection. Roses are often associated with love in Western culture (hence all the advertisements around Valentine’s Day), but the knight’s “rose” is “fading” and “wither[ing].” Sounds like a pretty clear metaphor for the end of a romantic relationship. But like the lily, the rose describes the knight’s complexion. The rose is “fading” from the knight’s “cheeks.” So the rose metaphor is doing double duty - it’s describing both his “fading” love affair, and his increasingly pale complexion.
‘full beautiful - a faery’s child’
Idealisation of what a woman should be, her beauty blinds him. She is almost supernatural and illusory. Vulnerability and innocence.
‘her foot was light and her eyes were wild’
Not as she appears. Unpredictable, exasperates a sense of unease. We see her enigmatic side her supernatural appearance suggests there may be something fictitious or illusory about her charms. The surprising addition of “wild” to the more archetypal beauty of the Belle Dame’s “long” hair and “light” foot is saved for the final line of this stanza, giving the reader the same shock the speaking knight had when her eyes first flashed at him. It also suggests the untamed energy of the faery, beast and animal like, uncontrollable by the knight.
‘she looked at me as she did love’
Not ‘and’ suggests there is something not quite right. More so a representation of love performing false hope.
‘language strange’
He doesn’t fully understand her. The apparent strangeness in the way she expresses her love undermines any sense of unadulterated, sincere feeling.
‘wept… wild wild eyes’
Simple, traditional love story is complicated by the lady’s unexplained outburst.
‘i saw pale kings and princes too…death pale’
The knight’s vision does not so much illuminate the narrative as add another layer of mystery. “p” plosive = aggressive - victims of treachery before, connotations of death and coldness
‘horrid warning’
A clear indication that the knight’s relationship with the lady is perilous.
