La Belle Dame sans Merci Flashcards
John Keats
Who says this;
What does it show?
“Roots of relish sweet…honey wild and manna-dew”
La Belle:
The food she feeds him not only have sense of erotica to them but they are also celestial food (what Jesus fed the Israelites), biblical reference, this shows her supernatural powers.
Who says this;
What does it show?
“I love thee true”
La Belle:
She has given herself not only physically but emotionally too. An act that would have been frowned upon by Shakespearian audiences as sex before marriage was deemed as an act against God.
Who says this;
What does it show?
“Language strange”
La Belle:
She isn’t understood by the knight.
Who says this;
What does it show?
“And there she wept and sighed full sore”
La Belle:
She’s given herself before marriage, something that Elizabethan society would have frowned upon as they were extremely patriarchal.
Who says this;
What does it show?
“And her eyes were wild”
La Belle:
Zoomorphism, depicts her to be animalistic, dangerous.
Who says this;
What does it show?
“Full beautiful - a faery’s child”
La Belle:
Implies she could be a trickster as fairy’s are believed to be devious. Allusions to Midsummers - Puck.
Who says this;
What does it show?
“I set her on my pacing steed, and nothing else saw all day long”
The Knight:
Myopia - he is infatuated by her beauty and therefore does not see anything else. Double entendre, he is controlling her.
Who says this;
What does it show?
“I sojourn here, alone and palely loitering”
The Knight:
He will be taken y death soon, he is back to his lonely state, emphasises the destruction that love brings, it is a luxury while it lasts but once it is over you’re alone and back to reality.
Who says this;
What does it show?
“Pale kings and princes too, pale warriors”
The Knight:
Hubris - all 3 powerful male figures that have been tricked by La Belle.
Who says this;
What does it show?
“Garland…bracelets…and fragrant zone”
The Knight:
These while on the surface appear romantic as they’re alluded to as gifts, but the objects are all circular like a wedding band, showing him wanting to control her.
Who says this;
What does it show?
“A faery’s song”
The Knight:
He doesn’t understand her, he likes her beauty and that’s it.
Who says this;
What does it show?
“I saw their starved lips in the gloom, with horrid warning gaped wide”
The Knight:
Women destroy men, they choose the wrong woman that then breaks them. A parallel to Keats and Fanny Brawne?
Who says this;
What does it show?
“Anguish moist and fever-dew and on thy cheeks a fading rose”
The Knight:
Emphasis on his health evokes the idea that colour is draining from his face. Symptoms of tuberculosis which Keats and all his family suffered from.
Who says this;
What does it show?
“Alone and palely loitering?”
The Knight:
He is aimless, as a knight he should have purpose, but he has lost that. Why? How?
Who says this;
What does it show?
“Knight-at-arms”
The Knight:
Megalopsychia - he is brave and ready to fight.
