La Belle dame sans merci

Question 1

Alone and palely loitering/ The sedge has withered

Answer 1

• Repetition at the start and end of the poem, cyclical structure
• juxtaposes his nobility as a knight
• the contrast suggests he has undergone peripeteia, the knight has lost his way/purpose
• the perfect tense in “has withered” suggest it has happened recently which is perhaps why he is “loitering” on it, stuck and can’t move on
• these tokens of death heighten the knights deathly aspect
• at the end of the poem, nature symbolises his upcoming death, both him and the natural world are connected
• Keats uses pathetic fallacy to explore the knights fate and emotions
• natural imagery suggests emptiness, death and eternal misery
• keats uses setting to emphasise his loss

Question 2

this is why I sojourn here

Answer 2

• the knight blames the woman for the state he’s ended up in
• common theme in tragedy - woman is blamed for the mans downfall, just like in Macbeth, many accuse Lady Macbeth of being the reason for Macbeth’s downfall

Question 3

O what can ail thee

Answer 3

• repetition in the first two stanzas (anaphora)
• ‘O’ is a poetic apostrophe
• creates uncertainty as the speaker is at first anonymous (non-omniscient)
• the lack of backstory and certainty undermines the narrative reliability –> means the poem can be interpreted a number of ways as we never find out the knights backstory
• the caesura between the question and the knight visually and grammatically separates the knight from the rest of the poem, it reflects his alienation from what we perceive a knight to be and what he has become

Question 4

I met a lady in the meads

Answer 4

• pivot, the narration switches onto the knight
• foreshadows her disappearance/abandonment as past tense used
• the knight answers the narrators question, and implicitly blames the woman for his downfall, links to “this is why I sojourn here”

Question 5

Full beautiful - a faery’s child/
Her hair was long, foot was light
her eyes were wild

Answer 5

• the woman is introduced as a stereotypical female character
• gender essentialism (males and females are born with innately different natures and features) “her foot was light”
• caesura
• she is infantilised, not even a fairy in her own right
• links to the interpretation of it as a straightforward tragedy in which the woman deceiving appearance of innocence tricks the knight into love and she then goes on to destroy the knight with her supernatural powers (femme fatal)
• “wild” eyes –> ambiguous, maybe she is a dangerous character
• also described as magical, almost supernatural, perhaps she enchanted the knight, he is drawn in by her ethereal beauty

Question 6

she lullèd me asleep

Answer 6

• multiple interpretations - she either calmed him down or deceived him
• depends on interpretation of the text, straightforward tragedy would see it as an illusion from a beautiful woman, which meant that the knight was unable to see through her disguise and see her merciless nature
• feminist interpretation may read it as a retaliation in response to the demeaning/patronising way the knight treated her, perhaps Keats is identifying the problems with the idealisation and objectification of women - women are based purely off of their looks
• again a reference to her possible supernatural powers which entranced the knight

Question 7

I shut her wild wild eyes/ With kisses four

Answer 7

• instead of asking her why she is crying he attempts to solve her problems with a kiss
• very patronising - suggests he only sees her for her beauty and not what’s underneath
• his tragic downfall was caused by his inability to respect the woman, feminist reading would see it as his fault

Question 8

she made sweet moan
set her on my pacing steed

Answer 8

• the knight goes into detail of their sexual experiences for two stanzas
• a more traditional reading could say that a knight is supposed to swear to celibacy, a knight is meant to be chivalrous but he breaks that and so he deserves his ending for disobeying his loyalty to his occupation
• a feminist reading; he only cared for her beauty and sexual desire, he does not see her personality and the amount he writes about their sexual relationship compared to her personality shows his surface level feelings for her, his shallowness
• ‘“set” suggests a lack of agency on the womans part, though no explicit violence, she felt used perhaps, merely a vessel for sex and beauty and hasn’t found anyone who actually cares for her yet - explains the fate of the other warriors

Question 9

death-pale
starved lips

Answer 9

• foreshadows the knights fate
• reference to starved lips could be literal - they haven’t eaten for days
• but also has an underlying sexual tone to it, as though they crave the womans physical love and affection - again suggests the sexual relation was of the most importance
• personal metaphore, the knights lack of companionship

Question 10

manna-dew

Answer 10

• she is feeding the knight with a magical, nutritional substance
• she has become his source of life, he is entirely devoted to her, when the obsession has taken place
• also a biblical reference, suggesting what she can give him is in the realm of fantasy
• linking to interpretation of woman as a femme fatale

Question 11

Lily on thy brow

Answer 11

• connotes with death

Question 12

Knight-at-arms

Answer 12

• immediately introduced as a knight