la belle dame sans merci Flashcards
Alone and palely loitering/ The sedge has withered
-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
-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
-natural imagery suggests emptiness, death and eternal misery
this is why I sojourn here
-the knight blames the woman for the state he’s ended up in- common theme in tragedy
O what can ail thee
-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
I met a lady in the meads
-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”
full beautiful - a faery’s child/
Her hair was long, foot was light
her eyes were wild
-the woman is introduced as a stereotypical female character, gender essentialism
-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= “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
she lullèd me asleep
- 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
I shut her wild wild eyes/ With kisses four
-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
she made sweet moan
set her on my pacing steed
-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
death-pale
starved lips
-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
manna-dew
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
Love, obsession, and death:
-‘the beautiful lady without mercy’
-dangers of intense love and how once obsession fades it turns into an inability to recognise and appreciate beauty.
-‘full beautiful, a faery’s child’ supernatural force, he weaves her ‘garlands’ and ‘bracelets’ and she rewards him with ‘sweet moans’ and ‘love.’
-merciless behaviour is consistent with the joy and love she provides, that’s why it’s more hurtful, as she was kinder before.
imagination vs. reality:
- Two worlds are so closely bound that they become indistinguishable.
-‘eflin grot ‘faerys child’ - The dream is a fantasy within the knight’s story—a kind of double fantasy—but its also here that the knight finds the actual future reflected.
- The knights awaken ‘on the cold hillside’ and surge back into the real world-that is where the poem started. this moment raises the possibility that the knight was dreaming all along. However, given how close the boundaries are, walking away doesn’t mean the memories of the lady are gone.
