La Belle Dame Sans Merci Flashcards
La belle dame sans merci translates to what?
• beautiful lady without mercy. Within the story the knight tells a story about how he became obsessed and then abandoned by a “beautiful lady without mercy”.
What does the title of the poem title symbolise?
• as a reader the title sets the tone for the rest of the poem. We as readers understand that the poem will express two linked warnings of intense romantic love. Love can turn into an obsession which drains one’s mental energy, though when this obsession leaves the lover behind goes to a spiritual death as they are left with love to give to no one. The title of the poem warns readers that love, though wonderful, can quickly shift into a death if it becomes obsessive.
“Full _________ - a ________ child”
Beautiful
Faerys
• the knight describes the beauty he is struck upon by a “faerys child”. His love is suggested as a kind of enchantment that consumes him completely. Though the ambiguous spelling of “Faerys” that her ability to charm him is simply through a supernatural force. However, the line between enchantment and obsession is scarily thin.
“And _______ else saw ____ day long, for sidelong she would bend and sing a _______ song”
Nothing
All
Faerys
• the lady here soon becomes the knights single and only focus. Seemingly his only source of purpose within life. Besides the lady, the knight sees “nothing all day” enhancing the idea of the knights myopia. Due to his myopia he doesn’t see the lady’s true colours and becomes a tragic victim rather than a hero. Again, the repetition of the ambiguous spelling of “faery” highlights the supernatural nature of the lady and how the knights vision is a distorted reality due to her beauty blinding him from the truth.
“_______ and palely loitering?”
“Alone and palely loitering.”
Alone
• the cyclical structure of the poem starts with a question from the narrator towards the knight. This is then answered at the end of the poem. The nature of the way the poem is structured enforces the knights intevitable fate. However, this could also connote that his fate was decided due to his obsessive love for the lady’s beauty. And how this has distorted his reality, meaning he cannot see clearly and thus not seeing the truth behind the “lady without mercy”.
“And on the _______ of a fading ______ fast withereth too.”
Cheeks
Rose
• Keats uses a common symbol of floral imagery to remind readers of the fate that the knight is about to endure. In Greek mythology Aphrodite would walk and roses would spring from the ground which she walked on, due to her beauty. We can therefore understand that the rose represents love, although the rose is also used to indicate that love comes with pain as a rose has thorns which would hurt whomever picked the flower up (who holds elements of love will be hurt). The narrator, stating the rose is fading is used to remind readers that the knights fate is slowly coming, as the rose fades his mental and physical state fades with it.
“I see a ______ on thy brow”
Lily
• Keats has used floral imagery to create an allusion of what the “Faerys child” looks like. The knight, who is now narrating, sees a “lily on her brow”. Lily’s have a variety of meanings depending on their colour, though the most common perception of lily’s is that they represent femininity and fertility. Which was all due to the tale of the Greek gods, Hera and Zeus (her milk fell to the floor, which a lily grew up). Keats uses this reference to remind readers a woman’s beauty (appearance) may be enchanting however their intentions cannot be seen (reality). This idea of appearance versus reality can be seen through a variety of literature whether that be romantic literature or just the general term, and can cause characters a variety of issues. Which is reinforced as the lady ends up “lulling” him to sleep suggesting the lady has killed him.
“And there I shut her ______ ______ eyes”
Wild wild
• the epizeuxis (a word or phrase repeated in immediate succession) mimics the knights perception of the lady. Though the knight also seems to be hypnotised here and is fully under the lady’s spell. As the knight stares into the physical axis of the lady’s essential mystery, his surroundings seem to become a blank canvas. Though wild as a noun can be referring to many things, over the course of the knights experiences he experiences the word “wild” in every sense.
“On the _____ hill side”
On the cold _______ side”
Cold
Hills
• the poem makes a refrain out of line 36 by repeating it in line 44. The basic purpose of repeating the phrase is to reveal the connection between fairy tale land of the knights relationship with the lady and the cold. The slight difference between the two phrases encourages the reader to consider the imagery seperately. The slight difference drives the point home of reminding readers that there is a fine line between dreams and reality as the line 36 cold hill side follows “the latest dream I ever dreamt”. However, the line 36 cold hill side also refers to a certain area of cold on the hill, although line 44 suggests that the entirety of the hill side is cold. Continually suggesting that the development of the coldness mimics the gradual decay of the knights physical and mental state.
