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English > La Belle Dame Sans Merci > Flashcards

La Belle Dame Sans Merci Flashcards

1
Q

(La Belle Dame) Structure:

  • What is the effect of the ballad style?
A
  • The poem is song-like, which makes it more akin to a fairy tale.
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2
Q

(La Belle Dame) Structure:

  • What is the effect of shorter lines?
A
  • The last line of each stanza is shorter, creating an ominous and unfinished feel, cutting through the song-like rhythm.
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3
Q

(La Belle Dame) Setting:

What is the effect of blurred lines?

A
  • The poem seems to be set in a fairy tale, but the blurred border with the real world is very much present. Reflects confusion and sorrow.
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4
Q

(La Belle Dame) Imagery, Symbolism and Allegory:

  • lily:
A
  • represents death.
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5
Q

(La Belle Dame) Imagery, Symbolism and Allegory:

  • rose:
A
  • represents love.
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6
Q

(La Belle Dame) Imagery, Symbolism and Allegory:

  • seasons and cycles:
A
  • the beginning and the end of the poem are set in winter, which highlights tragic isolation.
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7
Q

(La Belle Dame) Imagery, Symbolism and Allegory:

  • Paleness:
A
  • associated with illness and death, foreshadowing the knight’s death.
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8
Q

(La Belle Dame) Imagery, Symbolism and Allegory:

  • Dreams/hallucination:
A
  • delusion, reality, suffering, vulnerability.
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9
Q

(La Belle Dame) Abandonment/isolation:

  • ‘no birds…
A

…sing’

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10
Q

(La Belle Dame) Abandonment/isolation:

  • ‘And on thy cheeks…
A

…a fading rose fast withereth too’

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11
Q

(La Belle Dame) Abandonment/isolation:

  • ‘This is why I sojourn here, …
A

…alone and palely loitering.’

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12
Q

(La Belle Dame) Nature:

  • ‘The sedge has…
A

…withered from the lake’

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13
Q

(La Belle Dame) Nature:

  • ‘no birds…
A

…sing’

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14
Q

(La Belle Dame) Nature:

  • I see a lily…
A

…on thy brow’

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15
Q

(La Belle Dame) Nature:

  • ‘on thy cheeks…
A

…a fading rose’

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16
Q

(La Belle Dame) Nature:

  • ‘I met a lady…
A

…in the meads’

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17
Q

(La Belle Dame) Nature:

  • ‘I made…
A

…a garland for her head’

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18
Q

(La Belle Dame) Nature:

  • ‘fragrant…
A

…zone’

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19
Q

(La Belle Dame) Nature:

  • ‘She found me roots of…
A

…relish sweet’

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20
Q

(La Belle Dame) Nature:

  • ‘honey wild, and…
A

…manna-dew’

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21
Q

(La Belle Dame) Nature:

  • ‘cold…
A

…hill side’

22
Q

(La Belle Dame) Sexual connotations/love:

  • ‘a fading…
A

…rose’

23
Q

(La Belle Dame) Sexual connotations/love:

  • ‘Full beautiful…
A

… - a faery’s child’

24
Q

(La Belle Dame) Sexual connotations/love:

  • ‘her hair was long, …
A

…her foot was light, and her eyes were wild’

25
Q

(La Belle Dame) Sexual connotations/love:

  • ‘She looked at me as she did love, …
A

…and made sweet moan’

26
Q

(La Belle Dame) Sexual connotations/love:

  • ‘I set her on my…
A

…pacing steed’

27
Q

(La Belle Dame) Sexual connotations/love:

  • ‘in language strange…
A

…she said - ‘I love thee true’.’

28
Q

(La Belle Dame) Sexual connotations/love:

  • ‘she took me to…
A

…her elfin grot’

29
Q

(La Belle Dame) Sexual connotations/love:

  • ‘I shut her wild, wild eyes…
A

…with kisses four.’

30
Q

(La Belle Dame) Sexual connotations/love:

  • ‘she lullèd me…
A

…asleep’

31
Q

(La Belle Dame) Disease and suffering:

  • ‘O what can…
A

…ail thee’ (repeated)

32
Q

(La Belle Dame) Disease and suffering:

  • ‘alone and…
A

…palely loitering’ (rep)

33
Q

(La Belle Dame) Disease and suffering:

  • ‘The sedge has…
A

…withered from the lake’

34
Q

(La Belle Dame) Disease and suffering:

  • ‘no birds…
A

…sing’

35
Q

(La Belle Dame) Disease and suffering:

  • ‘haggard and…
A

…woe-begone’

36
Q

(La Belle Dame) Disease and suffering:

  • ‘anguish moist…
A

…and fever-dew’

37
Q

(La Belle Dame) Disease and suffering:

  • ‘on thy cheek…
A

…a fading rose fast withereth too’

38
Q

(La Belle Dame) Disease and suffering:

  • ‘their starved lips…
A

…in the gloam’

39
Q

(La Belle Dame) Supernatural:

  • ‘a faery’s…
A

…child’

40
Q

(La Belle Dame) Disease and suffering:

  • ‘her eyes were…
A

…wild’

41
Q

(La Belle Dame) Disease and suffering:

  • ‘For sidelong she would bend…
A

…and sing a faery’s song.’

42
Q

(La Belle Dame) Disease and suffering:

  • ‘she found me…
A

…roots of relish sweet, and honey wild, and manna dew’

43
Q

(La Belle Dame) Disease and suffering:

  • ‘in language…
A

…strange’

44
Q

(La Belle Dame) Disease and suffering:

  • ‘I see a lily on thy brow…
A

…with anguish moist and fever-dew’

45
Q

(La Belle Dame) Disease and suffering:

  • ‘on thy cheeks…
A

…a fading rose / Fast withereth too’

46
Q

(La Belle Dame) Disease and suffering:

  • ‘I saw pale kings and princes too, …
A

…Pale warriors, death-pale were they all’

47
Q

(La Belle Dame) Disease and suffering:

  • ‘I saw their starved lips…
A

…in the gloam / With horrid warning gapèd wide’

48
Q

(La Belle Dame) Disease and suffering:

  • ‘’La Bell Dame sans Merci…
A

… / Thee hath in thrall!’

49
Q

(La Belle Dame) Disease and suffering:

  • ‘There I dreamed…
A

…The latest dream I ever dreamt / On the cold hill side.’

  • Repetition as a means of self-assertion, to ensure it was not reality.
50
Q

What is the central contradiction of La Belle Dame?

A
  • He transitions the responsibility for sexual attraction onto the woman, making the male character a victim rather than a predator. Keats evidently fears the loss of freedom and, perhaps, a loss of masculinity. He transfers the agency of sexual desire from the male to the female, presenting it as a supernatural power that absolves him of responsibility for his own actions. Supernatural in the sense that he feels incapable of possessing it, he cannot fully reconcile his mind with the reality of it: being both trapped and comforted, being both dependant and free.
  • Keats experienced an intrinsic connection between love and suffering (even fear?) for this reason.
51
Q

What did Mary Wollstonecraft say about women in ‘A Vindication of the Rights of Woman’?

A
  • ‘’women are, therefore, to be considered either as moral beings, or so weak that they must be entirely subjected to the superior faculties of men’’
52
Q

What did Mary Wollstonecraft say about women in ‘A Vindication of the Rights of Woman’?

A
  • ‘’women are, therefore, to be considered either as moral beings, or so weak that they must be entirely subjected to the superior faculties of men’’

English (12 decks)

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