La belle dame sans merci Flashcards
Q: What is the main theme of La Belle Dame sans Merci?
A: The poem explores themes of love, deception, supernatural elements, and suffering, depicting a knight who falls victim to a mysterious, enchanting woman.
Q: How is La Belle Dame sans Merci structured?
A: The poem consists of 12 quatrains with an ABCB rhyme scheme, using ballad form to create a musical and storytelling quality.
Q: What is the significance of the opening lines “O what can ail thee, knight-at-arms, / Alone and palely loitering?”?
A: The repetition of this question throughout the poem establishes an air of mystery and highlights the knight’s suffering.
Q: How does Keats use imagery to depict the knight’s state?
A: The knight is described as “haggard and so woe-begone” and “the harvest’s done”, emphasizing his despair and the barren, lifeless setting reflecting his emotional state.
Q: How is the femme fatale trope represented in the poem?
A: The “faery’s child” seduces the knight, making him believe in their love before abandoning him, embodying the dangerous allure of the femme fatale figure.
Q: What is the effect of the phrase “She looked at me as she did love”?
A: The ambiguous phrasing suggests deception, making it unclear whether the woman truly loved him or merely entranced him.
Q: How does the poet create a sense of enchantment?
A: The knight describes the woman using mystical imagery: “her eyes were wild” and “I set her on my pacing steed, / And nothing else saw all day long”, conveying his obsession and blind infatuation.
Q: What is the significance of the knight’s dream?
A: The dream reveals the fate of past victims—”pale kings and princes too”—showing that the woman has ensnared and abandoned others before him.
Q: What does the line “And I awoke and found me here, / On the cold hill’s side” signify?
A: It marks the moment of realization, as the knight wakes alone and abandoned, reinforcing the theme of disillusionment.
Q: How does the landscape reflect the knight’s emotional state?
A: The desolate imagery—”no birds sing” and “wither’d from the lake”—mirrors the knight’s isolation and hopelessness.
Q: What is the effect of repetition in the poem?
A: The repeated questioning and descriptions of paleness emphasize the cyclical nature of the knight’s suffering and the inescapable consequences of his encounter.
Q: How does the poem reflect Romanticism?
A: It embodies Romantic ideals through its focus on emotion, nature, supernatural elements, and the dangers of obsessive love.
Q: How does La Belle Dame sans Merci compare to Sonnet 116?
A: While Sonnet 116 presents love as eternal and unwavering, La Belle Dame sans Merci shows love as fleeting, dangerous, and ultimately destructive.
