La Belle Dame Sans Merci

Question 1

What form is the poem written in?

Answer 1

Ballad, 12 stanzas, each has 4 lines, rhyme scheme is ABCB, first three lines of the stanza if written in a lambic Tetrameter (8 beats per line) but the fourth line is always completely different

Question 2

How are both the first 2 stanzas opened?

Answer 2

Refrain, illustrates the speakers concern for the knight, emphasises the poor distressed/ill state of the knight

Question 3

I made a garland for her head, and bracelets too, and fragrant zone;

Answer 3

Euphemism for her genitals- garland and bracelets are circular items=reflective of his desire as a man to contain her, in Ancient Greece a zone was a belt or a girdle, images of containment and possession as adornment

Question 4

Roots of sweet relish

Answer 4

Sibilance= creates a sin sister undertone, a hissing sound connotes the snake in the Garden of Eden and temptation

Question 5

On the ‘hold’ hill side

Answer 5

Adjective: change in tone from previous heat of passion, creates a sense of foreboding about the dream

Question 6

I saw their ‘starved lips’

Answer 6

Irony: the lady has been feeding them yet they are starved and weak, starved of her attention

Question 7

What is the idea about the poem?

Answer 7

Knights encounter with the Belle reflects male anxieties about bring emasculated by women’s sexual power over them