La Belle Dame Sans Merci Meaning and language

Question 1

Meaning of the poem

Answer 1

Tells the story of a knight that encounters an elfin woman who abandons him.

Question 2

Title

Answer 2

‘The beautiful Lady without mercy’
Alludes to much earlier work by Alain Chartier
Medieval and fairytale style romance links

Question 3

Loves presented

Answer 3

Lost love
Medieval love
Imaginative love
Truth and deception in regard to love

Question 4

Whats the purpouse of the setting?

Answer 4

To make the reader question where the border between reality and dream lies

Question 5

‘so haggard and so woe begone’ technique

Answer 5

Assonance

Question 6

Effect of Assonance

Answer 6

Puts emphasis on knight’s emotional state of pain and discomfort
repetition of so stresses the noble mans fall from a position of power and grace

Question 7

‘Wild, wild eyes’ technique

Answer 7

Repetition

Question 8

Effect of repetition

Answer 8

Introduction of an element of danger as first time woman described as something other than beautiful
wild suggests otherworldly

Question 9

‘And no birds sing’ ‘On the cold hill side’ Technique

Answer 9

Refrain

Question 10

Effect of refrain

Answer 10

Gives poem a cyclical feel.
The knight must always return too cold reality he can try to escape to his memories but they are merely of the past.