La Belle sans Merci

Question 1

Who wrote this poem

Answer 1

John Keats

Question 2

What is the structure of the poem

Answer 2

• 12 Quatrains in the form of an English ballad
• ABCB rhyme scheme

Question 3

What is the English meaning of La Belle Dame sans Merci

Answer 3

The beautiful lady without pity

Question 4

Give some historical context of the poem

Answer 4

• 4 years before the poem was written, Napoleon’s army had fallen at the battle Waterloo

• Industrialisation in British cities created a working class that constantly agitated for better working conditions and political rights

Question 5

Give some literary context of the poem

Answer 5

• Written in early spring of 1819
• Written close to Keats death
• infused with Keats’ personal life and conflicts: predicament of the dying medieval knight
•Seals Keats’ pact with literary immortality
• Inspiration from his contemporaries e.g William Wordsworth. Romantic movement
• human emotions into supernatural characters

Question 6

How is the theme love and loss explored in the poem

Answer 6

• The knights love transforms into an obsession: dangers of intense romantic love
• lover left behind undergoes spiritual death when the object of love disappears
• “faery’s child”: ability to charm him is a supernatural force
• The line between enchantment and obsession is thin, “nothing else…all day”
• she is the very substance which he feeds off, without “belle dame” the knight cannot survive
• “pale kings and princes”, “death pale”, enslaved to memories of “belle dame”
• Anything one falls in love with can cause joy and pain

Question 7

How is the theme love through the ages according to history and time explored in the poem

Answer 7

• Medieval period

• archaic “thee” hints at time setting

• “knight-at-arms”: monosyllabic words, caesura highlights the tension between the expected image of what a medieval knight should be and the state in which this particular wallowing knight is found

• Creates other-worldly nature of love but expose the capacity of love’s harshness

• based on a 15th century poem by Alain chattier: destructive no matter what time or by whom it is experienced

• “elfin grot” “pale kings and princes” creates mood of awe and wander to show transformative nature of poetry.

Question 8

How is the theme of truth and deception explored in this poem

Answer 8

• Knight falls for her disguise and pays the price, her love is death
• Keats asks the reader to occupy a liminal space to suspend their ideas about reality making the poem deceptive on all levels
• Not every intense visceral emotion or attraction can be labelled as love
• Keats maintains an element of ambiguity giving the reader little taste of angst and desperation for an answer to his problems

Question 9

How is the theme of imagination and reality explored in this poem?

Answer 9

• Explores the boundaries of what is real and what is imagined: knight’s story contrasts barren and dark landscape in which is he is found. Imagination can be so powerful to shape reality.

• Description of both worlds creates a contrast between the two worlds

• Woman speaks “in language strange”, takes the knight to her “elfin grot” which creates suspicion

• Importance of imagination vs reality: wishes he had foreseen the pain such love would cause him but learns the truth about what his future holds

• Intense detail of imaginary world: This means waking doesn’t imply an escape from torturous love

Question 10

How is the theme of romanticism explored in this poem

Answer 10

• Romantic nature of the ballad
• Transference of a mortal to the elfin world is a recurrent theme in ballad literature
• Romantic trope of carefully and faithfully depicting nature: winter landscape is barren and desolate: “the sedge has withered from the lake/ And no birds sing”

Question 11

What is the form of the poem and it’s significance

Answer 11

• 12 quatrains
• alternating tetrameters and trimeters
• lyrical ballads as a principal reference

Question 12

What is the metre used in the poem and what is its purpose

Answer 12

•Strong meter drives the poem forward
• metrics evolved from folk idiom and early minstrel forms to create a rolling and sing-song pace
• first three lines of each stanza- iambic tetrameter
• Final stanza- iambic diameter
• Start-stop rhythm relates to proms interest in life and death
Fast paced rhythm- like trotting of a knight’s horse

Question 13

Why is this deemed the longest line in the poem
• “Pale warriors, death pale were they all”

Answer 13

• “warriors” can be read with 2 or 3 syllables
• Reflects the knights king and torturous dream
• Sentence begins with a spondee and this makes the words aggressive, increases the intensity and horror of the dream and makes the tone sound like a fearful shout

Question 14

What is the purpose of the rhyme scheme

Answer 14

• Lyrical nature
• honours the traditional English ballad

Question 15

What is the purpose of internal rhyme, give sentence examples

Answer 15

• “Ail thee” (line 1)
• “Paley” (line 2)
• Drawn out like cries
• Indication of the knight’s emotional state

Question 16

How many speakers are in this poem and how does it change

Answer 16

• 2 speakers
• 1st speaker is looking at the action
• 2nd speaker is the knight who takes over in stanza 4

Question 17

What is the function of an enigmatic setting

Answer 17

Makes the reader question where the border between the reality and dream lies

Question 18

What symbol is found in sentences and give their meanings
• “I see a lily on thy brow”
• “on thy cheeks a fading rose”
• “I made a garland for her head”

Answer 18

• Symbol flowers

• line 1: hinting imminent death. Metaphor indicates pale complexion emphasising chaotic and pitiful state

• Line 2: Romance is dwindling and leaving knights body. Metaphor indicates increasing pale complexion

• Line 3: His offerings emphasise his adoration

Question 19

What symbol is expressed in the following sentences and give their meaning
• “the sedge has withered from the lake”
• “And no birds sing”
• “And the harvest done”

Answer 19

• Seasons

• Line 1: withering plants suggest autumn, fallen leaves and death doesn’t bode well for the knight

• Line 2: quietness in winter and cooler months, increases intensity of desolate setting

• Line 3: landscape desolation cyclical nature of cropping

Question 20

What symbol is explored in the following sentences and give their meanings
• “and there she lulled me asleep”
• “And there I dreamed- Ah! wow betide!-/ The latest dream I ever dreamt”
• “Thee hath in thrall”

Answer 20

• Dreams and Sleep

• Line 1: gentle quality “ll” is enigmatic of drifting into a dream state

• Line 2: repetition of “dream” insists the knight has been confused and blurred in the line between imagination and reality

• Line 3: harshness of the repeated “Yh” sound is made to bring the knight out of his slumber. Warning

Question 21

What figure of speech is used in the following sentences and give their meanings
• “So haggard and so woe-begone”
• “She found me roots of relish sweet”

Answer 21

• Assonance

• Line 1- repetition of vowel sounds puts emphasis on the knights emotional state. Evocative of pain and discomfort. Repetition of so stresses the degeneration of such a noble man and his fall from a position of power and grace

• Line 2: Repetition of “s”, “e”, “r”. ironic that what’s tastes so good will cause his downfall

Question 22

What quotations in this poem mirror the great Gatsby

Answer 22

• “Sing a faery’s song”
• “that voice was a deathless song” chapter 5

• “so haggard and so woe-begone”
• “he was one of these worn-out men” chapter 7

Question 23

What are the similarities and differences between this poem and At an inn

Answer 23

1. Love and loss: At an inn- regret in not feeling love. This poem- a similar kind of yearning. Both poems contain a nostalgic and retrospective tone. At an inn- speaker wishes for more than he can remember. This poem- knight feels the pain of a loss of something that he once had.

Question 24

What are the similarities and differences this poem and Non sum qualis eram bonae sub regno cynare

Answer 24

• Love and sex: overt references to sexual activity were taboo at the time this poem was written; “she looked at me as she did love/and made sweet moan”. In non sum this theme is more explicit and shocking; symbolic of lust, desire and passion.

Love and loss: This poem explores intense and raw loss. The poem is a rush of love and emotion. In non sum, the speaker attempts to fill the emptiness with other women. Illustrates different ways individuals deal with loss. Both speakers obsession is founded in their own combusting up of the women they desire

• Truth and deception: In non-sum the speaker develops their own self-deception