Poetry - La Belle Dame

Question 1

Context for La Belle Dame

Answer 1

• Written 1819 by Romantic poet John Keats (1795-1821).
• Keats fell in love with Fanny Brawne but never married.
• Keats knew of his impending death (to TB) while writing.

Question 2

Summary of La Belle Dame

Answer 2

A lone knight falls, like many others, for a faery-like lady who leaves him ‘alone and palely loitering’.

Question 3

Theme Comparisons for La Belle Dame

Answer 3

• One-sided - i wanna be yours
• Admiration - i wanna be yours
• Deception - Neutral Tones

Question 4

Message of La Belle Dame

Answer 4

Control in relationships

Question 5

Structure and form points for La Belle Dame

Answer 5

• Ballad of 12 quatrains - regular, monotonous.
• Cyclical structure - trapped by love.
• Iambic tetrameter broken at the end of each stanza - jarring, not the happy ending we expected.

Question 6

Language points for La Belle Dame

Answer 6

• sedge withered from the lake - pathetic fallacy.
• palely loitering - purposelessness contrasts brave knight.
• elfin grot - evil lair in line with femme fatale.
• thrall - in her power.