La Belle

Dame
Sans
Merci
• Instructor: Faisal
Jahangeer
• PhD English
Literature
(Scholar)

By John Keats
1795-1821
 La Belle Dame Sans Merci
The Beautiful Lady With out Mercy
What do we understand from the title of the poem?
 'La Belle Dame sans Merci' Summary and Analysis
Date published 1819
Author John Keats
Form/style Ballad
Meter Iambic tetrameter
Rhyme scheme ABCB
Poetic devices Metaphor, repetition
Frequently noted imagery Nature, fairytale, sickness
Tone Warning
Themes Seduction and unrequited love, sickness and death, illusion and reality, mortality
AO3: Context
The story of a knight who meets and is bewitched by a beautiful and
Summary mysterious lady in the meadows. She takes him to her elfin grotto
where she enchants him with her songs and embraces, however, the
knight soon realizes that he is trapped and cannot leave.

An exploration of the dangerous power of love. Keats

uses the ballad form to
Analysis create a sense of narrative and tension, building up to the climactic
revelation of the knight's fate.
 Keats was the youngest of the Romantics. He was born in East London, where
John Keats his father managed stables. He was mostly self-taught and trained to be an
apothecary at the age of fourteen. When he started writing poetry, most critics
dismissed him as an upstart due to his lack of formal education.

Keats’ mother died of tuberculosis when he was fourteen. Keats nursed his
brother through the same illness; he died in 1818. A short while after, Keats
himself showed signs of the disease and, knowing he was going to die, went to
live in Italy where, it was thought, the warmer weather would prolong his life.
He wrote ‘La Belle…’ with the shadow of death hanging over him, in physical
and emotional agony.

Keats fell in love with Fanny Brawne and they were engaged to be married,
however were kept apart because of his financial problems, then his illness. She
remained loyal to him until his death.

He died at the age of 25. He was only beginning to write his best poetry, so he
asked that his gravestone bear the words, ‘Here lies one whose name was writ in
water’ – he didn’t think he’d lived up to his potential, thought his life was too short
to be memorable, and that his poetry was like ‘words written in water’.
 'La Belle Dame sans Merci. A Ballad':
context
• The poem 'La Belle Dame sans Merci' is a classic
example of Keats's romanticism with its focus on
emotions, nature, and the supernatural.
• The poem also has various contexts that inform the
poem's subject and form as well as the reasons for why
the poem is considered characteristic of the Romantic
period.
A Ballad': biographical context
• This poem was written months after Keats’ brother, Thomas, died of
tuberculosis.

• Keats also lost his mother to this illness.

• Tuberculosis was known as the consumption disease at the time, and, as

there was no cure for the disease, it was fatal.

• A key early symptom of this infection was a deathly pallor and, therefore,
as the knight in the poem is repeatedly referred to as pale, sickly, and near
death, this could be considered a reference to tuberculosis.

• At this time, Keats was also suffering from the early stages of
tuberculosis, which he likely contracted while he was caring for his
brother Thomas.
sans Merci. A Ballad': biographical context
• The poem was also written during the height of Keats’
courtship with Fanny Brawne.

• He is reported to have idolised her, much like the knight in ‘La

Belle Dame sans Merci' was infatuated with the fairy woman.

• Fanny later became his fiancée, however, Keats died before

they could marry.
sans Merci. A Ballad': biographical context
• As Keats and his loved ones dealt with the reality of
tuberculosis, he was very aware of his own mortality.

• Because of this, the knight and the fairy's relationship could

also be seen as representative of Keat's and Fanny's doomed
romance.

• How do you think Keats’ experiences of tuberculosis influenced

‘La Belle Dame Sans Merci. A Ballad’?
 'La Belle Dame sans Merci. A Ballad':
literary context
• The poet and his works belong to the literary movement of Romanticism.

• Romanticism: a literary movement that flourished in the time period 1785–1832, and
can be characterised by its focus on knowledge, nature, and the passionate expression of
emotion. Pioneers of Romanticism include William Wordsworth, William Blake,
Percy Bysshe Shelley, and John Keats among others.
• Many key characteristics of Romanticism can be seen in ‘La Belle Dame sans Merci’
from its form to its content, such as:
 'La Belle Dame sans Merci. A Ballad':
literary context
 The ballad form: Romantic poets often used this form of poetry, and ‘La Belle
Dame sans Merci’ is a folk narrative ballad.

 The expression of passionate feelings: this can be seen in the love-sick knight’s
feelings for the fairy.

 The use of natural imagery: this poem is full of natural imagery that contrasts
fertile and barren natural landscapes.

 The supernatural: the beautiful woman without any mercy for the knight is no
human woman. She is modelled on the dangerous fairy women of medieval English
folklore as she is ageless, ancient, and malevolent.
Form

• The consistent rhyme scheme of the poem gives

the ballad of La Belle Dame sans Merci a song-
like quality.
• Furthermore, it has a story-feel to it because it has
a beginning, middle, and end as a story would and
also two main characters whose experiences and
interactions are described, namely the fairy and
the young knight.
Structure
• This ballad is composed of twelve stanzas. Each stanza is a
quatrain (a stanza with four lines) which gives the poem a
sense of balance. Iambic tetrameter is used throughout the
ballad, adding to its uniformity.

• Iambic tetrameter: when an iambic foot (an unstressed

syllable followed by a stressed syllable) occurs four times in
a line of poetry.
'La Belle Dame sans Merci. A Ballad':
rhyme scheme
•The second and fourth lines of each
quatrain rhyme, so the scheme is ABCB.
•It remains consistent throughout the
whole poem.
Language devices and techniques
• Keats uses enjambment throughout the poem, which helps his
narrative to flow smoothly by mimicking natural speech patterns.

• Enjambment: when a word or phrase in one line runs into the next.
• The last line of the first stanza, '[a]nd no birds sing', is repeated in the
last line of the final stanza. This repetition leaves the reader with a
final impression of the doomed knight, wandering across a joyless,
barren landscape.
 La Belle Dame sans Merci. A Ballad - Key
takeaways
 La Belle Dame sans Merci’ is a poem written by John Keats and
published in 1819.
 ‘La Belle Dame sans Merci’ is a ballad inspired by medieval folktales.
 Keats’ presentation of the knight was influenced by his own experiences
of sickness and death.
 The poem adheres to several conventions of Romantic poetry.
 The poem explores the themes of seduction and unrequited love, illusion
and reality, and illness and death.
• Anaphora: The poem begins with an apostrophe. Using it, the poet introduces
the knight as well as evokes his spirit into the poem.
• Metaphor: In “squirrel’s granary” the poet uses a metaphor. Here, the poet
refers to the squirrel’s hole. In “fever-dew” there is a metaphor and the
comparison is between the dew and the fever.
• Personal Metaphor: In “starved lips” there is a personal metaphor.
• Metonymy: The word “death-pale” is a metonym. The kings and princes look
pale as they have died. It’s a reference to the cause in place of the effect of
being pale.
• Synecdoche: The poet refers to the color of the lily in the line “I see a lily on
thy brow”. It’s a use of synecdoche.
• Alliteration: It occurs when the poet uses the same consonant sounds at the
beginning of lines. For example, “Full” and “faery” in line two of the fourth
stanza and “light” and “long” in the following line. The phrase “her hair”
contains another alliteration.
• Palilogy: The poet uses this device by repeating the word, “wild” twice.
• Repetition: The last stanza contains a repetition of the idea present in the
first line of the poem.
• Caesura: It occurs when the poet uses a pause in the middle of a line. For
example, “And there I dreamed—Ah! woe betide!—” and “Full beautiful
—a faery’s child.”
• Imagery: It can be seen through the powerful images in the knight’s
dreams as he’s forced to suffer terrible nightmares. For example, “I saw
their starved lips in the gloam, / With horrid warning gapèd wide.”
• O WHAT can ail thee, knight-at-arms,
• Alone and palely loitering?
• The sedge has wither’d from the lake,
• And no birds sing.
•
• II.
• O what can ail thee, knight-at-arms!
• So haggard and so woe-begone?
• The squirrel’s granary is full,
• And the harvest’s done.
• III.
• I see a lily on thy brow
• With anguish moist and fever dew,
• And on thy cheeks a fading rose
• Fast withereth too.
•
• IV.
• I met a lady in the meads,
• Full beautiful—a faery’s child,
• Her hair was long, her foot was light,
• And her eyes were wild.
• V.
• I made a garland for her head,
• And bracelets too, and fragrant zone;
• She look’d at me as she did love,
• And made sweet moan.

• I set her on my pacing steed,

• And nothing else saw all day long,
• For sidelong would she bend, and sing
• A faery’s song.
•
• VII.
• She found me roots of relish sweet,
• And honey wild, and manna dew,
• And sure in language strange she said—
• “I love thee true.”
•
• VIII.
• She took me to her elfin grot,
• And there she wept, and sigh’d fill sore,
• And there I shut her wild wild eyes
• With kisses four.
• IX.
• And there she lulled me asleep,
• And there I dream’d—Ah! woe betide!
• The latest dream I ever dream’d
• On the cold hill’s side.

• X.
• I saw pale kings and princes too,
• Pale warriors, death-pale were they all;
• They cried—“La Belle Dame sans Merci
• Hath thee in thrall!”
•
• XI.
• I saw their starved lips in the gloam,
• With horrid warning gaped wide,
• And I awoke and found me here,
• On the cold hill’s side.
•
• XII.
• And this is why I sojourn here,
• Alone and palely loitering,
• Though the sedge is wither’d from the lake,
• And no birds sing.
Language and Imagery
 This image creates a
Consonance draws medieval setting
our attention to I.
‘palely’, linking it via O WHAT can ail thee, knight-at-arms,
internal rhyme to ‘ail
thee’ Alone and palely loitering?
The sedge has wither’d from the lake,
Marsh
Sick and depressed
plants
And no birds sing.

II.
O what can ail thee, knight-at-arms!

So haggard and so woe-begone?

The squirrel’s granary is full,
And the harvest’s done.
 A symbol of death; he is
III. pale
I see a lily on thy brow
With anguish moist and fever dew,
He is dying
The voice And on thy cheeks a fading rose
shifts here: Fast withereth too.
the knight A meadow
tells his tale IV. Supernatura
I met a lady in the meads, l
Full beautiful—a faery’s child,
Her hair was long, her foot was light,
Long hair – sensuality
And her eyes were wild.
Light of foot – graceful or quick and
unpredictable
Wild eyes – supernatural? Or a
promise of wild sex?
 A belt of flowers. What
V.
other reading might
I made a garland for her head,
exist?
And bracelets too, and fragrant zone;
She look’d at me as she did love, This seems to suggest an
This And made sweet moan. erotic encounter.
suggests
sexual VI.
confidence I set her on my pacing steed,
And nothing else saw all day long,
For sidelong would she bend, and sing
A faery’s song.
 Manna = food from
Paradox? Her VII. heaven; God provided
language is She found me roots of relish sweet, this for the Israelites as
strange but he And honey wild, and manna dew, they wandered in the
understands it. And sure in language strange she said— desert after being
“I love thee true.” freed from slavery.
Grotto/cave
VIII. 1. She is supernatural
She took me to her elfin grot, and has access to
And there she wept, and sigh’d full sore, heavenly food
2. This links to the man
And there I shut her wild wild eyes being enslaved by the
With kisses four. lady (this reading is
reinforced by the
‘honey’ – a quality of
the promised land of
What is the poet saying here? the Jews)

We are given no reason for the lady’s weeping. Does this image
suggest there is more to this story?
Why might she ‘sigh full sore’?
 A gentle, almost
onomatopoeic word

Repetition IX. Exclamation of

reinforces the And there she lulled me asleep, extreme grief; note
importance of this And there I dream’d —Ah! woe betide! he interrupts
dream – the ‘latest’ The latest dream I ever dream’d himself to utter it
(i.e. last) he will have On the cold hill’s side.
A shift in tone
X.
Repetition of ‘pale’ I saw pale kings and princes too,
echoes ‘dream’ and Pale warriors, death-pale were they all; Consonance links
links the two They cried—“La Belle Dame sans Merci these words,
Hath thee in thrall!” suggesting
cause/effect –
the shared fate of
the knight
What is the poet saying here?
Harsh sound of
What might the ‘pale kings and princes’ represent? their cry – this
wakes him in
the next stanza
 dusk
XI.
Love and I saw their starved lips in the gloam,
illness/death are With horrid warning gaped wide,
linked via this And I awoke and found me here,
‘horrid warning’ On the cold hill’s side.

XII.
And this is why I sojourn here, Death approaches
Alone and palely loitering,
Though the sedge is wither’d from the lake,
And no birds sing.

The closing lines are

repeated from stanza
1 but spoken by a
What is the poet saying here? different voice

What is the effect of

this?
Imagery: Flowers
Line 9: Lilies are often associated with death, so the ‘lily’ on the knight’s ‘brow’
(forehead) suggests that he is close to death. Lilies are also pale white, so reflect
the knight’s colour.

Line 11: Roses are associated with love – the knight’s ‘rose’ is ‘fading’ and
‘wither[ing]’. This implies the end of a romantic relationship. It also describes the
knight’s complexion as the ‘rose’ in his cheeks fades.

Lines 17-18: The knight makes a ‘garland’ and ‘bracelet’ of flowers for the lady.
These seem to suggest that he is in love with her, the flowers representing his
regard.

Line 18: A ‘fragrant zone’ is a belt made

from flowers; it could also be a
euphemism for the lady’s genitals.
Imagery: Water
Medieval romances often associate women with water; traditionally, men are weakened by
their contact with these women.

Line 3: death and ‘wither[ing]’ are associated with the ‘lake’. It is worth
considering that lakes, unlike rivers, do not flow – they can stagnate.

Line 10: the knight’s face is ‘moist’ with ‘fever dew’.

Line 26: the knight tells us that the lady fed him ‘manna dew’. It is unusual
for manna to be presented as a liquid; this links to the ‘fever’ that the
knight has.