A* detailed notes of 'La Belle Dame Sans Merci' by John Keats, incorporating all AO's (analysis, context, tragic elements, and critical interpretations)
AO2
.Style = folk ballad - known for simplistic language with minimal detail - usually tells a basic
story of love or pain
. Iambic tetrameter - 8 syllables per line except from last line of quatrain, which adds an
abruptness/ breaks fluidity - AND NO BIRDS SING
. Regular ABCB rhyme scheme (traditional to ballad conventions)
. Caesuras - slows pace - creates a dragging sensation that mirrors KNIGHT’S tedious wait
crawl towards death
. Pathetic fallacy - autumnal setting - summer is coming to an end - reflection of the knight’s
near demise
. Archaic language evokes a grandeur that fits with the antiquated chivalry of the knights
. Poem begins in present tense - witness narrator encounters knight - adds an intensity
because of the proximity of the knight’s death
. 4th quatrain = shift in tense and voice - knight retrospectives narrative recounts his
experience with the LADY - first person narration - adds an intimacy to knight
. Pathetic fallacy - SEDGE HAS WITHERED - reflects the knight - NO BIRDS SING - adds a
notion of isolation, solemnity - knight is bereft of archetypal romantic ideals - metapoetic -
line is not 8 syllables and non iambic tetrameter - disrupts the melody
. Quatrains
. Dreary, melancholic imagery of knight: ALONE AND PALELY + HAGGARD +
WOE-BEGONE - contrasts against stereotypical depictions of knights - brave, strong etc.
. Floral motifs in 3rd quatrain - LILY ON THY BROW + ON THY CHEEKS FADING ROSE -
delicate images transposed onto knight - FAST WITHERETH TOO - adds a vulnerability - or
alternately - create an image of beauty that jarringly juxtaposes against his actual withered
state.
. Clear sense of physical degeneration through lexical choices of ANGUISH MOIST +
FEVER-DEW - suggest at the knight’s impending death
. Introduction to LADY - supernatural and magical allusions - adds a sense of otherworldly
capabilities - MEADS - FAERY'S CHILD - anaphora of HER - listing physical attributes -
consumed/ fascinated by her physical appearance - HER EYES WERE WILD - breaks away
from the dainty, mystical imagery built up around her - foreshadowing at her unexpected and
alternate nature
. MADE SWEET MOAN - sensual imagery
. I SET HER - active verb - shows she has been taken control/ command of - setting up a
power dynamic that will later be inverted
. I SET HER ON MY PACING STEED - can be interpreted as euphemism for sex
. Implicit peripeteia ? 7th quatrain - shift in power dynamic: SHE FOUND ME - subsequent
quatrains then all begin SHE TOOK ME + SHE LULLED ME - now the LADY as the agency,
control.
. AND SURE IN LANGUAGE STRANGE SHE SAID - ‘I LOVE THEE TRUE.’ - ambivalent
and dubious - SURE illustrates KNIGHT’S confidence and yet the words were spoken in a
LANGUAGE STRANGE - sense that knight is twisting words to conform to his own lustful,
romantic desires
. AND THERE I SHUT HER WILD WILD EYES - repetition of WILD and allusion to adjective
at beginning foreshadows at her unpredictable and duplicitous nature - verb SHUT
, demonstrates KNIGHT is trying to control her emotions? - saviour complex? - role of
chivalric knight in mediaeval courtly love
. SHE LULLED ME ASLEEP - soft assonances - gentle verbs - connotations of a lullaby -
beguiling
. Dream - explicit peripeteia - plosives - contrast against previous soft sounds - PALE KINGS
- PRINCES - PALE WARRIORS - DEATH PALE - great emphasis on PALE through
repetition - all noble figures
. ‘LA BELLE DAME SANS MERCI THEE HATH IN THRALL! - direct speech from all these
noble figures - a warning - KNIGHT’S hubris exposed - he thought he was in control
. Ominous and haunting semantic field of figures in dream - STARVED LIPS IN THE GLOAM
+ HORRID WARNING GAPED WIDE
. Last quatrain - repetition of beginning - ALONE AND PALELY LOITERING - cyclical - also
sense of entrapment - death is inevitable - or reflective of the LADY’S role as a succubus -
will go on to destroy another male figure?
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