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| "La Belle Dame Sans Merci" by Frank Bernard Dicksee. |
One
of the most famous poems by John Keats is "La Belle Dame Sans Merci"
(meaning "the beautiful woman without mercy" in old French). It is not
exactly a short poem, but twelve stanzas is not exactly that long,
either.
Oh what can ail thee, knight-at-arms,
Alone and palely loitering?
The sedge has withered from the lake,
And no birds sing.
Oh what can ail thee, knight-at-arms,
So haggard and so woe-begone?
The squirrel's granary is full,
And the harvest's done.
I see a lily on thy brow,
With anguish moist and fever-dew,
And on thy cheeks a fading rose
Fast withereth too.
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.
I made a garland for her head,
And bracelets too, and fragrant zone;
She looked 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.
She found me roots of relish sweet,
And honey wild, and manna-dew,
And sure in language strange she said -
'I love thee true'.
She took me to her elfin grot,
And there she wept and sighed full sore,
And there I shut her wild wild eyes
With kisses four.
And there she lulled me asleep
And there I dreamed - Ah! woe betide! -
The latest dream I ever dreamt
On the cold hill side.
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!'
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.
And this is why I sojourn here
Alone and palely loitering,
Though the sedge is withered from the lake,
And no birds sing.
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| "La Belle Dame Sans Merci" by Robert Anning Bell |
“La
Belle Dame sans Merci,” written in 1819 and published the next year in a
form slightly different from the one here, depicts a knight-at-arms who
has been seduced and abandoned by a capricious fairy. Told in the form
of a dialogue, the poem recounts the experience of loving dangerously
and fully, of remaining loyal to that love despite warnings to the
contrary, and of suffering the living death of one who has glimpsed
immortality," (enotes, 2011).
This
poem could be interpreted in a myriad of ways. There are some people
who think that the fairy exists only in the imagination and others who
believe her to be equitable to a siren, luring men into become her
emotional slaves. One analysis takes a different route:
"The
references to "faery" and "elfin" suggest enchantment or imagination.
Her "sweet moan" and "song" represent art inspired by imagination. The
lady, symbolizing imagination, takes him to an ideal world. The knight
becomes enraptured by or totally absorbed in the pleasures of the
imagination--the delicious foods, her song, her beauty, her love or
favor ("and nothing else saw all day long"). But the imagination or
visionary experience is fleeting; the human being cannot live in this
realm, a fact which the dreamer chooses to ignore. The knight's refusal
to let go of the joys of the imagination destroys his life in the real
world," (Melani, 2010).
In
poetry analysis, it may be hard to differ opinion from objective
analysis. While searching articles and websites online, I was struck by
how similar they all sound. After reading a number of them, I was able
to tell them apart more easily. Here is one example of an opinion about
Keats' poem:
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| "La Belle Dame Sans Merci" by Arthur Hugues. |
“La
Belle Dame sans Merci” is one of Keats’s most beloved poems and one of
the few important works that seems to evade the kind of critical
argumentation invoked by the odes and long poems. Typical of critics’
magnanimity toward the ballad is T. Hall Caine’s 1882 assessment of the
poem as the “loveliest [Keats] gave us.” He writes that the ballad is
“wholly simple and direct, and informed throughout by a reposeful
strength. In all the qualities that rule and shape poetry into unity of
form, this little work strides, perhaps, leagues in advance of
‘Endymion,’” (enotes, 2011).
One can tell that it is an opinion because of the use of words like "beloved" and "important". The author believes the poem to be a beloved and important work, and that is all based on the author's own opinions. This opinion offers little in the way of new information or analysis.
