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Keats’s poem, which was written in 1819, reflects the values and themes associated with the Romantic era. During this literary movement, poetry typically centered around five key concepts: Nature, Emotion, Imagination, Individual, and Spontaneity. In “La Belle Dame sans Merci,” Keats interweaves his knight’s physical and emotional state with the corresponding natural settings. Keats's knight is “palely loitering” (2) and “wither[ing]” (12) in an autumnal setting in which “the sedge has withered from the Lake / And no birds sing” (3-4). During the romantic era, poetry was written in which “nature refer[ed] to both natural objects and human nature” (Romanticism Class Notes 1). Nature inspired the romantics and brought about strong emotional responses. The romantics saw imagination as a powerful force that could connect men with nature. In “La Belle Dame sans Merci,” it is the knight’s imagination which creates his dream of unrequited love. The knight’s imagination transports him to a supernatural world where he encounters a “faery’s child” (14) and an “elfin grot” (29). Keats's poem “La Belle Dame sans Merci” focuses on the individual as it presents a first person narration. Stanzas three through six and ten through twelve all begin with the pronoun “I” as the knight recounts the story of his haunting meeting with the temptress. Keats’s knight acts spontaneously in his dream as he fearlessly and thoughtlessly follows the fair woman he meets “in the Meads” (13). Lulled by her beauty and captivating presence, Keats’s knight does not stop to consider the potential consequences of his actions. Keats repeatedly incorporates the basic tenets of romanticism in his poem “La Belle Dame sans Merci.”
Keats’s personal life and experiences also greatly influenced
his writing. “La Belle Dame sans Merci,” which was written
on April 21, 1819, firsts appears in a letter to his brother and sister-in-law,
George and Georgiana Keats. At the time Keats wrote the poem, he was
struggling with two distressing romantic relationships.
During the week prior to his penning of the letter, Keats had discovered
a romantic betrayal of his beloved brother Tom, who had died of tuberculosis
in December of 1818. Keats, who had been very close to Tom, had stayed
by his brother’s side and had nursed him through his devastating illness. Therefore,
as Keats was going through his deceased brother’s belongings in April
of 1819, he was shocked and dismayed to discover a bundle of love letters from
a mystifying French woman, Amena Bellefila. After investigating the mysterious
letters, Keats realized that Amena did not exist; she was simply an imaginary
character created by Tom’s friend Charles Wells. Reflecting on this hoax,
Keats became outraged at this perceived exploitation of his brother’s
emotions. Keats even went so far as to blame Tom’s consumption on the
excessive emotions which the cruel trick had precipitated.
At the same time that Keats was nursing Tom, he fell in love with eighteen-year-old
Fanny Brawne. Fanny, who was young and pretty, had little interest in
poetry. Keats believed that his life’s focus was to be poetry, not marriage.
Therefore, Keats was troubled by his newfound feelings of affection for Fanny.
Even though the couple eventually became engaged, Keats found no comfort in
the romantic relationship. Ill, impoverished, and dedicated to his poetry,
Keats realized that marriage to his love was an impossible dream.
The anxiety and anguish brought on by these two troubling relationships
manifest themselves in Keats’s poem, “La Belle Dame sans
Merci.” The
overall theme of this poem is unrequited love. Keats’s knight
in “La
Belle Dame sans Merci” falls into the deceptive clutches
of a beautiful woman who promises love but delivers only pain. Blinded
by his desire for “relish
sweet” (25) and her declarations of love, the knight fails to
see the true nature of the temptress. As the poem ends, the knight,
waking from his
dream of love and torture, lies still and unresponsive, fearful to
live and to love again.