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Structure:
Literary Ballad: A literary ballad is a ballad written by a poet who wishes
to imitate the traditional folk ballad’s “form and spirit” (http://academic.brooklyn.cuny.edu/english/melani/lit_term.html#ballad).
The folk ballad, which usually tells a basic story of love or pain, is known
for its simple language and minimal details.
These ballads, which are often sung or recited publicly, are part of the oral
traditions of many cultures. Because they are meant to entertain, the ballads
typically interweave factual content with mysterious or supernatural occurrences.
Two characteristics of a ballad:
- Incremental Repetition: a device used in poetry in which a line
is repeated in a
changed context or with minor changes in the repeated part - Ballad Stanza: four lines with alternating iambic tetrameter and
iambic trimeter
“La Belle Dame sans Merci” utilizes ballad stanzas in which the first three lines are
iambic tetrameter and the fourth line is shorter, usually with four or five syllables.
Title:
“La Belle Dame sans Merci” can be translated as “The
Lovely Lady Without Pity.” Keats is thought to have taken this
title from the medieval poet Alain Chartier. Keats also uses the phrase “La
Belle Dame sans Merci” in his poem “Eve of St. Agnes” when
Porphyro and Madeline meet:
"Awakening up, he took her hollow lute-
Tumultuous – and, in chords that tenderest be,
He played an ancient ditty, long since mute,
In Provence called “La belle dame sans merci”… (Harmon 24)
Paraphrase:
“La Belle Dame sans Merci” tells the story of a knight and
his encounter with a bewitching, lovely woman. As the poem begins, the
knight, death-pale,
lies by a lake amidst the death of autumn. An anonymous speaker, noticing
the knight’s poor condition, asks the knight why he is ailing.
The knight responds with his tale. He tells how he met a mystifying woman
in a meadow who quickly enchanted him. He plied her with floral gifts,
she sang him a song of love, and as they kissed, he fell asleep. He dreamed
a nightmare in which deathly-pale kings and warriors shouted warnings
to him to beware of the enslaving woman. It was too late… he was
enslaved as well. When the knight awoke from the nightmare, he found
himself on a cold hill side, alone and confused.
Connotation:
“La Belle Dame sans Merci” can simply be read as a story
of love found and lost. Upon further analysis, it becomes clear that
Keats incorporated
many symbols and allusions in his writing that when examined, lead to
a fuller and more intriguing poem.
- Examine the poem stanza by stanza and develop an individual interpretation for the mystery of “La Belle Dame sans Merci." Is it simply a tale of unrequited love, or is Keats commenting on the entrapping nature of women and love?
Attitude:
The first two stanzas of the poem are full of anxiety and uncertainty.
The ambiguous speaker wants to know what plagues the knight. The third
to eighth stanzas are emotional and intense, two predominant characteristics
of ballads. These stanzas describe the knight and woman’s meeting,
as well as the mystifying attraction that appears to develop between
them. At the beginning of the ninth stanza, there is a significant
change in tone as the knight recounts his nightmare. The ninth through
eleventh stanza develop a haunting and disturbing tone. When the knight
awakes at the end of the eleventh stanza, his dream has left him dazed
and confused. The last stanza matter-of-factly answers the first stanza’s
speaker’s question while maintaining a tone of ambiguity and
mystery.
Shifts:
“La Belle Dame sans Merci” begins with an anonymous speaker
who questions the knight’s pale appearance and peculiar behavior:
Are you ill? Why are you lying on the ground? What is wrong? The poem
then
shifts as the knight begins to tell his dream of beauty and deceit. At
first, the knight tells a story of romance and lust, but the tone shifts
suddenly as the knights plummets into a kiss-induced nightmare. The shifts
directly correspond with the attitude and tone in the poem.
Title:
After reading and analyzing “La Belle Dame sans Merci,” does
the title foreshadow the story presented in the poem?
Themes:
- Keats’s poem “La Belle Dame sans Merci” portrays a common and ancient literary theme: a deceptive, beautiful woman enthralls and enslaves a powerful, unsuspecting male.
- Another theme of this poem is unrequited love. Keats’s knight in “La Belle Dame sans Merci” has fallen into the deceptive clutches of a beautiful woman who promised love but delivered only pain.
- Examine the poem for alternative interpretations and themes