Analysis of poem "La Belle Dame sans merci"

Shreegovind N A

Below is the poem La Belle Dame sans merci by John Keats

O what can ail thee, knight-at-arms,

Alone and palely loitering?

The sedge has withered from the lake,

And no birds sing.

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.

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 lullèd 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

Thee hath in thrall!’

I saw their starved lips in the gloam,

With horrid warning gapèd 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.

[ poem copied from poetryfoundation.org ]

To completely relsih and soak in the greatness of La Belle Dame sans Merci by John Keats, we need to know a bit about the poet who wrote it. Keats was a British romantic poet, he devoted his shot life of 25 years to the perfection of his poetry, which is known for vivid imagery and sensous appeal. Romanticism can be seen as a rejection of the precepts of order, calm, balance and rationality.Romanticism emphasized the individual, the subjective, the irrational, the imaginative, the spontaious,the visionary and the transcendal.

The title ' La Belle Dame sans Merci' translates to the beautiful lady without pity, it is borrowed from a French poem of the same title on courtly loves writtenby Alain Chartier, assumedly in 1424. In the first three stanzas the narrator gives us a vivid imagery of a knight in shining armour whose behaviour is pretty ironic the knight is pale ailing, loitering up and down, these actions are polar opposite on how a knight ought to be. It is from here we are on our toes to find out and know what caused the knight who was supposedly in shining armour to be in such a pitiful state

In the next three stanzas he tells us his tale, he met a lady in the meadows who was so beautiful that he couldn't pick out and explain what all made her beautiful in his eyes. After getting a grip he proceeds to describe her as "full beautiful - a faery's child". By calling her a faery's child what could be inferred is that her beauty is of that extent that it is inhuman, therefore the only possibility is that she is a supernational being. The knight describes that she had long hair. light footing, she also had a wild look in her eyes. All these further solidify my hypothesis that she isn't of this world. The knight goes on to make garlands for different areas of her body to show his love and affection, basically, he was wooing the lady. The lady while making love with the knight looked at him as if she loved him as much as the knight loved the lady, further out of static pleasure she made sweet moans. All these actions by the lady shows us that just like how the knight tried to conquer and subjugate her, ostensibly she was the one who was taking control over the knight without him even knowing, the knight thinks he's the conqueror but in actuality, he is the one who is conquered. In our first readthrough, if the poem we miss this completely, it is only in our second readthrough, it is only in our second readthrough we identify this.

Later the lady and the knight goes on a day's journey on the knight's horse, as they travel the lady starts to sing in a strange language, solidifying our previous argument. The lady proceeds to find and gives the knight sweet moans, wild honey and manna dew, then she says something in her strange language which the knight who is intoxicated by her "love" believes she said "I love thee true". From this we see how much the knight has fallen for her, we can say that he poured his soul into her, without her the knight wouldn't know what to live for. Words can't describe to what extent the knight has fallen for the lady.

It is from the eighth stanza of the poem the climax of this ballad begins, and we finally get to know what broke the spirit of the knight. The lady took the knight to her elfin cave, where she wept and sighed very grievously. In response to this to comfort her the knight shut her wild eyes and kissed her four times.

With that the lady lulled the knight asleep and in he dremt he was on the edge of a cold hill. Dreaming of being on the edge of a cold hill could be taken as a prophecy of loneliness and sorrow which will later become part of the knight very soon.

From the edge of the cold hill the knight saw several pale kings and princes, once mighty warriors were now as pale as corpses, it was as if their life was sucked out of them. All the princes and kings cried " La Belle Dame Sans Merci Hath thee in thrall ! " which translates to the beautiful merciless lady has destroyed you. All the kings and knights in this vision could be all those who had fallen for the same trap the knight fell into. All those men fell so deep in in love that, they centred their whole world around the woman, the lady was their sun and them the Planet. In other words they poured out their soul into the woman, who was a wolf in sheep's clothing whose intention from the very beginning was to feast on the souls of strong men.

After these horrifying visions, the knight wakes up on the cold hill which he dremt of. The last stanza concludes the poem with the knight telling us this is he here in this pitiful state.

One STRONG message I feel the poem gives us is not to centre one's reason for living around a single person, ideology, religion, all the known and unknown poisons which we indulge in exceptionally consciously or otherwise like those geeky investors say don't put all eggs in one basket, diversify.