Analysis Of La Belle Dame Sans Merci

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La Belle Dame Sans Merci Questions 1) ”La Belle Dame Sans Merci” is a ballad. Prove this statement. The poem, “La Belle Dame Sans Merci”, is a ballad because it has element of the supernatural, it has stanzas made up of four lines, it follows one of the three possible rhyme schemes, and there is only one occurrence/episode/event. For example, this poem incorporates the supernatural in the fourth quatrain, “I met a lady in the meads, /Full beautiful - a faery’s child”. The fairy that is referenced belongs in the realm of the supernatural. Then, the poem follows the rhyming scheme, ABCB. This scheme is evident in the eleventh quatrain, “I saw their starved lips in the gloam, /With horrid warning gaped wide, /And I awake and found me here, …show more content…

In the beginning of the poem, the setting is described as a time where squirrels are ready for the winter and the harvests have finished. These descriptions are present in the second quatrain, “The squirrel’s granary is full, /And the harvest’s done”. Also there are no birds singing due to the migrations they typically follow in the fall. The absence of the birds is evident, “And no birds sing” in the first quatrain. Regarding the time period, the poem takes place in medieval times because the relevance of knights and fair maidens were only prominent in those times. The belief of fairies and other similar supernatural beings were also only seen in those times. The protagonist of the poem is a knight that is under the influence of a fairy, “Oh what can ail thee, knight-at-arms,” and at “I met a lady in the meads, /Full beautiful - a faery’s child,”. 4) In verse three, what doe the lily and the fading rose each symbolize? What do each reveal about the …show more content…

After meeting with the fairy and caring for her, he is lulled through her powers where she shows him dreams of death and despair of kings and princes. The knight saw “pale kings and princes too, /Pale warriors, death-pale were they all; /They cried - ‘La Belle Dame sans Merci /Hath thee in thrall!’”. For any regular person, a vision such as the one shown to the knight would have scarred them. But since the knight is no ordinary person, he should have kept faith in himself and in god to move on and live with honour and glory. Instead, he stays put 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

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