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Painting By Frank Dicksee. La Belle Dame sans Merci. Written by John Keats in 1819 Romantic Poem Romantics wrote/painted/created to rebel against Enlightenment ideals of order, rationality and science Romantics believed Enlightenment missed the point of being human: emotions
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Painting By Frank Dicksee
La Belle Dame sans Merci • Written by John Keats in 1819 • Romantic Poem • Romantics wrote/painted/created to rebel against Enlightenment ideals of order, rationality and science • Romantics believed Enlightenment missed the point of being human: emotions • Big 6 Romantics: Blake, Wordsworth, Coleridge, Shelly, Byron and Keats
Details about this poem • Song-like, imitates a folk ballad • Title taken from a 15th century French poem • 12 stanzas of Iambic tetrameter (four sets of Iambs per line EXCEPT in fourth line which is shorter. WHY? Let’s look at that again later…) • O what/ can ail/ thee, knight/ at arms • Title Translation: The Beautiful Lady without Mercy
La Belle Dame Sans Merci "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 sigh'd full sore;And there I shut her wild, wild eyesWith kisses four."And there she lullèd me asleep,And there I dream'd – ah! woe betide!The latest dream I ever dream'dOn the cold hill's side."I saw pale kings and princes too,Pale warriors, death-pale were they all:They cried, 'La belle Dame sans MerciHath thee in thrall!'"I saw their starved lips in the gloamWith horrid warning gapèd wide,And I awoke and found me hereOn the cold hill's side."And this is why I sojourn hereAlone and palely loitering,Though the sedge is wither'd from the lake,And no birds sing." "O WHAT can ail thee, knight-at-arms, Alone and palely loitering? The sedge has wither'd 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 browWith anguish moist and fever-dew.And on thy cheeks a fading roseFast 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 look'd 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 singA faery's song
Speaker 1: unknown speaker "O WHAT can ail thee, knight-at-arms, Alone and palely loitering? The sedge has wither'd 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 browWith anguish moist and fever-dew.And on thy cheeks a fading roseFast withereth too." • Time period? • What does he see? What does he ask? • What stands out to you? • What commonly used literary symbols do you see? • It is autumn. How do we know? • Lily? • Rose?
By Frank Cowper By Arthur Hughes
Speaker 2: The Knight • What happens? • What do you notice? • What bothers you or makes you wonder? "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 look'd 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 singA faery's song
The Knight – con’t "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 sigh'd full sore;And there I shut her wild, wild eyesWith kisses four. • What happens? • What do you notice? • What bothers you or makes you wonder?
By John William Waterhouse By Walter Crane
The Knight – con’t "And there she lullèd me asleep,And there I dream'd – ah! woe betide!The latest dream I ever dream'dOn the cold hill's side."I saw pale kings and princes too,Pale warriors, death-pale were they all:They cried, 'La belle Dame sans MerciHath thee in thrall!'"I saw their starved lips in the gloamWith horrid warning gapèd wide,And I awoke and found me hereOn the cold hill's side. • What happens? • What do you notice? • What bothers you or makes you wonder?
The Knight – con’t "And this is why I sojourn hereAlone and palely loitering,Though the sedge is wither'd from the lake,And no birds sing." • What happens? • What do you notice? • What bothers you or makes you wonder?
BY: ? By Robert Bell
Questions • What is this poem’s theme/message? • What is the deal with the faery-lady? Why does she cry (30) and why are her eyes wild (16,31) and why the repetition of wild? • Is your narrator reliable? Why or why not? • He falls asleep in the “elfin grot” so how does he get to the “cold hill’s side”? • Who is the unnamed speaker?
The Dream • This poem is 48 lines long • 8 ½ lines are about the dream • 6 are about the consequences of the dream • Is this significant? • Thought: He wakes from the dream on a cold hill. Is this important?