Analysis of Keats' La Belle Dame

Hello and welcome to a summary of all you need to know about the poem La Belle Dame, Sans Merci by John Keats. I'll explain the meaning related to this poem as it appears in part three of the Pearson Edexcel International GCSE Anthology. Now do bear in mind that in contrast to part one of the anthology which featured only non-fiction texts and part two which is a mix of fiction short stories and poems, part three of this anthology exclusively features poems alone, so in this video I'll highlight key language and literary devices used in the poem and you learn how to analyse it. So let's get started. Now what I'll do is I'll read the first three verses and pause every so often as I'm reading throughout the poem to point out important literary techniques. So let's begin. Oh what can ail thee, knight-at-arms, alone and palely loitering? The sedge has withered from the lake, no birds sing. Oh what can ail thee, knight-at-arms, so haggard and so woe-begone? The scroll's granaries fall and the harvest's done. I see a lily on thy brow. with anguish moist and fever dew and on their cheek fading rose fast withereth too now the opening of this ballad is really powerful because essentially there's a speaker we don't know who they are they're anonymous and they find this knight who seems to be really really ill at ease perhaps withering and they're asking them the question what's wrong with them now let's first focus on the title itself la belle dame sans merci now this is essentially of all the beautiful lady without mercy or without thanks. Now also bear in mind the term bell dame and as we learn about this lady and the poem progresses this is actually referring to a femme fatale. Now a femme fatale is a dangerous woman who we find in lots of novels, fiction stories and so on who seems quite beautiful outwardly and quite vulnerable. However they're quite deceptive, destructive and quite seductive. So we're going to see that at the core of why this knight is cool. quite ill, ailing, is because of a beautiful woman. Also as I mentioned the poetic form of this poem is a ballad. It's a poem that narrates a story in short predictable stanzas and it's written in quatrains, four line stanzas. Now in the first stanza, O what can ail thee? Now the reference to ail thee is this focus by the narrative voice on the pain and the melancholy of this knight at arms and already we're quite intrigued as we're reading this. Moreover, the caesura here focuses our attention on this person who's ailing and we learn that it's a knight at arms. And this reveals the key character, the key person that is going to tell the story about this femme fatale. Moreover, we learn that this knight at arms is alone and purely loitering. Now, the rhetorical question here is asked by the narrator and they're basically asking the knight, what's wrong? You look quite pale, you're alone and you're kind of loitering around here in this garden. The speaker then goes on to state the sedge has withered and bear in mind that sedge is a plant and when they state the sedge has withered essentially this is a metaphor for the night withering away. Furthermore in line five we learn that not only is the night withering away but actually where they are there's no birds that sing there so we get a sense of a bleak wintry landscape which is bereft of hope. Now in verse two you Again, there's this repetition, oh what can ail thee knighted arms, and this repetition fits in with the ballad form of this poem. Furthermore, there's again this repetition of thee, this anaphora, this anaphoric reference, and the repetition of thee makes us focus on this knight. Now we learn that the knight is haggard, woe be gone, he's in anguish, and he seems to be in some kind of fever. Now this belongs to a semantic field of misery, all of this language, and what this shows is that The night his life force has been drained and again this further intrigues us as readers wondering what's going on? Why is the night looking like this? Furthermore the speaker states or the narrator voice states the squirrel's granary is full. We get the sense that it's winter, the squirrels have gathered all their provisions, animals are about to hibernate and this night is just there and he seems to be really really ill. Moreover in line 10 the harvest done again there's this emphasis on winter it's approaching and thus there's a sense of hopelessness and abandonment that's created in these first two stanzas now in the third stanza the speaker states i see a lily on their brow and what this is uh stating is that the speaker can see that the knight's forehead is as pale as a lily they're really not looking well moreover the speaker states on thy cheek a fading rose and the metaphor here emphasizes the youth vitality and it energy of this night has been sapped. So we are extremely intrigued. What's going on? Why are they so sickly looking? So let's carry on. Lady in the meads, full beautiful, a fairy'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 fragrance own. 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 a side long would she bend, and sing a fairy's song. Now in this part of the ballad, we now get the knight's own perspective and this is emphasised through the repetition of the first person pronoun. We hear from the knight who explains why he's there and why he's looking so frail and fragile as he does. Now the knight reminds us of this femme fatale, a meta lady. So this is the woman who's in charge or who has caused this illness within him. Now the knight says she's full beautiful fairy's child and the alliteration of full and fairy emphasises this woman's alluring beauty. Moreover the caesura hair full beautiful and then there's a pause the hyphen it creates the knight's own or rather it reflects the knight's own pause as he recalls her beautiful appearance and then he remembers she was a fairy's child now the knight assumes that she was a child of a fairy as she was just so enchanting and uncanny to look at then the knight continues to describe her appearance her hair was long her foot was light and her eyes were wild now the tricolon hair hair foot eyes And the semantic field of body parts emphasises the knight's sexual attraction to this beautiful woman. Moreover, we learn that her eyes were wild. And the alliteration here shows that the woman, this woman, this beautiful woman, appears wild, animalistic and very otherworldly. But actually, this is what made her so alluring to this knight. Now, in the following verse, we learn that the knight made a garland. And a garland is basically a crown made of plants. He put a crown on her head like a queen. He almost worshipped her because she was so beautiful and he was so dazzled by her. Moreover, he made bracelets too. And what this shows is the knight is courting her in a very traditional way. He's trying to romance her in a very, very traditional way. Furthermore, the knight states, and fragrance zone. And essentially what the knight is stating here is that he made a belt made with scents of flowers and therefore he embellished this beautiful woman with gifts. Now, he refers to her, she looked at me as she did love. And the repetition of the third person pronoun she shows this knight's obsession with her. Moreover in line 25, she did love and made sweet moan. Now the alliteration, made and moan, and the onomatopoeia itself, moan, is quite sensual. What this shows is that the knight was even more so captured and seduced by this woman's sexuality. Now in the following verse, we learn that the knight put her on my pacing steed. Essentially what he's saying is that he placed her on his horse, so we get this very traditional, almost medieval image. of this knight who's sitting there on his horse and he places her on a steed on his horse. Moreover, he then states, nothing else saw all day long. So what this shows is the knight was so captivated he can only focus on this beautiful woman and he was captivated and charmed by her. Furthermore, for side long would she bend and sing. Now the sibilance here, side long she and sing, shows she would lean forward and sing a fairy song to this knight. And again, once more he repeats, fairy song and the repetition here emphasizes this other wildliness of this woman but also how she seduces him and how she maybe puts him into a trance so let's carry on she found me roots of relish sweet and honey wild and manidoo 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 full and there she lulled me asleep and there i dreamed ah you woe betide the latest dream I could have ever dreamt on the cold hillside. So now in this part of the ballad essentially he places on his horse and then she leads him to a place in this enchanted forest perhaps where she gets him food and then she appears to be very emotional he then gets her to calm down he kisses her four times and then she lulls him to sleep. Now in verse seven you He states that she found me roots of relish sweet. Now the alliteration roots and relish shows that this lady found him nutritious food and roots in the wild. Moreover the reference to roots relish sweet honey wild of manna dew the semantic field of food here nourishment shows that she further lured him by feeding him. Moreover the reference to manna dew now this food shows that the knight almost is reminiscent he's thinking of the manna which kept the Israelites alive in the bible. on the journey in the book of exodus as they escaped egypt so being with this woman being fed by her having this food given by this woman was almost a quasi religious experience for this night this is how otherworldly she was. Then we learn that in a different language she said and the sibilance here shows that she's entrancing him even further and furthermore and then she confesses I love thee true. Now this direct dialogue shows we hear directly from this femme fatale and she tells him directly that she loves him and she thus lures him into a false sense of security. He feels like he's got her. Now she then takes him in verse 8 to her elfin grot. Now this is essentially a fairy cave and this enchanted cave emphasises that the knight is now powerless under her. He's under her spell. Then we learned she wept inside full sore. What this shows is that she was overcome with emotion. She shows him some vulnerability. Again fitting into this femme fatale, the woman appears seemingly quite vulnerable but isn't quite that vulnerable. Then there's repetition and allusion back to her wild, wild eyes. And the repetition here shows that she's quite wild, animalistic and uncivilised. But all this does is entrance the knight even more. Then the knight kisses her. He kisses her four times to soothe her because she seems like she's crying. She's overcome with emotion. Then in the following verse, there she lulled me to sleep. Now here, what this shows is that the knight has been cast under a spell and she leads him to sleep. Moreover, then Jean-Bermond here speeds up the pace of the poem. Now, the knight then dreams and the repetition of dreamed, dream and dreamt makes us focus on the horror of the dream that he will describe. Now he's under her spell and he's fallen asleep. Moreover, the parenthesis shows us his horror at the dream. Ah, woe betide. And the exclamatory sentence is a turning point. This is the vaulter. She goes from being this beautiful, charming woman. Now the knight is under a spell and something terrible is about to happen. Moreover, the reference to On the Cold Hillside shows that this knight is lonely and abandoned. So let's continue. I saw pale kings and princess too, pale warriors, death pale were they all. They cried, La belle dame sans merci, thee hath enthrall. I saw their starved lips in the gloam, with horrid mourning gaped wide, and I awoke and found me here, on this cold hillside. And this is why I sojourn here, alone and pale in loitering, though the sedges withered from the lake. and no birds sing. Now the ending is quite ominous. So the knight tells us that when he now dreamt he saw pale kings, princes and pale warriors and the repetition of the adjectives pale shows that these men have lost the vitality just like the knight, these men that he dreams of. Now the men that this woman captures are kings, princes and warriors. Now the rule of three here shows that this woman has seduced many powerful men. and he dreams he perceives all these victims around him having this horrible look of death. Moreover, this is further emphasised with the description death pale and he sees the victims of this femme fatale and to his horror he realises he has now become another one of those victims. Now 950 they cried and this onomatopoeia shows their despair. La belle dame sans merci, thee hath enthralled. Now this cry is the victims basically telling the knight that he has also been caught. by this woman. He's now under her spell. Now the alliteration, the enthrall is quite forceful as it emphasises that the knight is now a prisoner. He's dreamt and now he's realised through the revelation in his dream that he's now a prisoner to this woman. Then the knight states, I saw the starved lips and saw and starved. The sibilance here is quite airy because it shows that he's going to undergo the same transformation, this negative dramatic transformation. Now the reference to the gloam. Gloam means a time of day. when it's after sunset and this is essentially a use of pathetic fallacy to show darkness, to show the lack of hope. Now the reference to with, warning, wide, the alliteration here is powerful because it shows that the men, these men that the knight has dreamed of, the king's princes and warriors but also himself, they've now become like zombies under this woman's spell, they're now victims permanently to this woman. Then the knight states and I awoke so they awake from this dream and what this symbolises is that the knight came back to his own. rational way of thinking and he emerged from under her spell but now he's too late because he finds himself on the cold hillside and the repetition of the cold hillside shows he's lonely he's abandoned now he then says this is why i sojourn here and this means rest or linger he explains now to this speaker this is why you find me like this here and then john want gives us as readers pause for thought again the night restates alone and paley loitering and this is a repetition of the rhetorical question which the speaker asked the knight in line two but now it's come full circle he's explained why he's alone and paley loitering now the poem ends with and no birds sing and what this does is it ends the entire poem on a dark gloomy and ominous note almost as a warning against beautiful femme fatales so that's all If you found this video useful, please do note that we have an in-depth extensive course covering all the texts and poems in parts 1, 2 and 3 of the anthology, so make sure you sign up for this course for explanations on all the texts as well as model answers. Now, do also check out our website www.firstrateachers.com where you will find plenty of English revision worksheets, model answers and online courses covering all the major English syllabuses including Edexcel, AQA and IGCSE. Thank you so much for watching.

So let's get started. Now what I'll do is I'll read the first three verses and pause every so often as I'm reading throughout the poem to point out important literary techniques. So let's begin. Oh what can ail thee, knight-at-arms, alone and palely loitering?

The sedge has withered from the lake, no birds sing. Oh what can ail thee, knight-at-arms, so haggard and so woe-begone? The scroll's granaries fall and the harvest's done.

I see a lily on thy brow. with anguish moist and fever dew and on their cheek fading rose fast withereth too now the opening of this ballad is really powerful because essentially there's a speaker we don't know who they are they're anonymous and they find this knight who seems to be really really ill at ease perhaps withering and they're asking them the question what's wrong with them now let's first focus on the title itself la belle dame sans merci now this is essentially of all the beautiful lady without mercy or without thanks. Now also bear in mind the term bell dame and as we learn about this lady and the poem progresses this is actually referring to a femme fatale.

Now a femme fatale is a dangerous woman who we find in lots of novels, fiction stories and so on who seems quite beautiful outwardly and quite vulnerable. However they're quite deceptive, destructive and quite seductive. So we're going to see that at the core of why this knight is cool.

quite ill, ailing, is because of a beautiful woman. Also as I mentioned the poetic form of this poem is a ballad. It's a poem that narrates a story in short predictable stanzas and it's written in quatrains, four line stanzas.

Now in the first stanza, O what can ail thee? Now the reference to ail thee is this focus by the narrative voice on the pain and the melancholy of this knight at arms and already we're quite intrigued as we're reading this. Moreover, the caesura here focuses our attention on this person who's ailing and we learn that it's a knight at arms. And this reveals the key character, the key person that is going to tell the story about this femme fatale. Moreover, we learn that this knight at arms is alone and purely loitering.

Now, the rhetorical question here is asked by the narrator and they're basically asking the knight, what's wrong? You look quite pale, you're alone and you're kind of loitering around here in this garden. The speaker then goes on to state the sedge has withered and bear in mind that sedge is a plant and when they state the sedge has withered essentially this is a metaphor for the night withering away.

Furthermore in line five we learn that not only is the night withering away but actually where they are there's no birds that sing there so we get a sense of a bleak wintry landscape which is bereft of hope. Now in verse two you Again, there's this repetition, oh what can ail thee knighted arms, and this repetition fits in with the ballad form of this poem. Furthermore, there's again this repetition of thee, this anaphora, this anaphoric reference, and the repetition of thee makes us focus on this knight. Now we learn that the knight is haggard, woe be gone, he's in anguish, and he seems to be in some kind of fever. Now this belongs to a semantic field of misery, all of this language, and what this shows is that The night his life force has been drained and again this further intrigues us as readers wondering what's going on?

Why is the night looking like this? Furthermore the speaker states or the narrator voice states the squirrel's granary is full. We get the sense that it's winter, the squirrels have gathered all their provisions, animals are about to hibernate and this night is just there and he seems to be really really ill. Moreover in line 10 the harvest done again there's this emphasis on winter it's approaching and thus there's a sense of hopelessness and abandonment that's created in these first two stanzas now in the third stanza the speaker states i see a lily on their brow and what this is uh stating is that the speaker can see that the knight's forehead is as pale as a lily they're really not looking well moreover the speaker states on thy cheek a fading rose and the metaphor here emphasizes the youth vitality and it energy of this night has been sapped.

So we are extremely intrigued. What's going on? Why are they so sickly looking?

So let's carry on. Lady in the meads, full beautiful, a fairy'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 fragrance own. 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 a side long would she bend, and sing a fairy's song. Now in this part of the ballad, we now get the knight's own perspective and this is emphasised through the repetition of the first person pronoun.

We hear from the knight who explains why he's there and why he's looking so frail and fragile as he does. Now the knight reminds us of this femme fatale, a meta lady. So this is the woman who's in charge or who has caused this illness within him.

Now the knight says she's full beautiful fairy's child and the alliteration of full and fairy emphasises this woman's alluring beauty. Moreover the caesura hair full beautiful and then there's a pause the hyphen it creates the knight's own or rather it reflects the knight's own pause as he recalls her beautiful appearance and then he remembers she was a fairy's child now the knight assumes that she was a child of a fairy as she was just so enchanting and uncanny to look at then the knight continues to describe her appearance her hair was long her foot was light and her eyes were wild now the tricolon hair hair foot eyes And the semantic field of body parts emphasises the knight's sexual attraction to this beautiful woman. Moreover, we learn that her eyes were wild.

And the alliteration here shows that the woman, this woman, this beautiful woman, appears wild, animalistic and very otherworldly. But actually, this is what made her so alluring to this knight. Now, in the following verse, we learn that the knight made a garland.

And a garland is basically a crown made of plants. He put a crown on her head like a queen. He almost worshipped her because she was so beautiful and he was so dazzled by her. Moreover, he made bracelets too. And what this shows is the knight is courting her in a very traditional way.

He's trying to romance her in a very, very traditional way. Furthermore, the knight states, and fragrance zone. And essentially what the knight is stating here is that he made a belt made with scents of flowers and therefore he embellished this beautiful woman with gifts. Now, he refers to her, she looked at me as she did love.

And the repetition of the third person pronoun she shows this knight's obsession with her. Moreover in line 25, she did love and made sweet moan. Now the alliteration, made and moan, and the onomatopoeia itself, moan, is quite sensual.

What this shows is that the knight was even more so captured and seduced by this woman's sexuality. Now in the following verse, we learn that the knight put her on my pacing steed. Essentially what he's saying is that he placed her on his horse, so we get this very traditional, almost medieval image.

of this knight who's sitting there on his horse and he places her on a steed on his horse. Moreover, he then states, nothing else saw all day long. So what this shows is the knight was so captivated he can only focus on this beautiful woman and he was captivated and charmed by her.

Furthermore, for side long would she bend and sing. Now the sibilance here, side long she and sing, shows she would lean forward and sing a fairy song to this knight. And again, once more he repeats, fairy song and the repetition here emphasizes this other wildliness of this woman but also how she seduces him and how she maybe puts him into a trance so let's carry on she found me roots of relish sweet and honey wild and manidoo 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 full and there she lulled me asleep and there i dreamed ah you woe betide the latest dream I could have ever dreamt on the cold hillside. So now in this part of the ballad essentially he places on his horse and then she leads him to a place in this enchanted forest perhaps where she gets him food and then she appears to be very emotional he then gets her to calm down he kisses her four times and then she lulls him to sleep.

Now in verse seven you He states that she found me roots of relish sweet. Now the alliteration roots and relish shows that this lady found him nutritious food and roots in the wild. Moreover the reference to roots relish sweet honey wild of manna dew the semantic field of food here nourishment shows that she further lured him by feeding him. Moreover the reference to manna dew now this food shows that the knight almost is reminiscent he's thinking of the manna which kept the Israelites alive in the bible.

on the journey in the book of exodus as they escaped egypt so being with this woman being fed by her having this food given by this woman was almost a quasi religious experience for this night this is how otherworldly she was. Then we learn that in a different language she said and the sibilance here shows that she's entrancing him even further and furthermore and then she confesses I love thee true. Now this direct dialogue shows we hear directly from this femme fatale and she tells him directly that she loves him and she thus lures him into a false sense of security.

He feels like he's got her. Now she then takes him in verse 8 to her elfin grot. Now this is essentially a fairy cave and this enchanted cave emphasises that the knight is now powerless under her. He's under her spell. Then we learned she wept inside full sore.

What this shows is that she was overcome with emotion. She shows him some vulnerability. Again fitting into this femme fatale, the woman appears seemingly quite vulnerable but isn't quite that vulnerable.

Then there's repetition and allusion back to her wild, wild eyes. And the repetition here shows that she's quite wild, animalistic and uncivilised. But all this does is entrance the knight even more.

Then the knight kisses her. He kisses her four times to soothe her because she seems like she's crying. She's overcome with emotion.

Then in the following verse, there she lulled me to sleep. Now here, what this shows is that the knight has been cast under a spell and she leads him to sleep. Moreover, then Jean-Bermond here speeds up the pace of the poem.

Now, the knight then dreams and the repetition of dreamed, dream and dreamt makes us focus on the horror of the dream that he will describe. Now he's under her spell and he's fallen asleep. Moreover, the parenthesis shows us his horror at the dream. Ah, woe betide.

And the exclamatory sentence is a turning point. This is the vaulter. She goes from being this beautiful, charming woman.

Now the knight is under a spell and something terrible is about to happen. Moreover, the reference to On the Cold Hillside shows that this knight is lonely and abandoned. So let's continue.

I saw pale kings and princess too, pale warriors, death pale were they all. They cried, La belle dame sans merci, thee hath enthrall. I saw their starved lips in the gloam, with horrid mourning gaped wide, and I awoke and found me here, on this cold hillside.

And this is why I sojourn here, alone and pale in loitering, though the sedges withered from the lake. and no birds sing. Now the ending is quite ominous. So the knight tells us that when he now dreamt he saw pale kings, princes and pale warriors and the repetition of the adjectives pale shows that these men have lost the vitality just like the knight, these men that he dreams of.

Now the men that this woman captures are kings, princes and warriors. Now the rule of three here shows that this woman has seduced many powerful men. and he dreams he perceives all these victims around him having this horrible look of death. Moreover, this is further emphasised with the description death pale and he sees the victims of this femme fatale and to his horror he realises he has now become another one of those victims. Now 950 they cried and this onomatopoeia shows their despair.

La belle dame sans merci, thee hath enthralled. Now this cry is the victims basically telling the knight that he has also been caught. by this woman. He's now under her spell. Now the alliteration, the enthrall is quite forceful as it emphasises that the knight is now a prisoner.

He's dreamt and now he's realised through the revelation in his dream that he's now a prisoner to this woman. Then the knight states, I saw the starved lips and saw and starved. The sibilance here is quite airy because it shows that he's going to undergo the same transformation, this negative dramatic transformation. Now the reference to the gloam. Gloam means a time of day.

when it's after sunset and this is essentially a use of pathetic fallacy to show darkness, to show the lack of hope. Now the reference to with, warning, wide, the alliteration here is powerful because it shows that the men, these men that the knight has dreamed of, the king's princes and warriors but also himself, they've now become like zombies under this woman's spell, they're now victims permanently to this woman. Then the knight states and I awoke so they awake from this dream and what this symbolises is that the knight came back to his own. rational way of thinking and he emerged from under her spell but now he's too late because he finds himself on the cold hillside and the repetition of the cold hillside shows he's lonely he's abandoned now he then says this is why i sojourn here and this means rest or linger he explains now to this speaker this is why you find me like this here and then john want gives us as readers pause for thought again the night restates alone and paley loitering and this is a repetition of the rhetorical question which the speaker asked the knight in line two but now it's come full circle he's explained why he's alone and paley loitering now the poem ends with and no birds sing and what this does is it ends the entire poem on a dark gloomy and ominous note almost as a warning against beautiful femme fatales so that's all If you found this video useful, please do note that we have an in-depth extensive course covering all the texts and poems in parts 1, 2 and 3 of the anthology, so make sure you sign up for this course for explanations on all the texts as well as model answers.

Now, do also check out our website www.firstrateachers.com where you will find plenty of English revision worksheets, model answers and online courses covering all the major English syllabuses including Edexcel, AQA and IGCSE. Thank you so much for watching.

Transcript for:Analysis of Keats' La Belle Dame

Transcript for:
Analysis of Keats' La Belle Dame