Edexcel IGCSE Poetry Anthology texts - La Belle Dame sans Merci

General notes about the text (La Belle Dame sans Merci)

- The beautiful lady without mercy - written based of an archtypal femme fatale

- About a medieval knight who fell in love with a fairy woman

- A story(poem) of unrequited love, illness, and the impossibility of being with whom one cares for when they are from different social statuses

Themes of La Belle Dame Sans Merci

- Love, obsession, death

- Dangers of intense romantic love

- Imagination vs Reality

O what can ail thee, knight-at-arms, [stanza 1]

- The poem starts off in the voice of an external narrator, not linked to the story of the knight

- The external speaker seems to be questioning the knight

Alone and palely loitering [stanza 1]

-Lexical field of isolation - contrasts the usual image of a brave, strong, confident knight

-It almost describes the knight as lost, which again is contrasting as they always have some sort of task at hand and know exactly where they're heading to

The sedge has withered from the lake,

And no birds sing [stanza 1]

- Pathetic fallacy

- It appears to be winter, and as an audience we feel pity for the knight being lost and having no shelter in this cold and harsh season

O what can ail thee knight at arms (again) [stanza 2]

- repitition of this line

- the external speaker is persisiting to know more about this knight, as are we as the audience

So haggard and so woe-begone? [stanza 2]

- Again, pathetic fallacy - the knight seems miserable, and drained of lfie much like the nature in winter as it withers away

- Repitition of the qualifier 'so', which emphasises just how miserable the knight is

The squirrel's granary is full,

And the harvest's done [stanza 2]

- Further description of the winter

- Does the winter almost symbolise death?

I see a lily on thy brow [stanza 3]

- The voice has know switched to the knight, explaining why he is here

- Metaphor

- While the lily could be a symbol of hope and beauty, it is also given on occurence of death, perhaps forshadowing the knight's fate

With anguish moist and fever dew [stanza 3]

- this mysterious woman is described as very connected with nature, or ill/sick

- generally, stanza 3 suggests some sort of illness or death

-

And on thy cheek a fading rose

Fast withereth too [stanza 3]

- Roses are flowers that are stunningly beautiful, but when dying, because unpleasant, a browny-black shade, and disintergrate

- It is referring to the knight's naturally rosy cheeks which are losing its colour (perhaps due to the weather + cold)

- It also suggests he was once full of life but since then it has faded away

I met a lady in the meads,

Full beautiful - a faery's child, [stanza 4]

- here, it switches to the knight's perspective, as he starts to explain why he is in this state

- There is a caesura in the second line of the stanza, which encapsulates the shock the knight felt since she is so beautiful, and the enchantement

- The lady is also described as a faery's child - is she even human? Or is she purely mystical?

Her hair was long, her foot was light,

And her eyes were wild. [stanza 4]

- it seems that the knight has fallen in love at first sight

- the knight continues to describe the mysterious lady throughout this stanza.

- Again, there is a break between the lines - the knight is taking his time to describe the lady and not rushing a description

- The word 'wild' does not seem to match with this otherwise ethereal description of the lady - it denotes a sense of passion, desire to be free, or perhaps dangerous and untamed

I made a garland for her head,

And bracelets too, and fragrant zone; [stanza 5]

- This highlights the knights caring nature for the lady and perhaps adoration or entrapment

She looked at me as she did love,

And made sweet moan [stanza 5]

- The knights seems to have won the lady's heart.

- The 'as' seems very ambiguous

- The 'sweet moan' suggests either satisfaction from the lady or protest and annoyance

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 [stanza 6]

- This lady has the same effect of a siren attracting the knight

- The knight seems very possessive, controlling and monitoring

She found me roots of relish sweet,

And honey wild, and manna-dew, [stanza 7]

- The past 4 stanzas have started with 'I', but now they start with 'she'

- The lady could be providing food for the knight as a kind gesture, or equally she could be luring and poisoning him

- The mention of manna-dew connotes a supernatural quality - it references to the Bible when manna (food from the heavens is being fed to the Isralites

- Manna-dew also relates to fever-dew

And sure in language strange she said

'I love thee true'. [stanza 7]

- The word 'strange' is ambiguous in this context; does she speak the same language as him? Or is the way she speaks generally peculiar?

- The first direct admittance of love from the mysterious lady - however, does she really love the knight or is she manipulating him?

She took me to her elfin grot,

And there she wept and sighed full sore, [stanza 8]

- There is no explaination as to why she is crying

- However, the act of her crying shows that she still has some sort of human characteristic or element, even if she is described very ethereally

And there I shut her wild wild eyes

With kisses four [stanza 8]

- It shows the knight has become even more enamored with the lady

- It repeats the word 'wild' from before, but this time twice, suggesting the lady still has a lustful, untamed aspect about her

And there she lullèd me asleep

And there I dreamed - Ah! woe betide! - [stanza 9]

- This stanza marks the turning point of this alluring, dreamlike lady becoming a nightmare

- Has the knight really fallen asleep or is he under a spell?

- The caesura further highlights this change within the poem

The latest dream I ever dreamt

On the cold hill side. [stanza 9]

- Foreboding

- The last dream he may have before he dies - sinister twist in the poem

I saw pale kings, and princes too,

Pale warriors, death-pale were they all; [stanza 10]

- Pale is a symbol for death in this poem, draws a parallel to to 'palely loitering' - it is repeated three times in this passage, emphasising the presence of death

- many plosives

- This refers to the Book of revelation in New Testament; the pale horse and rider of the Bible symbolise death and bring destruction

They cried - 'La Belle Dame sans Merci

Thee hath in thrall!' [stanza 10]

- The caesura represents the horrible realisation of the knight - knowing he is doomed

- Thrall - power

I saw their starved lips in the gloam,

With horrid warning gapèd wide [stanza 11]

- The disturbing strong language of 'starved lips' and 'horrid' display the suffering these pale people are going through

- Every man that this lady has seduced has died - but the knight has realised this too late and is doomed

And I awoke and found me here,

On the cold hill's side. [stanza 11]

- Repititon of the last line in stanza 9

- He is no longer dreaming and back to reality?

And this is why I sojourn here,

Alone and palely loitering [stanza 12]

- sojourn - to stay temporarily in a particular place

- repitition of 'Alone and palely loitering' in stanza 1

- answers the question asked in stanza 1

Though the sedge is withered from the like,

and no birds sing [stanza 12]

- He is repeating what has been said before, however, it is the knight saying it this time, not the external speaker

- 'no birds sing' - there is no hope, his fate is final and definite and the knight is out of energy

structure and form of the poem

- Chanson balladée - type of rhyming verse set to music for dancing

- Because it is a ballad it has a typical rhyming structure of ABCB

- 12 quatrains (four line stanzas)

- First three lines of every stanza is in iambic tetrameter, fourth line only 4-5 syllables

- Cyclical structure of the poem

- Start and stop rhythm that relates to the poem's interest in the tensions between life and death