La belle dame san merci - John Keates
Keats context:
● Published at a point of his best work
● La mere - women who can turn into a snake after learning men in, his other poem see
it within the Narnia dress all connected to medusa
● Brother had TB he contracted it from taking care of him and died very young living in
poverty - has more of an acceptance with death
● He was a surgeon and worked in an operating theatre
● Cockney poet - wasn’t very classed with the poets quiet derogatory and cast out
● Romantics and a ballad - use for lust and deception, inevitability of pain and women
in love, does love lead to happiness
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.
Keats context:
● Published at a point of his best work
● La mere - women who can turn into a snake after learning men in, his other poem see
it within the Narnia dress all connected to medusa
● Brother had TB he contracted it from taking care of him and died very young living in
poverty - has more of an acceptance with death
● He was a surgeon and worked in an operating theatre
● Cockney poet - wasn’t very classed with the poets quiet derogatory and cast out
● Romantics and a ballad - use for lust and deception, inevitability of pain and women
in love, does love lead to happiness
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.
