my_thoughts

          It is not surprising that most readers find "La Belle Dame Sans Merci" by John Keats strangely moving. My first impression of Keats as a writer was that he sketched images of fleeting yet limitless worlds. His figures in "Ode on a Grecian Urn" are forever trapped in the present and although they will never suffer from old age and die, they are doomed to live the same experience throughout eternity. Keat's "snapshot" poetry allows the reader to experience a vivid flash in time without thinking about the next moment.
             I believe "La Belle Dame Sans Merci" strays away slightly from Keat's traditional style of writing. I would argue that the subject matter within "La Belle Dame Sans Merci" fits with the Romantic subject material found in his other works; however, it doesn't follow the Idea of a single moment caught in time. Mystery and fantasy blur the picture he paints. He leaves the reader with more questions than answers. Who is the woman? Is she a fairy? Is she real? Is the poem a fevered dream of a sickly warrior? Or can we simply interpret this more as an "unfinished" picture and less as a "snapshot"?
             Immediately I was captured by the somber and intriguing mood of the first two lines: "O what can ail thee, knight at arms, Alone and palely loitering?" Keats has already captured the readers' attention with mystery and irony. Traditionally knights were not known to be pale or were they in the habit of loitering! It is with this enigma that Keats lures the reader further into the poem. He ends the first stanza with an even more puzzling remark, "and no birds sing." Why aren't the birds singing? What would cause the silence? Fear? Or perhaps the birds know more than the unsuspecting knight does.
             It is clear in stanza two that the setting in which the lovers will meet is fall or autumn. "The squirrel's granary is full, And the harvest's done"(7,8). This can been seen particularly well in the painting by John Waterhouse. This season may have be chosen again for a continued sense of irony because traditionally spring is a time for falling in love, not autumn.
I must admit the sudden and dramatic appearance of the "lady in the meads"(13) reminded me of a line in a song (please forgive me!!). "I met a strange lady, she made me nervous, but she took me in and gave me breakfast" (Men at Work). Indeed the lady feeds the knight (25) and invites him into her "elfin grot" (29). Is this a Coincidence? Or did the guys from Australia keep up on their reading? The knight immediately succumbs to the spell of his temptress, she woes him with food (25) and sings sweetly to him (23). His fate is sealed when she tells him that she loves him. She says "I love thee true" (28). The knight at this point has been completely charmed and has no escape!
             Once they are in grot, the maiden weeps (30), perhaps she feels a sense of remorse. She has lured another man into her trap; she doesn't rejoice, instead she feels sorrow. Almost in an act of understanding the knight kisses her on the eyelids four times and she falls asleep (32). There was debate on why Keats chose four kisses (I admit I was somewhat curious). He had this to reply:

Why four kisses -- you will say -- why four? Because I wish to restrain the headlong impetuosity of my Muse -- she would have fain said "score" without hurting the rhyme -- but we must temper the imagination as the critics say with judgment. I was obliged to choose an even number that both eyes might have fair play: and to speak truly I think two apiece quite sufficient. Suppose I had said seven; there would have been three and a half apiece -- a very awkward affair -- and well got out of on my side (Friedlander)

It is quite clear then why Keats chose four; he simply didn't want the eyes to be jealous and thought four was enough!
Finally, by stanza ten the knight's end becomes apparent in a vivid dream:
                                            I saw pale kings, and princes too,
                                            Pale warriors, death-pale were they all;
                                           They cried-"La belle dame sans merci
                                            Hath thee in thrall!"
The ghosts of men who have been victimized by "La Belle Dame" visit the knight. Their message is grim and his dream quickly becomes a nightmare. I would have thought this poem would have concluded with a happier ending, but it doesn't. The dream continues to darken with the haunted images of trapped souls: " I saw their starv'd lips in the gloam With horrid warning gaped wide"(41,42). His fate is mirrored in the apparitions' stark images.
                  In the end, the knight awakes from his dream to find himself in a lifeless world. It is a world where "no birds sing" (48). It is as though the whole experience may have been a dream because he has gone full circle. The woman is gone and he seems to be right back where he started. Or perhaps, the knight is cursed to experience false love over and over again for eternity. Nevertheless, he is doomed never to hear the nightingales' song or feel the warmth of summer on his face. This is one battle the knight will never win.

I'd like to thank Ed Friedlander, M.D. I obtained both versions of La Belle Dame Sans Merci from his website; as well as, the Keat's quote in the above essay. His site also contains good information on other selected poems.

h ttp://www.pathguy.com/lbdsm.htm