La Belle Dame Sans Merci PDF by John Keats

JOHN KEATS (1795 1821)  Father: Thomas Keats  Mother: Francis Jennings keats  Brother: Tom Keats  2nd generation romantic poet.  Spent a life full of sufferings.  The most sensuous poet in English Literature.  Famous for his great odes.  He was inspired by Faerie Queen of Sp...

JOHN KEATS (1795 1821)  Father: Thomas Keats  Mother: Francis Jennings keats  Brother: Tom Keats  2nd generation romantic poet.  Spent a life full of sufferings.  The most sensuous poet in English Literature.  Famous for his great odes.  He was inspired by Faerie Queen of Spenser. In 1814 he wrote in Immitation of Spenser.  1814 he met with Leigh Hunt who was the owner of The Examiner magzine which was a republican magzine.  He made friends here.  His first important poem was Endimyon about a Godess Cynthia. “A Thing of beauty is a Joy Forever”. This is dedicated to Thomas Chatterton who committed suicide.  He did not recieve fame in his life and was severely criticized by Quarterly Review, Scottish Magzine and Blackwoods Magzine.  Jibson Lockhart called him Cockney School Poet (keats, Shelly, Leigh Hunt) out of rage and criticism. The term cockney School of Poets was introduced by Lockhart.  In 1819 he produced his greatest Odes which made him great romantic poet.  He died at the age of 25 years. LA BELLE DAME SANS MERCI  It is in Literary Ballad Form.  Written in Ballad Stanza.  Autobiographical in nature.  Rhyme Scheme is ABCB.  Written in 1819 and published in 1820.   Keats’ ballad ‘La Belle Dame sans Merci’ describes the short encounter between a knight and a fairy lady.  He adopted the title of Alain Chartier’s French courtly poem ‘La Belle Dame Sans Mercy’. In French, the phrase means “A Beautiful Lady Without Mercy”.  Reflects the lost love of Keats with Fanny Brawne. SUMMARY  The first three stanzas introduce the unidentified speaker and the knight. The speaker comes across the knight wandering around in the dead of winter when “the sedge has withered from the lake/ And no birds sing.” In this way, Keats depicts a barren and bleak landscape.  The knight responds to the speaker, telling him how he met a lady in the meadows who was “full beautiful, a faery’s child”. Here, Keats’ language sweetens. The first three stanzas are bitter and devoid of emotion, but the introduction of the “lady in the meads” produces softness in the language of the knight. He reminisces on the lady’s beauty and her apparent innocence – her long hair, light feet, and wild eyes – and on her otherworldliness, as well. Moreover, he describes his sweet memories of the Lady: feeding each other, giving her presents, traveling with her, and being together.  In the eighth stanza, the lady weeps for she knows that they cannot be together as she is a fairy, and he is a mortal. She lulls him to sleep out of which he does not immediately wake. In his dream, the knight sees pale people like kings, princes, and warriors. They tell him that he has been enthralled by the woman without mercy. He wakes up from the nightmare alone, on the cold hillside, and tells the persona that is why he stays there, wandering, looking for the lady. The last stanza leaves the fate of the knight ambiguous. THEMES Isolation and Despair  The knight’s encounter with the enigmatic lady leaves him desolate and isolated, emphasizing the loneliness and despair that can result from unfulfilled or lost love. The supernaturalism  "La Belle Dame Sans Merci" deals with supernatural elements. The woman that the knight falls in love with is described as a "faery's child." A faery is a mythical, supernatural being, thus, by describing the woman as a faery's child, Keats brings out the theme of supernatural beings in this poem.  In the end, the knight finds himself on a cold hillside along with other men who were rapt in the same woman's spell. When they saw the knight, they exclaimed that "La Belle Dame sans Merci / Thee hath in thrall!’. Through the setting and the description of the woman, Keats brings out the supernatural element in this poem. The femme fatale  The theme of the femme fatale was popular among Romantic poets. The femme fatale is a seductive, beautiful woman who charms and ensnares men, leading them into dangerous situations. The poem clearly depicts the theme of the femme fatale as the woman, described as a "faery's child," makes the knight fall deeply in love with her, which later leads to his deterioration. Moreover, in the end of the poem, it is revealed that the speaker was not the only man to be ensnared by this woman. The dialogue spoken by the pale lovers—"La belle dame sans merci, / Thee hath in thrall"—further highlights the theme of the femme fatale. Love and obsession  In the poem, a knight tells the story of how he becomes obsessed with, and then gets abandoned by, a spirit known as La Belle Dame sans Merci, or "The Beautiful Lady Without Mercy." Though seemingly aware she’s an illusion, the knight lingers in his memory of the Lady, and it’s implied he will do so until he dies. In this relationship, the knight’s love turns from enchantment into obsession.  Through his example, the poem expresses two linked warnings about the dangers of intense romantic love. First, obsession drains one’s emotional energy. Second, when the object of obsession disappears, the lover left behind undergoes a spiritual death, losing the ability to appreciate beauty in anything but the memory of what is lost. These warnings suggest that love, though wonderful, can quickly shift into a kind of death if it becomes obsessive.  ODE TO A NIGHTINGALE Historical and Biographical Context  "Ode to a Nightingale" was written in 1819, a period when Keats was dealing with personal tragedies, including the death of his brother, mother and his own declining health due to tuberculosis.  Keats’ longest Ode in regular ode form. The shortest is ode to melancholy.  This personal suffering and the broader Romantic preoccupation with nature and the fleeting nature of life deeply influenced the poem.  It’s the longest ode with eight 10-line stanzas (80) and showcases Keats’ signature style of vivid imagery and emotional depth exploring themes of beauty and mortality.  Every line is in Iambic Pentameter.  This is Ode but reflects the Lyric and Hymn.  The Rhyme scheme is ABABCDECDE.  The poem is composed in a day. Inspired by Melodious song of Nightingale.  John Keats is sad and he is talking to a nightingale and sharing his feelings. SUMMARY My heart aches, and a drowsy numbness pains My sense, as though of hemlock I had drunk.  The poem is about the poet’s feelings when he hears a nightingale singing. At the start, he feels tired and sad because life is full of pain, sickness, and death. Hearing the nightingale’s beautiful, carefree song makes him wish he could escape from all these worries and enter the bird’s peaceful, joyful world.  As the poem goes on, Keats imagines different ways to escape. First, he thinks about using wine or imagination to forget his troubles and join the nightingale in its happy world. Then, he even considers death, thinking it might be peaceful to die while listening to the bird's song. But he realizes that dying would separate him from the beauty of life, including the nightingale’s music.   In the end, the bird flies away, and Keats feels unsure if his thoughts and feelings were real or just a dream. He is left facing the harsh realities of life again, but the nightingale’s song made him reflect on the differences between human life, which is short and full of sorrow, and the nightingale’s world, which seems eternal and full of joy. THEMES Time, Death and Impermanance  Ode to a Nightingale dwells on the idea that nothing can last in this world.  Human being are mortal but the song of nightingale is immortal.  The nightingale is free from all the tensions and anxieties.  Time creates weariness in human being.  Death is permanant solution to all the worries. Intoxication and Consciousness  Keats wants to escape all the sufferings and pain.  Consciousness is painful according to keats. It is a burden and sorrow  Intoxication, drugs and wines can make him happy because when a persons takes them he is no longer conscious.  The speaker thinks of drowning himself into Lethe river.  The speaker believes that the intoxication can hell the wounds given by consciousness.  Lately, he rejects the idea of wine and drugs and belives that poetry and imagination can make him happy for life long. Beauty, Nature and Art  Beauty in the poem is both an aesthetic and emotional experience, closely linked to the nightingale's song, which represents a timeless, ethereal beauty. Keats contrasts the  immortal beauty of the nightingale’s song with the fleeting nature of human life and suffering.  Beauty in the poem is both an aesthetic and emotional experience, closely linked to the nightingale's song, which represents a timeless, ethereal beauty. Keats contrasts the immortal beauty of the nightingale’s song with the fleeting nature of human life and suffering.  The nightingale’s song is also a metaphor for art itself—specifically poetry, which, like the nightingale, can transcend time. Keats reflects on the power of art to capture and preserve moments of beauty and emotional intensity. The nightingale, as a symbol of poetic inspiration, represents the kind of art that can exist outside of time, offering immortality through creation.  In the end, the speaker realizes that art and beauty can make man happy for temporary time therefore there is no permanant escpe to suffering and harsh realities of life.