"La Belle Dame Sans Merci" translates to 'the beautiful woman has no mercy'. This is not the first time in Keats's poetry that we have heard this phrase- he also used it in "The Eve of St Agnes", another romantic poem rich "negative capability". It is as if these syllables have continued to haunt him; he has expressed this questioning in "La Belle Dame Sans Merci" by presenting us with the set for a story, but no conclusion or closure. Initially this ballad looks quite simplistic, the structure of the poem being a ballad looks very different from Keats other poems, and the reader can be fooled into believing its like a rhyme; not taking the content seriously. However the structure is effective in creating a haunting atmosphere. The short stanzas give an abrupt feeling to the poem, and the fourth shorter line ending the stanza gives a rapid but unfulfilled closure to that section.
Illustration of poem by John Keats
Portrait of John Keats by his friend Charles Brown...
John Keats, Portrait by William Hilton, after Jose...Keats uses the most common form of ballad I think to emphasis the impact of the content of the poem. The story of is of a treacherous woman who tempts men away from the real world and then leaves them- their dreams unfulfilled and their lives blighted. A haunting ominous effect is created throughout Keats's use of formal features of a traditional ballad. Keats uses the traditional features of a ballad, such as repetition of words and phrases, as well a quatrain rhyming scheme and four line stanza. However Keats alters the traditional ballad by shortening the last line of each stanza; with fewer stresses. The repetition was used to aid the memory in conventional ballads, however Keats uses it to enhance the haunting effect, creating a feeling of the word being echoed for the reader. The shorter last...