La Belle Dame sans Merci- John Keats

The poem La Belle Dame sans Merci was written by John Keats in 1819. Keats was a Romantic, and the Romantic Movement peaked around the years 1800-1840. Some features of this poem which are stereotypical of Romantic poetry would be simple language, emphasis on beauty, and medieval as well as supernatural subject matter. Keats’s poem “avoids simplicity of interpretation despite simplicity of structure”. It has 12 stanzas, each with four lines which follow the rhyming scheme ABCB. The poem takes the form of a ballad, which were typical of the Romantic era, and takes its name La Belle Dame sans Merci (“The Beautiful Lady without Pity”) from the title of a 15^th century French poem by Alain Chartier about courtly love.

The poem narrates the journey of a Knight who is lured by a “faery’s child”, a nymph, into her “elfin grot”. The Knight “made a garland for her head” and sets her on his “pacing steed”. By putting the woman on his horse the narrator is metaphorically and physically putting her on a pedestal. This aspect of attraction is a key feature of courtly love, which often depicts love as a terrible sickness, as well as the only cure. The narrator gives clues to the reader that his love is dangerous by describing her eyes as “wild”, but it is not until he is lured into her territory and “lulled asleep” that he dreams of “pale Kings, and Princes too” who attempt to warn him that he’s under threat (“La belle Dame sans merci thee hath in thrall!”) However by this time it is too late, and he is left “alone and palely loitering” on the “cold hill’s side”. 

Keats employs the pastoral convention, where women are presented as nymphs and generally at one with nature. This technique was popular in the 16^th century and often portrays the woman as passive, however in Keats’s poem this is certainly not the case. Keats’s apparent subversion of the pastoral convention could be interpreted on a post-feminist level as an empowerment of female beauty, because the woman in La Belle Dame sans Merci has control over her male suitor. However, a contrasting feminist approach may argue that Keats has presented a two dimensional, voiceless, deceitful woman who is ultimately portraying femininity in a negative light. The debate around whether or not the poem empowers or degrades women is an example of one of the many debates it raises.

One interpretation of the poem would be that the narrator has not actually encountered a nymph, but that the whole of the poem is in fact a dream he has had in which his view of love has been personified. For example, the narrator says that he was dreamt “the latest dream” and “awoke, and found me here on the cold hill side.” If this is the case, then we can infer that the story of the poem is designed to represent the narrator’s view that women are deceitful, and that love will eventually leave the bearer sad and lost: ballads often lament the loss of love, and perhaps the narrator is reminiscing on how love has left him miserable and alone.

The poem suggests that the narrator is on his death bed. In the opening three stanzas, the Knight is come across by another man who says he can “see the lily on thy brow” and “on thy cheek a fading rose/ fast withereth too”. The lily is often associated with death and Keats is said to have used the lily because it “symbolises death”. Furthermore, the claim that on his cheek is a “fading rose” suggests that the colour is going out of his face, which relates to the repeated claim that the Knight is “palely loitering”. Keats nursed his brother when he was suffering from Tuberculosis, and briefly after writing this poem he himself was diagnosed with the disease. Keats presents the narrator of the poem as suffering from some of the symptoms of TB, such as his paleness, fever and inability to move, and perhaps his illness explains why he is “alone and palely loitering.”

Another point of interest is that vampires were becoming popular in literature around this time, and some readers have suggested that perhaps the “faery’s child” is a vampire. The girl lures him into her “grot” whereupon they “kiss.” The “kiss” could signify a vampire’s bite, and perhaps the enchantress of La Belle Dame sans Merci is one in a long line of supernatural beings who have charmed immortals into spiritual slavery. If this is case then no wonder he is left “palely loitering”. Whether or not the temptress is a vampire, and whether or not the narrator is dreaming, are not of great significance because they merely exemplify the tremendous possibilities for different interpretations that are in the poem.