Please enable JavaScript.
Coggle requires JavaScript to display documents.
La Belle Dame Sans Merci- Language Analysis - Coggle Diagram
La Belle Dame Sans Merci- Language Analysis
Stanzas 1-3
"palely" suggests a world devoid of colour
"alone" and "withered" creates a melancholy tone
aimlessness of "loitering" contrasts to the brave and purposeful knight stereotype with
"no birds sing" creates a lifeless atmosphere that is unnatural
"haggard" suggests broken down and weakness- connotes to elderly
"harvest's done" shows passing of time and represents the death of autumn which is the opposite of spring that shows hope suggesting the end of his freedom
"anguish moist" represents tears- breath taken by her beauty
"fading rose" symbolises beauty and passion but "fading" highlights that time is short- he is dying before our eyes
Stanzas 4-6
"a faery's child" hints to the supernatural- her beauty is inhuman
"long" hair and "light" foot suggests idealised beauty of an elegant, gentle woman
"her eyes were wild" links back to supernatural and suggesting her madness and non-trustworthiness as her true nature is dangerous, untamed and animalistic compared to her perfect external nature
"I made a garland for her head" displays he is marking her as his property or that he is enslaved by her love as it may symbolise a crown and him making her his queen- who has the power?
"looked at me as she did love" suggests uncertainty as her enchantment tricks him into believing that is how she truly feels
"fragrant zone" refers to magical girdle of Venus the goddess of love and beauty- he is making her like this goddess because she is beautiful and in love with him
"pacing steed" may be a sexual euphemism but pacing connotes to stress and discomfort
"nothing else saw all day long" links to Keats was concern that his love would blind him from his poetry
"a faery's song" links to supernatural but again doesn't claim she is fully supernatural
knight is dominant in these stanzas as lots of personal pronouns
Stanzas 7-9
"she wept" because she is unhappy that she has to betray him or because it to get attention as part of her enchantment of him
"wild wild eyes" emphasise that she is untamed and doesn't truly belong to him, she belongs to wild nature- losing more control of her as the poem progresses
"she found me roots" seems motherly and nurturing as she feeds him
"she lulled me sleep" motherly and nurturing as an act to manipulate him suggesting hypnosis
"language strange" links to her supernatural and that she is enchanting him or that what she says is morphed in his imagination to what he wants to hear
"the cold hill side"- back to lonely and cold tones of before she came along
Caesuras show an abrupt change of tone back to the woe he felt before- emphasise the change
sibilance connotes to softness linking back to mothering and her calmness alternatively links to snakes to show her deception and manipulation
shift in superiority occurs as stanza 7 is devoted to lady and in stanza 8 the lady initiates the action and takes the dominant position
Stanzas 10-12
repetition of "pale" links back to loneliness of before her, foreshadowing that she is leaving during his dream and the world becomes devoid of colour again
Caesura emphasises woe and fear of her "the beautiful woman without mercy"
"starved lips" shows they are slowly dying (starvation death) which symbolises the knight who has been gradually dying throughout the poem ("fading rose"). Also may link to the food she fed them
"warning gaped wide" is a horrific, unnatural image that shows he is too late to be saved by their exhortation and he will join the others- we know there are multiple people she has enchanted and left
"cold", "horrid" link to misery semantic field and deathly tone
"I sojourn here"- suggests his impermanence- life is temporary as Keats discovered throughout his life as he experienced its of death
"palely loitering"- palely means uninterested but could also suggest the life is seeping from him and he is joining the pale kings and princes.
"Loitering" suggests as she is gone he has again lost his purpose, giving up hope for her and for life
refrain of "no birds sing" create a cyclical structure and mirrors the atmosphere of the first stanza as he reverts to loneliness again suggesting lifelessness but this time because he will die