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Le Belle Dame Sans Merci - John Keats - Coggle Diagram
Le Belle Dame Sans Merci - John Keats
Summary: a knight recounts being seduced and abondend by a mysterious possibly supernatural woman - believes he is In love, he wakes alone and haunted. poem is an allegory about dangerous, seductive love and vulnerability of idealistic desire
Key Themes
Love and obsession - knight is deeply enchanted but it leads to emotional ruin
loneliness and abandonment - the knight is left - symbolising emotional desolation
mystery and supernatural - woman is otherworldly and her power over the knight is unexplained
illusion vs reality - what the knight experiences is a dreamlike fantasy that ends in pain
Compare with:
My Last Duchess - (love and control)
The Tyger (mysterious creation)
Hide and Seek - (deception)
poem at thirty nine - reflecting on emotional depth and memory
Structure:
Ballad form
ABCB rhyme
trimester
8 beats
poem in 2 sections - meeting the knight and the knights story after math
use of refrain and archaic language reflects traditional storytelling
frame narrative - begins with a question from the narrator then shifts to knights story
Key terms:
The beautiful woman without mercy
femernist perspective
Techniques
Symbolism - women represents idealised but destructive love
repetition - "and no birds sing" circular and unresolved
imagery - nature reflects the knight's emotional state
key ideas
-Danger of Idealised Love: The knight falls for a fantasy rather than reality.
Emotional Consequence: Love can leave lasting psychological impact
Power Imbalance: The woman holds control, subverting traditional gender dynamics.
Ethereal vs Earthly: Contrast between the human world and the strange dreamlike realm.