1. Painting
By Frank Dicksee

2. La Belle Dame sans Merci
Written by John Keats in 1819
Romantic Poem
Romantics wrote/painted/created to rebel against Enlightenment ideals of order, rationality and science
Romantics believed Enlightenment missed the point of being human: emotions
Big 6 Romantics: Blake, Wordsworth, Coleridge, Shelly, Byron and Keats

3. Details about this poem
Song-like, imitates a folk ballad
Title taken from a 15th century French poem
12 stanzas of Iambic tetrameter (four sets of Iambs per line EXCEPT in fourth line which is shorter. WHY? Let’s look at that again later…)
O what/ can ail/ thee, knight/ at arms
Title Translation: The Beautiful Lady without Mercy

4. La Belle Dame Sans Merci
"O WHAT can ail thee, knight-at-arms, Alone and palely loitering? The sedge has wither'd from the lake, And no birds sing. "O what can ail thee, knight-at-arms! So haggard and so woe-begone? The squirrel's granary is full, And the harvest's done. "I see a lily on thy brow With anguish moist and fever-dew. And on thy cheeks a fading rose Fast withereth too." "I met a lady in the meads, Full beautiful – a faery's child, Her hair was long, her foot was light, And her eyes were wild. "I made a garland for her head, And bracelets too, and fragrant zone; She look'd at me as she did love, And made sweet moan. "I set her on my pacing steed, And nothing else saw all day long; For sidelong would she bend, and sing A faery's song
"She found me roots of relish sweet, And honey wild and manna-dew; And sure in language strange she said, 'I love thee true.' "She took me to her elfin grot, And there she wept and sigh'd full sore; And there I shut her wild, wild eyes With kisses four. "And there she lullèd me asleep, And there I dream'd – ah! woe betide! The latest dream I ever dream'd On the cold hill's side. "I saw pale kings and princes too, Pale warriors, death-pale were they all: They cried, 'La belle Dame sans Merci Hath thee in thrall!' "I saw their starved lips in the gloam With horrid warning gapèd wide, And I awoke and found me here On the cold hill's side. "And this is why I sojourn here Alone and palely loitering, Though the sedge is wither'd from the lake, And no birds sing."

5. By Henry Rheam

6. Speaker 1: unknown speaker
"O WHAT can ail thee, knight-at-arms, Alone and palely loitering? The sedge has wither'd from the lake, And no birds sing. "O what can ail thee, knight-at-arms! So haggard and so woe-begone? The squirrel's granary is full, And the harvest's done. "I see a lily on thy brow With anguish moist and fever-dew. And on thy cheeks a fading rose Fast withereth too."
Time period?
What does he see? What does he ask?
What stands out to you?
What commonly used literary symbols do you see?
It is autumn. How do we know?
Lily?
Rose?

7. By Frank Cowper
By Arthur Hughes

8. Speaker 2: The Knight
What happens?
What do you notice?
What bothers you or makes you wonder?
"I met a lady in the meads, Full beautiful – a faery's child, Her hair was long, her foot was light, And her eyes were wild. "I made a garland for her head, And bracelets too, and fragrant zone; She look'd at me as she did love, And made sweet moan. "I set her on my pacing steed, And nothing else saw all day long; For sidelong would she bend, and sing A faery's song

9. The Knight – con’t
"She found me roots of relish sweet, And honey wild and manna-dew; And sure in language strange she said, 'I love thee true.' "She took me to her elfin grot, And there she wept and sigh'd full sore; And there I shut her wild, wild eyes With kisses four.
What happens?
What do you notice?
What bothers you or makes you wonder?

10. By John William Waterhouse
By Walter Crane

11. The Knight – con’t
"And there she lullèd me asleep, And there I dream'd – ah! woe betide! The latest dream I ever dream'd On the cold hill's side. "I saw pale kings and princes too, Pale warriors, death-pale were they all: They cried, 'La belle Dame sans Merci Hath thee in thrall!' "I saw their starved lips in the gloam With horrid warning gapèd wide, And I awoke and found me here On the cold hill's side.
What happens?
What do you notice?
What bothers you or makes you wonder?

12. The Knight – con’t
"And this is why I sojourn here Alone and palely loitering, Though the sedge is wither'd from the lake, And no birds sing."
What happens?
What do you notice?
What bothers you or makes you wonder?

13. BY: ?
By Robert Bell

14. Questions What is this poem’s theme/message?
What is the deal with the faery-lady? Why does she cry (30) and why are her eyes wild (16,31) and why the repetition of wild?
Is your narrator reliable? Why or why not?
He falls asleep in the “elfin grot” so how does he get to the “cold hill’s side”?
Who is the unnamed speaker?

15. The Dream This poem is 48 lines long 8 ½ lines are about the dream
6 are about the consequences of the dream
Is this significant?
Thought: He wakes from the dream on a cold hill. Is this important?