Keats' "La Belle Dame sans Merci"

Paper Summary:

This paper describes how Keats' poem illustrates the positive and negative aspects of love and almost everything in between.

From the Paper:

"Perhaps one of the most interesting aspects of the poem is that Keats is willing to venture into the realm of the supernatural to express an "intense delight at the sheer existence if things outside himself" (Abrams 795). "La Belle Dame sans Merci" allows the poet to lose himself "in the fullness if identification with the object he contemplates" (795). The poet and the knight allow themselves to be completely taken in with the presence of this sweet lady. In addition, we can see another one of Keats' characteristics in this poem, which is his ability to present "all experience as a tangle of inseparable but irreconcilable opposites" (795). With the knight in this poem, he experiences the thrill and exuberance of love as well as the desolation it brings him. The mysterious quality of the poem and the knight's experience is also enhanced by the fusing of the natural and spiritual worlds. It is as if the poet must include elements of both worlds to fully express what the knight experiences with the lady."

More papers on Keats' "La Belle Dame sans Merci":

• Poem Review # 147688 : "Consequences of Love in "La Belle Dame Sans Merci"
• Analytical Essay # 67535 : "La Belle Dame Sans Merci"
• Poem Review # 1549 : "The Romantic Period in "La Belle Dame Sans Merci"

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