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The Beautiful Lady without Mercy - Online Term Paper

The Beautiful Lady without Mercy

The poem “La Belle Dame Sans Merci” by John Keats is a poem full of imagination, dreams, romanticism, and mystery. It tells the story of a knight wandering about the cold bare countryside, where he meets a mystical woman who is also known as a “fairy’s child”. It is hard to tell from the poem whether or not she is real, or simply a figment of his imagination. This poem is very easy to read, with a consistent structure and straightforward language. For all the simplicity on the surface of this literary ballad, it is one of the most difficult of Keats’s poems to explain, and is open to many interpretations. Keats strikes our curiosity while reading this poem by creating vivid scenarios to ...

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suggests that he has claimed possession of the woman. As soon as they reach her “elfin grot,” the fairy becomes unhappy as “she wept, and sigh’d full sore.” After telling the knight “I love thee true,” the beautiful lady lulls him to sleep and abandons him. Does she really love the knight? If she speaks in “language strange,” how can he be sure she said “I love thee true?” It seems as if he is hearing what he wants to hear, as do most people when first falling “in love.”
Furthermore, this poem can also be an interpretation of impossible love. “And there she wept, and sigh’d full sore,” also suggests that the lady does care for the knight but realizes she must leave him because she is a fairy and he is human. He describes her as a supernatural being, a “fairy’s child” with “wild eyes.” The poem also implies the fairy’s magical powers of “relish sweet,” “honey wild,” and “manna dew,” that gives the knight a sense of power and pride. He is no longer depressed because of the fairy’s ...

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The Beautiful Lady without Mercy. (2011, April 26). Retrieved January 11, 2026, from http://www.essayworld.com/essays/The-Beautiful-Lady-without-Mercy/98474

"The Beautiful Lady without Mercy." Essayworld.com. Essayworld.com, 26 Apr. 2011. Web. 11 Jan. 2026. <http://www.essayworld.com/essays/The-Beautiful-Lady-without-Mercy/98474>

"The Beautiful Lady without Mercy." Essayworld.com. April 26, 2011. Accessed January 11, 2026. http://www.essayworld.com/essays/The-Beautiful-Lady-without-Mercy/98474.

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PAPER DETAILS

Added: 4/26/2011 12:44:01 PM
Submitted By: herrerasara
Category: Poetry & Poets
Type: Premium Paper
Words: 736
Pages: 3

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