Analysis of La Belle Dame Sans Merci Essay

Analyzing La Belle Dame Sans Merci

Poems are a way in expressing many things. The author can choose to express feeling, things they see, the things they do and even decision that need to be made. Poems however come in many different forms and elements. Each poem has their own uniqueness that makes each poems interesting and engaging. Reading different poems gives you different ideas, images and feeling. I feel that the on poem that I found engaging and very interesting is La Belle Dame Sans Merci, by John Keats. This Poem was interesting because it was written in a form of a ballad which made the poem more pleasant to read. I felt that this poem was easy to read which made it more understandable because the author chose to write it in simple language. Lastly, the poem was told by a narrator and then incorporated by a second speaker who gave more of a personal feeling in it. Overall, the poem intrigued me in many different ways but I fee that the elements that were influenced in this poem made it more enjoyable.

Poems come in all kinds of forms from lyric, sonnet, narrative which includes ballad and elegy. I feel that this poem was most interesting to me because it added a touch of ballad in it. When poems are ballad they tend to be romantic. Ballads were used to celebrate shared experiences involving adventure, war, love, death, and the supernatural (Clungston, 11.1). In this poem La Belle Dame Sans Merci, the poem has ballads themes that include love and romance. In this poem it describes a knight who seems to be in love with a woman who abandons him. In this poem the knight seems to be enchanted, and in love with the women because he describes her with such intensity, he said he made her bracelets and that she loved him too. It almost feels as if his love for this woman is so intense and maybe unrealistic.

I feel that some poems are hard to interpret because they are written in hidden languages, almost hard to follow. However, I feel that this poem is written at a narrative level that is easy to understand. The language seems to be simple, because the author provides minimal details about the characters in it. Keats doesnt describe the knight but uses the knight to describe the women that he is madly in love with. Another character arises when a passerby asks the knight what is wrong and he replies that he was in love but abandons by a beautiful woman, never telling any more about her or her identity. The poem focuses on one even and never makes judgment on anything around him or even the women that left him. I feel that because of this it creates a mystery to this poem that really pulled me in.

In addition, I feel that I am able to understand the poem because it is told by a narrator which includes a second speaker that gave the story a more personal feeling in it. I feel that the narrator who ells the first lines of the story tells us enough information for us to understand it but not into the details of the characters feeling. By incorporating the second speaker that is the knight in the story we are able to see his thoughts and insight in what is going on. I feel that this most resembles a soliloquy in which the characters just talks about his feeling and what is going on but no one is around. He is able to incorporate his feeling in what he is feeling and how he is describing her which gives the poem an interesting spin.

I feel that these elements contributed on how in read and understood the poem. First, I really enjoy ballads; I feel that they bring a different view to poems because it is written most of the time about love. I feel that because I love things that have to do with romanticism that was able to pull me in more. Since the poem was easy to read because the language was simple and there wasnt too much going on I was able to get into more. If the poem had been with many characters and wondered off from place to place I would have been completely lost. I dont think that I would have had the same opinion if the poem wasnt straight forward since at times it is hard to understand what the characters or narrator is talking about.

Poems can be enjoying, complicated and even a mystery art times. I feel that what make the poems are the elements that add enjoyment and understanding. Poems are not my forte and I usually do not enjoy them, however La Belle Dame Sans Merci really caught my attention. I feel that this poem was interesting and romantic. But what made this poem interesting and enjoyable was that I was able to understand it because of the elements that were portrayed. I believe that its form, how the poem was read and how easy it was written made it blissful to read. Elements are essential in any piece of literature but in the poems it is crucial to its background and interpretation.

References

Clugston, R. W. (2010).Journey into literature. San Diego, California: Bridgepoint Education,

Inc. https://content.ashford.edu/books

Litlang Ltda. (2007). Types of literary criticism. Retrieved from

http://www.textetc.com/criticism.html

Roberts, A. (2010, October 20). The righteous skeptics guide to reading poetry. The Atlantic.

Retrieved from http://www.theatlantic.com/culture/archive/2010/10/the-righteous-

skeptics-guide-to-reading-poetry/64824/