Comparison of John Keats To Autumn And La Belle Dame Sans Merci
John Keats wrote many poems in his time, two of his most famous pieces are To Autumn and La Belle Sans Merci. However, he uses different styles for his works.
An example of his different styles is the fact that he uses an ode and a ballad respectively for these poems. The fact that he uses an ode for To Autumn means it is addressed to somebody or something. It contains classical features, written in stanzas and containing pentameters. It is also very complicated and quite difficult to understand. However, La Belle Dame Sans Merci, besides obviously being titled in French, is different. It is a ballad written in quatrain, meaning its second and fourth lines rhyme. It is also has relatively shorter lines as compared to the ode. His own style comes through for each poem; the ode is a description or an address of the season, while the ballad is a dialogue or fairy tale of sorts.
It is obvious that they share a common setting Autumn. As well as the title in To Autumn Keats writes about the landscape - "With fruit the vines that round the thatch-eaves run" and "...still more, later flowers for the bees", two extracts from the first stanza which describe Autumn. In La Belle Dame Sans Merci also in the first stanza it says "The sedge has wither'd from the lake" a typical Autumn scenario.
Furthermore, they also share one theme which runs through both poems - nature. In To Autumn, the season Autumn is personified as young maiden "...sitting careless on a granary floor". As well as nature being changed, things are changed into nature. The soft "winnowing wind" is blowing through the maiden's hair but it is not a natural wind it is the by-product of a man made process used during harvest. In La Belle Dame Sans Merci there is a very natural scene, set in the days of knights and princesses before man had destroyed the natural landscape. The "Belle Dame" mentioned in the title is "a faery's child" she is magical and traditionally in folklore faeries are very natural creatures, she may be a personification of the natural just as Autumn was in the other poem. This is backed up in line 25 where the faery takes "roots of relish", "honey wild" and "manna dew" all magical items but also natural, the two seem to go hand in hand.
As well as many similarities there are also many differences between the poems. The tones of the poems are very different. To Autumn as well as being sensual is rich, positive, happy and praising the goodness of life. La Belle Dame Sans Merci is magical yet very sad and full of melancholy. Referring to structure again the physicality of the words chosen affect the overall feelings of the poem. To Autumn is full of long wholesome words with many syllables, for example "fruitfulness", "winnowing" and "conspiring". As well as these Keats uses hyphenated words - "bosom-friend", "soft-dying", "soft-lifted" and "half-reap'd". These words add to the rich feelings and complex structure of the poem. La Belle Dame Sans Merci is written in a much simpler direct way using many short monosyllabic words "And no birds sing" or "And her eyes were wild". This makes the poem very sharp and hard-hitting. When you read To Autumn it has to be read slowly to savor the words and get the full feeling form them but La Belle Dame Sans can be read at fast to keep up with the pace of the story being told.
In general, both poems are very different; however, they share many features including similar themes.
Already have an account? Log In Now
6853