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By : Avantika Sarkar

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By : Avantika Sarkar

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More about John Keats — One of the most influential poets of English Literature

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More about John Keats — One of the most influential poets of English Literature

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John Keats was an English Romantic lyric poet whose verse is known for its vivid imagery and great sensuous appeal. His reputation grew after his early death, and he was greatly admired in the Victorian Age. His influence can be seen in the poetry of Alfred, Lord Tennyson, and the Pre-Raphaelites, among others.

By : Sharanya Seth

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By : Avantika Sarkar

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A Portrait of "La Belle Dame Sans Merci" 

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A Portrait of "La Belle Dame Sans Merci" 

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"La Belle Dame Sans Merci" (French) translates to "The Beautiful Lady Without Mercy" in English.

By : Sharanya Seth

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Additional Information on "La Belle Dame Sans Merci"

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Additional Information on "La Belle Dame Sans Merci"

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Taken from "100 Selected Poems (Collectable Edition)" by John Keats.

By : Avantika Sarkar

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Why did John Keats write "La Belle Dame Sans Merci"?

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Why did John Keats write "La Belle Dame Sans Merci"?

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John Keats had never been a man of good fortune during his lifetime. His mother and brother died of Tuberculosis when he was just a young, fourteen year old lad with almost no one by his side. As if that wasn't enough, Keats' body started showing the first symptoms of the same deadly and incurable (back during his times— the early 1800s) disease which killed his mother and brother, Tuberculosis, after returning from his tedious Ireland and Scotland tour.

For a fantasy poem whose setting seems so distant from real time, the poem might, very well, express figuratively what Keats was experiencing in his love life and his health. The mix of literary and emotional forces influencing Keats at the time he wrote “La Belle Dame Sans Merci” was nothing less than extreme.

Keats’ life and conflicts, his love for his neighbour, Fanny Brawne, and his awareness of impending death are written in a coded form in the predicament of a dying medieval knight, the poem’s principal character.

This poem was written in the heat of his passion for Fanny added by the fever of death hanging over him. John Keats' heart had been set on an inferno while he was writing this ballad which had been clearly reflected in it. Falling in love, growing ill, and suffering from depression— all of these factors have been poured into this work of Keats.

It is one thing to read this ballad that tells the story of a knight, but if we peer behind the tragic surface we can see a writer—with one of the shortest working lives of his generation—creating a pact with literary immortality. We can glean from his letters at the time that there is a sudden and powerful merging between his thinking about poetry (what we now call theory or, more loosely, poetics) and the gestation of his poems.

By : Sharanya Seth

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Summary of the poem — "La Belle Dame Sans Merci"

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Summary of the poem — "La Belle Dame Sans Merci"

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La Belle Dame sans merci, poem by John Keats, first published in the May 10, 1820, issue of the Indicator. The poem, whose title means “The Beautiful Lady Without Pity,” describes the encounter between a knight and a mysterious elfin beauty who ultimately abandons him. It is written in the style of a folk ballad, with the first three stanzas a query to the knight and the remaining nine stanzas the knight’s reply. The poem is sometimes seen as a counterpart to Keats’s “The Eve of St. Agnes,” which represents an idyllic view of love. Keats took his title from a medieval poem with the same name by the French poet Alain Chartier.

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FULL ARTICLE

La Belle Dame Sans Merci, a poem by John Keats, was first published in the May 10, 1820, issue of the Indicator. The poem describes the encounter of a medieval knight that recounts a fanciful romp in the countryside with a fairy woman— "La Belle Dame Sans Merci" which, in French, means "The Beautiful Lady Without Mercy". It ends in cold horror. Related to this focus on death and horror, Keats wrote the poem months after his brother Tom died of tuberculosis. It is written in the style of a folk ballad, with the first three stanzas a query to the knight and the remaining nine stanzas the knight’s reply. The poem is sometimes seen as a counterpart to Keats’s “The Eve of St. Agnes,” which represents an idyllic view of love. Keats took his title from a medieval poem with the same name by the French poet Alain Chartier.

By : Sharanya Seth

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Common Question : If "merci" in French means "Thank You", why does "Merci" mean "mercy" in Keats' poem "La Belle Dame Sans Merci"?  

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Common Question : If "merci" in French means "Thank You", why does "Merci" mean "mercy" in Keats' poem "La Belle Dame Sans Merci"?  

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Below is an answer to this question, given by a user of Quora.

By : Sharanya Seth