La Belle Dame Sans Merci Argumentative Essay Example

rhythm throughout leads us into the dazed trance similar to that of the knight. The imagery Keats creates in this poem is the main thing that makes it so enjoyable.

It arouses our senses of sight, hearing, and taste. Keats creates a vivid, morbid picture with “I saw their starved lips in the gloam, with horrid warning gaping wide. ” We can almost hear the fairy's mystical voice in this line “She looked at me and she did love, and made sweet moan. ” Keats even tempts us with delicious wild food “She found me roots of relish sweet, and honey wild, and manna dew. ” This makes us wonder if the knight really was dreaming, because everything he experienced was so graphic and clear. There is not obvious usage of figurative language such as smilies, metaphors, and personification.

The line “on thy cheek a fading rose fast withereth too” could refer to more that one thing. Keats could be comparing the rose to the color of the knights cheeks, and because it is cold outside he is growing pale. Another way you could look at it is that the knight is dying, and the color fading from his cheeks is the last bit of life he has left. Or, he could be disheartened and so his happiness isn't reflecting on his face. In a way Keats is comparing a rose to something, so in a roundabout way this could be considered a metaphor.

La Belle Dame Sans Merci” by John Keats is a fantastical poem which takes the reader into another realm. One cannot be sure if the knight has really met the fairy before, or

if he is merely dreaming. Though this poem seems plain and easily understood at first, we are stuck deeply in muddled enjoyment by the time we are halfway through it. This short mysterious romance leaves us thinking, wondering, and longing for more by the time it ends.

When we finish reading the poem, we like the knight, find ourselves wanting to return to that sweet resting place of the fairy.