La Belle Dame sans Merci: A Ballad Analysis - Literary devices and Poetic devices

La Belle Dame sans Merci: A Ballad
by means of John Keats

O what can ail thee, knight-at-arms,
Alone and palely loitering?
The sedge has withered from the lake,
And no birds sing.

O what can ail thee, knight-at-arms,
So haggard and so woe-begone?
The squirrel’s granary is full,
And the harvest’s done.

I see a lily on thy brow,
With anguish wet and fever-dew,
And on thy cheeks a fading rose
Fast withereth too.

I met a girl in the meads,
Full stunning—a faery’s child,
Her hair changed into long, her foot changed into light,
And her eyes were wild.

I made a garland for her head,
And bracelets too, and fragrant zone;
She looked at me as she did love,
And made sweet moan

I set her on my pacing steed,
And nothing else noticed all day long,
For sidelong might she bend, and sing
A faery’s song.

She observed me roots of relish sweet,
And honey wild, and manna-dew,
And sure in language peculiar she said—
‘I love thee true’.

She took me to her Elfin grot,
And there she wept and sighed complete sore,
And there I close her wild wild eyes
With kisses four.

And there she lullèd me asleep,
And there I dreamed—Ah! Woe betide!—
The modern-day dream I ever dreamt
On the bloodless hill side.

I noticed pale kings and princes too,
Pale warriors, death-light have been they all;
They cried—‘La Belle Dame sans Merci
Thee hath in thrall!’

I noticed their starved lips within the gloam,
With horrid caution gapèd wide,
And I wakened and found me here,
On the cold hill’s side.

And this is why I sojourn here,
Alone and palely loitering,
Though the sedge is withered from the lake,
And no birds sing.

Summary of La Belle Dame sans Merci
Popularity of “La Belle Dame sans Merci”: John Keats, a awesome English poet wrote ‘La Belle Dame sans Merci’. It is a ballad posted in 1819. The title was derived from the poem, La Belle Dame sans Mercy, written by Alain Chartier. The poem speaks about the tale of a knight and a lovely female. It then illustrates how love performs a good sized position in man’s life. Its popularity, however, lies within the subject matter of sadness, death, and energy of seduction.
“La Belle Dame sans Merci” as a Representative of Deception: The poem narrates a tragic tale of a knight who falls in love with a girl, however she leaves him as falls ill. A stranger meets the knight and inquires approximately his miserable condition. The knight tells him about the stunning girl inside the meadows. They were in love as she has walked along him and sung beautiful songs for him. Once, she took him to her special area in which he kissed her, and the calmness around made him sleep. He then dreamed ordinary human beings caution him approximately that fair girl. He woke up by the cold hillside where the stranger determined him. The tragic ballad tells approximately the unhappy circumstance of the knight and the deception of the woman.
Major Themes in “La Belle Dame sans Merci”: Illusion as opposed to reality, death, love, and seduction are the primary issues of this poem. The female, with her beauty, enslaved the knight and left him to die at the lake. Also, the knight’s dream indicates that was not the primary time she trapped a man. In fact, there may be a chain of ill-fated men to whom she ditched. The poem offers a message that love, splendor, and joy are short-lived and that physical beauty and seduction can misinform a person.
Analysis of Literary Devices Used in “La Belle Dame sans Merci”
Literary devices are tools utilized by writers to deliver their emotions, ideas, and themes to make texts more appealing to the reader. John Keats has additionally used plenty of literary gadgets in this poem to specific the miserable situation of a knight. The evaluation of the literary gadgets used in this poem has been given below.

Assonance: Assonance is the repetition of vowel sounds in the equal line including the sound of /o/ in “So haggard and so woe-begone” and the sound of /i/ in “And there I close her wild wild eyes”.
Consonance: Consonance is the repetition of consonant sounds within the equal line together with the sound of /n/ in “And honey wild, and manna-dew” and the sound of /l/ in “Alone and palely loitering”.
Alliteration: Alliteration is the repetition of consonant sounds inside the equal line in brief succession such as the sound of /w/ in “With horrid caution gapèd wide.”
Imagery: Imagery is used to make readers perceive things concerning their five senses. For example, “She took me to her Elfin grot”, “I noticed pale kings and princes too” and “And there she wept and sighed complete sore.”
Enjambment: It is described as a notion or clause that does not come to an give up at a line break; instead, it movements over the next line. For example,
“The present day dream I ever dreamt
On the bloodless hill side.”

Symbolism: Symbolism means to use symbols to indicate thoughts and qualities, giving them symbolic meanings exclusive from literal meanings. The terms together with; “no birds sing”, “lily on thy brow” and “fading rose” symbolize the advent of death.
Metaphor: It is a discern of speech in which an implied contrast is made among the items which can be unique in nature. For example, “I see a lily on thy brow”. Here the paleness is as compared to a white lily.
Anaphora: It refers to the repetition of a phrase or expression in the first a part of a few verses. For example, ‘and there’ is repeated in the eighth stanza to emphasize the point.
“And there she lullèd me asleep,
And there I dreamed—Ah! Woe betide.”

Analysis of Poetic Devices Used in “La Belle Dame sans Merci”
Poetic and literary gadgets are the identical, but some are used simplest in poetry. Here is the evaluation of a number of the poetic devices used in this poem.

Stanza: A stanza is a poetic form of some lines. There are twelve stanzas on this poem, each having four lines.
Quatrain: A quatrain is a 4-covered stanza borrowed from Persian poetry. Here, each stanza is quatrain.
Rhyme Scheme: The poem follows the ABCB rhyme scheme, and this sample continues till the stop.
End Rhyme: End rhyme is used to make the stanza melodious. For example, “sour/4”, “child/wild”, “zone/moan” and “betide/side.”
Repetition: The following lines were repeated within the first and closing stanza of the poem which has created a musical fine in the poem. For example,
“Alone and palely loitering?
The sledge has withered from the lake,
And no birds sing.”

Refrain: The lines which can be repeated at a few distance within the poems are called refrain. The following verses were repeated with the equal phrases as given below.
“Alone and palely loitering?
The sledge has withered from the lake,
And no birds sing.”

Quotes to be Used
The lines said below can be utilized by a lover to adore a person’s beauty and explicit love.

“I met a female in the meads,
Full beautiful—a faery’s child,
Her hair was long, her foot changed into light,
And her eyes had been wild.”