La Belle Dame Sans Merci

Question 1

‘O what can ail the…’ repeated

Answer 1

Illustrates speaker’s concern for the knight. Emphasises poor distressed state of the knight. appears to be unable to answer speaker’s questions

Question 2

And no birds sing.

Answer 2

End stopped line. Creates eerie mood. Lifeless, no joy- reflects joyless mood of the knight.

Question 3

The squirrel’s granary is full

Answer 3

Positive image of abundance contrasts knight’s loss

Question 4

And the harvest’s done

Answer 4

Poem is set late autumn. Season of increasing darkness and dying of nature

Question 5

I see a lily on thy brow

Answer 5

Lily symbolises deathly paleness of the knight’s white brow. He’s lost his colour and vitality

Question 6

fever-dew

Answer 6

Could reflect Keat’s illness + experience of tuberculosis

Question 7

Her eyes were wild

Answer 7

She is uncontrollable, untamed + potentially dangerous. Foreshadowing

Question 8

a faery’s child

Answer 8

Implies she has magical powers and has bewildered him leaving him spellbound

Question 9

Her fragrant zone

Answer 9

In ancient Greece a zone was a girdle or a belt. Circular belt could reflect his desire to contain her.