La Belle Dame sans Merci Plot

Question 1

Beginining

Answer 1

• Poem begins with the narrator of the poem asking the tragic protagonist, The Knight, ‘O what can ail thee, Knight-at-arms?’
• The Knight is uncharacteristically alone and ‘paley loitering,”
• The narrator also remarks on the deathly complextion of the Knight. “I see a lily of thy brow Anguish moist and fever dew On thy cheeks, a fading rose Fast witherith too.”

Question 2

Middle

Answer 2

• The Narration switches from an omniscent speaker to the Knight himself as he recounts how he found himself alone on “the cold hill side.”
• The knight recounts how he had “met a lady in the meads.” who was “full beautiful - A faery’s child.” The Knight recounts how this beautiful lady brought him “roots of relish sweet,” and looked at him “as she did love.”
• The Knight and the “Faery’s child,” have sexual intercourse before the woman takes the knight to her “elfin grot.”
• Here, the “lady in-the-meads” cries and sighs before lulling the Knight to sleep.

Question 3

End

Answer 3

• The Knight proceeds to explain the dream he had while asleep.
• The Knightv sees “pale kings and princes too Pale warriors, deathly pale they all were.”
• These pale men warn the Knight that “La Belle Dame sans Merci thee hath in thrall!”
• The Knight then wakes up on the “cold hill side.”
• The Knight comes full circle.
• “This is why i sojourn here.”
• Cyclical ending: “The sedge has withered from the lake, And no birds sing.”