LBDSM Quotes

Question 1

“I see a lily on thy brow… And on thy cheeks a fading rose”

Answer 1

Nature, love, fate

• “lily” - white flower - colour symbolism = purity - significant in funerals/deaths - foreshadows death - foreboding
  
  • “rose” - flower imagery - symbolizes femininity - reflects their relationship (similar to ‘Isabella’) - reversal of natural events/fortune
• first person narrative (male speaker) - male gaze - objectification of women
• ballad - lyrical tone - “song”, “no birds sing” - irony - no song left after her
• structured in quatrains, 12 stanzas - consistency - 12 months in a year, 4 weeks in a month - reflects time - seasonal changes from winter to summer back to winter

Question 2

“She found me in roots of relish sweet, / And honey wild, and manna-dew”

Answer 2

Tragic villain, love, nature, power

• “manna-dew” - supernatural food “manna” which God provided in the Bible, symbolizing his care and providence - shows the tragic villain’s duplicity and deception
  - her appearance is “sweet”, almost too sweet (poison)
  - God/angel like imagery (“I met a lady in the meads / Full beautiful”) - she has the knight entranced under a spell - she stands out amongst the pale setting
• “roots” “relish” - alliteration
• “she found me” - she is the active participant in power (“she took me”)
• first person narrative (male speaker) - male gaze - he is blaming her - claims that she was the problem - she becomes the active participant

Question 3

“She took me to her elfin grot / And there she wept… And there I dreamed”

Answer 3

Power, control, setting, love, supernatural, tragic hero, tragic villain

• “she took” - pronoun change from “I” to “she” - she is now dominant/has control and is the active participant, he is passive
  - place as an indication of power - emphasizes her contro through the setting change to the “elfin grot” which belongs to her - she is in power/comfort
• anaphoric - “and there” - emphasizes “there” and the importance of the new setting to the speaker - special and engraved in his mind - he was reliant on her (“she found me”)
• first person narrative (male speaker) - male gaze - he is leaving info out - leaves readers with questions - why is she weeping?
  - hyperbole - dramatized and emotional intensity
  - he connects her emotions and vulnerability to his dreaming

Question 4

“In a language strange she said — / ‘I love thee true’”

Answer 4

Tragic hero, tragic villain, love, fatal flaw, women

• sibilance of “strange” “she” “said” - associates her with “strange” - others her through language
  - knight’s first person narrative/perspective - readers don’t know the truth of her words (uncertainty for the knight and readers) - possibly a false confession of love - what he wants her to say - hubris
• “i love thee true” - dialogue - the only time she speaks is in devotion to him - only given agency through the narrative when its in devotion to him
• “true” - ties purity and truth together - readers get this info as it paints her as a liar when she abandons him despite her supposed “love” - knight paints her as a villain - possibly unfairly
• in the middle of poem - point of confession - turning point - her love is presented as strong until this point, where she soon “lulled [him] asleep” (“saw pale kings and princes”) - presents her as a villain who has betrayed him after love confession

Question 5

“I saw pale kings and princes… they cried ‘La Belle Dame sans Merci / Thee hath in thrall!”

Answer 5

Power, tragic villain, supernatural, women

• “pale kings and princes” - the tragic villain is bringing about the downfalls of hubristic people in high society - shows the knight’s hubris - makes her likable?
• “sans Merci” - without mercy - she is a force of nature herself - a warning of her villainy - however this may not be a fair representation
• “pale” - she removes the colour that she brought to their lives (“I met a lady in the meads / Full beautiful”)
• implication that this has been occurring over a long period of time (“Thee hath in thrall!”) - portrays her as a supernatural witch who traps people to serve her
  - “fragrant zone” - Greek mythology reference to a woven belt Aphrodite wore (a gurdal) to attract and keep others enticed
  - further supported through setting change to her “elfin grot” where she in in power
• first person narrative (male speaker) - readers don’t know if the Belle Dame is actually the tragic villain of the story as it is recounted from his perspective/male gaze
  - subjective - he is seeing visions (“she lulled me asleep”) - is the supernatural imagery surrounding her true
• near end - leaves reader with the impression that she is a villain - unfair portrayal of women

Question 6

“I saw starved lips in the gloam”

Answer 6

Love, hubris, setting, religion, tragic victim

• the knight’s sexual desire can’t be fulfilled - hubristic needs - possibly why LBD is painted as a villain - patriarchy - women must abide by men’s needs, if not, they are villainous and must be feared (witch imagery - of that era)
  - “gloam” - in between sunrise and sunset - can’t see “starved lips” in the dark - emphasizes subjective narrative which is possibly false/leaving info out to shape readers’ views and view him as a victim
  - sibilance - “saw” “starved” - creates a soft sound - can sound like a snake - religious in the Bible encompassing the sound of temptation
• he suffers at the source of his own infatuation in the absence of the “beautiful lady” - the heat of passion and lust leaves along with her - his sexual desires aren’t fulfilled - leads to her portrayal as a villain - misrepresentation and unreliable (first person narrative) - his hubris (male gaze)
  - no name given to her - prevents readers creating a connection to her - unfeeling - emphasizes his portrayal of her as a villain
  - no agency given through name

Question 7

“Alone and palely loitering… And no birds sing”

Answer 7

Tragic hero, tragic villain, setting, love, order, fatal flaw

• cyclical to the start of poem - setting reverts back to the knight “alone and palely loitering” on the “cold hill’s side”
  - he is melancholic without love/lust as she took away the warmth she provided (warm, summer imagery - “meads” “rose” - blooming), leaving him “cold” (pathetic fallacy) without the heat of passion/lust (“this is why i sojourn here”)
  - repetition of “pale” - attaching himself as one of her “pale” victims he saw in his “dream” - presenting her as a villain
  - emphasizes her ‘villainy’ through the his metaphorical death without sexual fulfillment (“no birds sing” - lyrical ballad throughout ends)
• despite the seeming sense of order shown through the structure - 12 stanzas (12 months in a year), quatrains (4 weeks in month) - it is portrayed that patriarchal order isn’t restored
  - speaker paints LBD as a villain for disrupting patriarchal order as she doesn’t conform to his sexual desires, leaving him “alone” (“starved lips”) - unfair misrepresentation of women in patriarchal society - don’t abide by men = possible villainy - shows the knight’s hubris as his fatal flaw that leaves him in a stagnant state, as he could not accept sexual rejection, therefore paints himself as one of her “pale” victims, presenting her as the tragic villain
• unreliability of first person narrative - readers don’t know if the truth/if he is actually a victim of the LBD - restoration of reality through setting, but no restoration of order for the reader
  - “alone” - he is talking to himself - the recipient of the poem is himself - possibly convincing himself he is the victim in the situation - ironically emphasizes hubris
  - ambiguity - she is only given agency/voice where she supposedly “ in a strange language” confesses her “love” for the knight (“I love thee true”), making her a projection of the knight’s obsession and lust, rather than a fairly portrayed character with her own motivations - she is a mysterious, dangerous femme-fatale in a male-driven narrative who is defined by male desires, and is portrayed as a tragic villain where those desires are not fulfilled - hubris, lust

Question 8

“Her hair was long… and her eyes were wild”
“A faery’s song”

Answer 8

Women, tragic villain

• archaic language and descriptions of the belle dame used - Keats writing for the Victorians’ fascination with Pre-Raphaelite movement, 19th century
  - entails mystical, magical, long-haired women
  - similar to ‘Lady of Shallot’
  - Keats is pulling on these representations of women in poetry in this era to emphasize the belle’s dame magical, supernatural imagery
  - possible villainy in enticing the knight just to ‘abandon’ him
• “long haired” - traditionally implies sexuality - knight is presenting her through his male gaze - a means for his sexual desire to be fulfilled - when unsuccessful, he paints her as a villain - hubris