le belle sans merci

Question 1

brief summary

Answer 1

a knight describes how he met siren and she stole his heart. the siren lulls him into a deep sleep where he dreams of dead nobility who warn him. he wakes up and he is alone on the side of the hill

Question 2

context

Answer 2

Keats was one of the six key romantic poets. he died at 25 in Italy but despite his premature death he is one of the most celebrated poets of his time

Question 3

analyse

“Alone and palely loitering”

Answer 3

paleness was considered a medical sign of sickness. Keats foreshadows the fate of the night from the beginning of the poem. tension is immediately established through the use of the knight being pale and loitering

Question 4

analyse

“O what can ail thee knight at arms”

Answer 4

storytelling from an anonymous point of view shows despair, removes the speaker and give distance

Question 5

analyse

“faery’s child”

Answer 5

hes met an ethereal siren

Question 6

analyse

“i set her on my pacing steed”

Answer 6

the poet is creating sexual suggestions surrounding the Knight and the sirens interaction. “Steed” the horse is a masculine symbol

Question 7

analyse

“she lulled me asleep”

Answer 7

suggesting its non-consensual bu

Question 8

analyse

“i saw pale kings and princes too”

Answer 8

repetition of pale suggest that hes seeing the gohsts of those seduced before

Question 9

structure

Answer 9

cyclical structure of “no birds sing” could reflect how the knight is dying and therefor the cyclical narrative could reflect the stages of life