La Belle Dame Sans Merci Flashcards
All 10 cards in this deck
Who wrote ‘La Belle Dame sans Merci’, and when?
John Keats, in 1819.
Which literary movement did Keats belong to?
Romanticism.
How and when did Keats die?
Of tuberculosis, in Rome in 1821, aged 25.
What does the title ‘La Belle Dame sans Merci’ mean?
The beautiful lady without pity.
What form is ‘La Belle Dame sans Merci’?
A ballad: twelve quatrains, each with a short fourth line.
Who speaks the first three stanzas of ‘La Belle Dame sans Merci’?
An unnamed questioner, asking the knight what is wrong.
Who tells the story in the rest of ‘La Belle Dame sans Merci’?
The knight-at-arms, describing the lady he met in the meads.
In ‘La Belle Dame sans Merci’, whom does the knight see in his dream?
Pale kings, princes and warriors, who warn that the lady has him “in thrall”.
Which line ends both the first and the last stanza of ‘La Belle Dame sans Merci’?
“And no birds sing.”
What type of character is the lady in ‘La Belle Dame sans Merci’?
A femme fatale: a beautiful woman who enchants and destroys men.