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La Belle Dame Sans Merci Analysis

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The following essay will appraise how love is presented in ‘La Belle Dame Sans Merci’, ‘Remember’, ‘Mother in a Refugee Camp’, ‘Do Not Go Gentle Into That Goodnight’, ‘My Last Duchess’, and ‘Sonnet 116’. The six poems display stylistic features and hold a firm structure that follows traditional linguistic features. In some poems which are included, the use of the traditional sonnet structure with a use of iambic pentameter allows for the reader to become involved in the poem themselves. Additionally many aspects of love are presented throughout the six poems (hence the analysis in this essay).

La Belle Dame Sans Merci by John Keats is a poem in the form of a ballad, in which a heavenly enchanting creature-like woman takes away the heart of a knight, …show more content…

However in ‘My Last Duchess’, it seems to focus more on patriarchal power, (the Duke makes it appear that he cares for his last Duchess much more than she cares for him which leads to her death). Browning portrays that the Duke was jealous and very dismissive of her, leading to her mysterious disappearance. The themes of obsession and madness also run in the two poems. In ‘My Last Duchess’, the Duke disapproves of the smiles and blushes the Duchess gives to other people - even though they are entirely innocent. Shown by the quote “Too easily impressed; she likes whate’er/She looked on, and her looks went everywhere”. This goes beyond into the realms of madness, where the Duke seems almost paranoid. The theme of obsession and madness also plays a big part in ‘La Belle Dame Sans Merci’. The knight who was enchanted by the beautiful woman is almost mesmerized, and we could say is, obsessed with her. This obsession causes him to go mad, and hear things that he wants to hear. This could be justified by the phrase ‘And sure in language strange she said,/‘I love thee true’. This shows the language she speaks is unknown, so the knight

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