Keats and his Medieval Lady Despite his low opinion of himself, John Keats is one of the great writers of British Literature. He would go on to become on of the “big six” of the British Romantic Period, like any other good writer, Keats would have looked at the great pieces from past periods, and not just the writings of his contemporaries. One of his best-known poems “La Belle Dame Sans Merci: A Ballad” shows quite a bit of evidence for this theory as it borrows several elements from the Medieval Period. It’s possible that Keats did not just do this to be stylish or academic, but to discreetly release some emotional baggage. Just as we are reading and studying the great works from the Romantic Period, the people living in Keats day would
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“The specific virtue of the hero is self-control. But the hero’s will does not rest here, it presses on into power, responsibility, daring.” While the hero of La Belle le Dame Sans Merci could be argued to have or not have self-control, as he does shower her in gifts and follows her to her home. He is however, described as a noble but lonely knight. “O what can ail thee, knight at arms, / Alone and palely loitering? / The sedge has wither’d form the lake, / And no birds sing” (Stanza 1). While the supposed lack of self-control could be credited to cultural differences between the Romantic Period and today’s society. Or it, along with the loneliness would have been added because Keats was trying to make a character that was similar to him, again, because he was trying to process or vent out his …show more content…
Nevertheless, he himself never published La Belle le Dame Sans Merci. “Some of his best known poems were posthumously published; among them are “Eve of St. Mark” (1848) and “La belle dame sans merci” (The Beautiful Woman Without Mercy; first version pub. 1888),” (Funk and Wagnalls). As stated before, Keats did not think very highly of himself, and probably would have felt as if he were intruding on the life of those around him and those who read his
“The specific virtue of the hero is self-control. But the hero’s will does not rest here, it presses on into power, responsibility, daring.” While the hero of La Belle le Dame Sans Merci could be argued to have or not have self-control, as he does shower her in gifts and follows her to her home. He is however, described as a noble but lonely knight. “O what can ail thee, knight at arms, / Alone and palely loitering? / The sedge has wither’d form the lake, / And no birds sing” (Stanza 1). While the supposed lack of self-control could be credited to cultural differences between the Romantic Period and today’s society. Or it, along with the loneliness would have been added because Keats was trying to make a character that was similar to him, again, because he was trying to process or vent out his …show more content…
Nevertheless, he himself never published La Belle le Dame Sans Merci. “Some of his best known poems were posthumously published; among them are “Eve of St. Mark” (1848) and “La belle dame sans merci” (The Beautiful Woman Without Mercy; first version pub. 1888),” (Funk and Wagnalls). As stated before, Keats did not think very highly of himself, and probably would have felt as if he were intruding on the life of those around him and those who read his