La Belle Dame Sans Merci

LIFE: 1795/1821
A Romantic poet of the SECOND GENERATION

-He was born in London
-Medical career abandoned for literary friendship with many Romantic artists
-Life full of troubles:
* unhappy love
* adverse criticism of his works
* illness in his relatives' lives and in his own life
-Died in Rome



THEMES AND STYLE :
-He lived devoting his life to poetry
-Sensory experience is the basis of poetry
-Admiration for the classical Greek art (classical forms, mythology)
-Taste for the Middle Ages (medieval themes and forms)
-Presence of death and sufferings
-Love for BEAUTY --> a poet must search for beauty in nature and man --> Beauty is linked to truth.
-Through his style he tries to express beauty
-Great ability in the use of a melodic and sensuous language and of all the forms of poetry



Testo a cura di Federica Lanzi (a.sc.: 2000/2001)

LA BELLE DAME SANS MERCI

 
--It is a ballad composed of 12 four-line stanzas;
-
Question-answer form: the first 3 stanzas are questions addressed to the knight by the narrator, the other 9 are the knight's reply;
-
Medieval theme: a knight falls in love with a beautiful lady, who's a fairy's child, and she charms him so he will stay forever alone; he won't be able to do anything but look for an emotion which can't be found on earth;
-Typical
features of the ballad:
*
direct speech
*
description of the lady and the knight
*
deception of love --> sadness
*
the plot (the story begins in the middle of the action)
*
the structure
-
Reference to nature and to seasons --> they reflect the knight's attitude
-
Mistery

Testo a cura di Federica Lanzi (a.sc.: 2000/2001)

Listen to
OUR BALLAD
as well!
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