“La Belle Dame Sans Merci” was about a knight ,who got seduced and fell in love with a mysterious woman, who left him in the end. “La Belle Dame Sans Merci” was translated as “The Beautiful Lady without Pity”. The Lady was so beautiful and bright , she made him charmed by her appearance.(“Full beautiful ,a faery child, Her hair was long, her foot was light and her eyes were wild”). This quote described her as something faery and pure, because he compared her with a child, and I feel this lady was so clean and light, but on the other hand the author’s words “her eyes were wild” gave me a strange feeling and a completely different perception of the woman, it’s like she was not so innocent ,so pure anymore. I see that the narrator was in deep love with her and he was so romantic(“ I made a garland for her head, and bracelets too, and fragrant zone…”).He was caring and loving, he set the lady on his horse and as he said “And nothing else saw all day long, For sidelong would she bend and sing a faery sing”, and it seemed the knight could do anything for her and for his love.These all expressions of his emotions made me think that a man had lost control of himself and everything, when he met a beautiful woman, who could seduced him so easy by singing and her appearance. And in the end the lady took him to cavern and made him asleep, left him alone and cold on the “hill’s side”.(“ And there she lulled me asleep , And there I dreamed, ah woe betide! The latest dream I ever dreamt On the cold hill’s side.”) This poem had an unpredictable end, since not a man left a woman and felt fine ,but here was a woman ,who charmed the knight and left him broken in his feelings.
When I read this poem first time, I thought it was a romantic poem about knight’s love ,but I read one more time and I saw that it’s not only about his love for a woman,who was very beautiful and he adored her. This poem showed us power of a woman , that could manipulate a man. A woman became dangerous ,she was not inferior as a traditional woman used to be before in society. I think this poem represented new changes in women’s role and characterization.
