‘LBDSM’ quotes

• "alone and palely loitering"


  -poor physical health and isolation are common them,es of tragedy

  -repeated at the end of the poem, cyclical structure, starts how it ends
• "the sedge has withered from the lake and no birds sing"


  - signifies that there is no hope and that the happiness and life has been drained from the knight

  -repeated at the start and end of the poem- cyclical structure, which links to aristotle's unity of place as it starts and ends in the same location
• "knight-at-arms"


  -repeated throughout

  -sets this character up to be a tragic hero, perhaps altering our perspective of him
• The squirrel's granary is full,

  And the harvest's done.


  -autumnal and natural imagery

  -autumn is the season of waiting but also the season of death

  -the natural imagery links to romanticism
• "i see a lily on thy brow"


  -lilies are white, could either symbolise hope or link to the paleness of the knight, potentially symbolising death

  -i think more likely death as a lily is the traditional funeral flower
• "on thy cheeks a fading rose"


  -roses are flowers of love

  -could symbolise fading love

  -could also link to the paleness, draining of life
• "full beauty- a faery's child"


  -this is our first introduction to la belle and it is instantly revolving around her looks

  -could imply that she is very seductive and a femme fatale character but it also implies that the knight only sees women for their appearance, maybe she is the victim
• "her hair was long, her foot was light, and her eyes were wild"

  -long hair is often associated with sensuality

  -the wild eyes juxtapose her beauty and imply that she is unnatural and enforces the femme fatale narrative

  -however we need to consider that this is from the knight's perspective and narration so he could be trying to paint her as a villain instead of the victim she could be
• "i made her a garland for her head and bracelets too"


  -natural setting, meadow, euphoric

  -he is courting her and showing HIS adoration for her, so far there has been no evidence that this love is reciprical
• "she looked at me as if she did love"

  -this is reported by him as his perception her her opinion, she never consents or verbally shows that she loves him
• "i set her on my pacing steed and nothing else saw all day long"

  -he has the control and dominance over her, he placed her implying that he forced her to do this, she didnt do it herself

  -sexual connotations

  -he gets absorbed in her, lost his touch with reality
• "a faery's song"


  - often in clawssical literature songs sung by characters like faeries, mermaids or sirens are destructive and sung to lure the 'innocent' men in, they have magical qualities that make the men lost in illusion and lust
• "in a language strange she said i love thee true"

  -he doesnt understant her language yet he interprets what she said to be that she loves him

  -he twists what he hears and the truth into his desired reality
• "she took me to her elfin grot"


  -the power and control have switched hands now they are in her territory
• "i shut her wild wild eyes with kisses four"


  -he tries to take control again but implieds that she is very powerful and out of control

  -male ignorance- thinks he can solve the problem with kisses
• "she lulled me asleep"

  -entranced
• repetition of dream


  -highlights the memory's unreal quality
• "i saw pale kings and princes too, pale warriors, death-pale were they all"


  -juxtaposition of the high status and the deathly appearance

  -she drains the life out of them
• "thee hath in thrall"


  -warning

  -he ius her prisoner

  -these men are the only ones who percieve and portray her as dangerous and wild