'La Belle Dame Sans Merci' means the beautiful woman without mercy. This is obviously what the poem is about. We know this from several references within the poem. The foremost and most obvious one is 'I met a lady in the meads'. This is obviously when he meets the woman that the poem is about. Keats is obviously very deeply in love this woman because he 'made a garland for her head and bracelets too'. So he is giving her gifts to show his love for her. In addition, the woman can represent the nature within the poem. The single sentence that shows this is 'and her eyes were wild'. This would show the 'untamed' side of human nature as civilized and advanced as we are, at the beginning of the industrial revolution. But the woman does not stay with him. She 'lulls' him asleep and is never mentioned again.
The metaphor behind the poem is about Keats' tuberculosis. The first reference we get of this is that the third person on the first stanza asks 'o what can ail thee, knight-at-arms alone and palely loitering?' Palely is the reference to the visual appearance of someone with the condition, and loitering is simply waiting around, waiting for something, death. The first stanza is saying that everything is desolate and without life, as is the whole of the poem, there are several references to this. 'No birds sing' is mentioned twice in the poem meaning that there is no life and everywhere is desolate. The phrase is mentioned; at the end of the first stanza and the end of the last stanza. The reason that this is relevant is that although everything between the last and first stanza is important the fact remains the same that 'no birds sing' that life is desolate for Keats. There is more than one reference to Keats' physical appearance 'I see a lily on thy brow with anguish moist and fever dew, and on they cheeks a fading rose fast withereth too'. This is the third stanza of third person part of the poem. The lily is representative of something that would be at a funeral representing the aspect of death in tuberculosis. 'Fever dew' is sweat, the cold sweat of tuberculosis. 'On the cheeks a fading rose fast withereth too' is the fast depletion of colour in his cheeks. The woman within the poem can be interpreted as two things: a fictional woman as a result of a hallucination caused by tuberculosis or as I have previously explained a real woman. The hallucination could be argued with the presence of science fiction and fantasy. The fictional elements in the poem would be the theme of a 'faery' and; 'kings and princes and warriors'. Although the royalty was still a strong part of British society the context in which he is talking about them is a faery tale. The reason he mentions that 'kings, princes warriors' were pale was to show that the powerful were becoming weak, metaphorically.
'To Autumn' is Keats' appreciation of nature in autumn. The obvious reason why he wrote this poem was because he was a romanticist. This poem showed his fascination and recognition of beauty within nature. He is trying to prove that although summer has finished, not everything is preparing for the harshness of winter. He is expressing that we are still reaping the benefits of summer such as 'the fruit with ripeness to the core', and the 'swelling gourd'.
Keats language throughout the poem manages to create a picture with words. It is because of this that Keats was such an outstanding writer. Keats creates a romantic painting with the language that he uses, an example of this would be: 'with fruit the vines that round the thatch-eaves run; to bend with the moss'd cottage trees'. After reading this one gets the image of vines growing round the thatch-eaves, and that the trees are so full of ripe and plentiful fruit that the branches are bending. Keats use of rhyming pattern helps to emphasize the feel of the poem using rhyming couplets every other line with words such as 'fruitfulness' and 'bless'.
The general feel of the poem is a laid-back and relaxed atmosphere. Keats creates this atmosphere using words like careless, sleep and soft-dying. A phrase that would sum up this feeling would be 'thou watchest the last oozings, hours by hours'. The repetition of hours conveys a feeling that there is plenty of time to be spared, also the onomatopoeic word 'oozings' adds to the effect.
Both poems use the theme of romanticism in different ways. One juxtaposes love and death, le belle sans dame merci, and one shows the beauty of nature, to autumn. Keats romanticism is revealed in a number of ways. The first is the language he uses. To autumn has a laid back and relaxed feel whereas la belle sans dame merci is very negative with imagery that promotes death and illness. I think that Keats' poems are wonderfully expressive and capture a feeling or thought within a person. You are drawn into the poem with his use of language and his original style. There is no doubt as to why Keats' stood out from other poets. The two poems show Keats' ability to contrast.
