Le Belle Dame Sans Merci can be considered a ballad because of its tragic content, the inclusion of a knight and the effective use of natural imagery. It is broken into four line stanzas as ballads usually are and a regular rhythm. Additionally each of the four line stanzas describes a separate incident in the poem, breaking it up into small, short scenes. Le Belle Dame Sans Merci rebels against being a ballad in a few ways. One of the most important being that it does not follow the expected rhyme scheme of A B A B; instead it goes A B C B.
Lochinvar is also written in the style of a ballad to some extent. It is more of a folk style of writing. Some examples of this would be when, ‘The bride kisses the goblet,’ and, ‘He stayed not for bracken, and he stopped not for stone.’ There is also some archaic language used, such as, ‘ere,’ ‘ye,’ ‘saith,’ ‘twere better by far,’ and ‘quoth.’ Archaic language is generally used to crate a Scottish accent and emphasise medieval subject matter. The Scottish element supports the idea of the folk style of writing. The rhyme scheme used in this poem is rhyming couplets adding a steady rhythm to the poem. There is also a small amount of natural imagery used.
The story of Lochinvar tells a tale of a knight who goes and rescues the woman that he loves from her wedding. Lochinvar wants to get married to Ellen. Ellen has just been married but Lochinvar turns up at the wedding reception. It is clear that Lochinvar and Ellen are in love. They dance with each other at the wedding reception but Ellen’s mother and father are not at all pleased with this. It is at this point that they run away together. Their families attempt to follow them.
The main characters in Lochinvar would be Ellen and Lochinvar. Lochinvar is a Scottish Lord and Knight. He is very brave and bold. We know this because, ‘He rode all unarmed and, he rode all alone,’ also ‘He stopped not for break, and he stopped not for stone,’ and ‘He swan the Esk River where ford there was none.’ There is some speculation that he could be dangerous. We know that Ellen’s family is quite well off, the live at Netherby Hall. And Ellen’s parents do not approve of Lochinvar. It could be possible that Ellen’s marriage could be arranged. Lochinvar and Ellen have been in love for some time so maybe Ellen’s parents arranged this marriage to try and exclude Lochinvar from Ellen’s life.
The story of Le Belle Dame Sans Merci is that of a tragic one, ending in possible death and mystery. The narrator in the poem meets a knight who looks extremely unwell. The narrator asks the knight what is wrong. He continues to tell the narrator that he met a fairy in the field. He made her some jewellery consisting of flowers, then the fairy tells him that she loves him. The fairy then took the knight to a cave. She cries and he kisses her. The fairy then sings the night to sleep, then he has bad dreams about death. He then wakes and appears to be in a field. A strong possibility is that the whole encounter could have been a dream.
The main characters in Le Belle Dame Sans Merci are the Knight, Fairy and the narrator. Nothing of either’s background is given in the poem. We only know the events of the poem. The Fairy is a slight contradiction to what we would expect her to be. Fairies are mostly found in fairytales. The majority of fairytales are happy, joyful and conclude with a blissful ending. However, in this poem she is portrayed at the end as almost evil and malevolent. The knight also shows some contradiction. Knights are meant to be strong, brave and fearless. This one is dieing and has fallen under the fairy’s spell of love.
A very interesting aspect of theses two poems would be the role and view of women portrayed by the poet. In Lochinvar Sir Walter Scott has portrayed his female character as the trapped heroin that is saved by a dashing knight. Sir Walter Scott’s female character is very feminine. In comparison in Le Belle Dame Sans Merci John Keats has portrayed the fairy as almost evil. This can be looked at in two ways. He has decided to use the fairy like this because he is not particularly fond of women and is determined to put them in a bad light or on the other hand he has decided to make her look powerful and dominant to show women’s equality in society. But the fact that he has used a mythical creature to represent this could mean that he is trying to tell the reader that the idea of women being equal is just a myth.
The style of both poems is Romantic; both were written during the Romantic Movement. Both Lochinvar and Le Belle Dame Sans Merci concentrate on nature, feelings, emotions and both contain some aspect of supernatural or medieval subject matter. In Lochinvar the feelings and emotions of the two main characters are concentrated on, they are in love but there are some difficulties. Lochinvar himself is the medieval subject matter because he is a knight. In Le Belle Dame Sans Merci the main emotion showed is the heartbreak of the knight. He has fell in love with the fairy but she has left him and now he may face death. The fairy is the supernatural subject matter here. There is a fair bit of natural imagery used in Le Belle Dame Sans Merci, one example being, ‘I see a lily on thy brow.’
The tone and mood of both poems is different. Lochinvar is quite a dramatic poem. It has a very eventful plot with a heroic love story and a happy ending. This pleases the reader but at some points in the poem may keep them in suspense. The medieval subject matter enhances this. Whereas Le Belle Dame Sans Merci is very dreamlike, within the plot of the poem there is nothing too stimulating. However the poem does not come across boring because the plot itself is quite complex. The element of supernaturalism adds to the poems dreamlike effect.