A comparison of To Autumn and La Belle Dame Sans Merci on how they present strong emotions and ideas.

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A comparison of To Autumn and La Belle Dame Sans Merci on how they present strong emotions and ideas

To Autumn and La Belle Dame Sans Merci are poems both written by John Keats. Both are classic examples of the genre. Both poems share emotive and passionate feelings. In to Autumn Keats describes his strong feelings about autumn. In La Belle Dame Sans Merci we see Keats express strong emotions about life and death. In this essay I plan to focus on the different emotions and ideas that Keats writes about in To Autumn and La Belle Dame Sans Merci.

In To Autumn the first stanza describes the bounty, in the last the dreaminess, Keats expresses words that are so transparent and direct that reading the poem we almost forget they are words, and in fact are nature itself. Keats makes it appear as though the seasons are speaking to the reader and not him. This pensiveness and interaction with Mother Nature creates s subtle awareness of time passing and of changes taking place within nature. In La Belle Dame Sans Merci Keats presents his ideas quite differently to how he did in To Autumn. The ballad does not open with a relaxing tone; the first paragraph uncomfortably cuts off very sharply. A general comparison that one can make between the two pieces is that the contents of To Autumn are wholesome and natural whilst the contents of La Belle Dame Sans Merci is supernatural and incredibly dream like. Keats deliberately uses archaic language in To Autumn and La Belle Dame Sans Merci; this creates a more poetic effect in the two poems.

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To Autumn appeals greatly to the senses, “with ripeness to the core” is describing tasting of the fruit and is a description that therefore appeals to the taste buds. Keats also appeals to scent in To Autumn – “Drows’d with the fume of poppies” In To Autumn descriptions appealing to the senses are generally positive. In La Belle Dame Sans Merci imagery related to the senses is more complicated than in To Autumn. There is imagery appealing to the senses that is a blur between positive and negative. “Full beautiful – a faery’s child” describes beauty that is ...

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