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Analysis Of 'La Belle Dame Sans Merci'

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Bitter. Sweet. Tender. Love. The subjective idea of love may refer to a concept, an attitude, an emotion, one could have towards another. Throughout history, one’s perception on love may vary due to the ideology they were being indoctrinated with as well as their family background. Given that different historical periods may affect one’s perception on their idea of love, an analysis on the poems “La Belle Dame sans Merci” by John Keats, “My Last Duchess” by Robert Browning, and “Mother in a Refugee Camp” by Chinua Achebe, will be made in order to examine and explore how poets living in different times present love in their own unique approach. ‘La Belle Dame sans Merci’ is a ballad written by English poet John Keats in the year 1819, when …show more content…

Before the death of the poem’s protagonist, she tells her lover, “Better by far you should forget and smile / Than that you should remember and be sad.” The parallelism signifies the woman’s compassionate attitudes towards the male counterpart of the relationship. . Even though she is going to leave him, she does not want him to reminisce the depressed feelings of her death. Instead she hopes that the man could move on from her and live a happy life even without her presence. Based on the depiction of the woman’s considerate manners to her lover, ‘Remember’ can be seen presenting romantic love in a positive …show more content…

While the narrative persona in “My Last Duchess” demands his wife to devote her love to him, the protagonist of “La Belle Dame sans Merci” devotes to the woman he loves even though the love is unrequited. This is evident through the repetition of the line “On the cold hill side.” throughout the poem. The noun phrase “cold hill” suggests that the knight is lonely and depressed when he waits for the woman solely, however unlike the narrative persona of “My Last Duchess”, he would not demand the woman to love him instead he would wait patiently until the day his affection towards her is

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