La Belle Dame Sans Merci By John Crowe Ransom

The poems, “La Belle Dame Sans Merci” by J Keats and “Piazza Piece” by John Crowe Ransom, both present love as something which is temporary and most often the cause of great downfall. “La Belle Dame Sans Merci” talks about the consequences when love goes wrong intertwined with the irrationality of love. The poem implies that love is dangerous and can bring only suffering to its naïve victims. Ransom, on the other hand, presents a more traditional outlook on love. He brings the reader back to the ancient times when ‘courtly love’ prevailed.

Both poets talk about love, however, their method of delivery differs. Ransom adopts a romantic form, a Petrarchan Sonnet for his poem. It is a very old and classical form of poetry, symbolizing the poet’s

The imagery continues to contrast the liveliness of nature that surrounds the man, “squirrel’s granary is full…harvest is done”, as compared to the near-death condition of the man, “…alone and palely loitering…haggard and so woe-begone”, emphasizing how love has abandoned him and he too is “wither’ing” away from life similarly like the sedge is from the lake. On the other hand, the contrast between the young and old in “Piazza Piece”, raises the question as to whether love arrives on everybody’s doorstep, or in this case, piazza. The use of natural imagery, “roses of your trellis dying”, symbolizes how the lady is ignoring the fact that she is growing older and the idea that love is coming for her is becoming bleak, very similar to the man in “La Belle Dame Sans Merci”, who is said to have “lily on thy brow … cheek a fading rose”. In both cases, the natural imagery is used as a metaphor to foreshadow how the lack of love in the character’s lives eventually leads to their

In “Piazza Piece”, when the old man is narrating, the tone is very eager and possibly quite desperate. The poet uses sibilance, “soft and small”, to show the old man's love for the lady. However, the onomatopoeia used in the following line, “whispering and sighing”, suggests the old man's defeat, as he realizes that the lady will never reciprocate the love he feels for her. While, in “La Belle Dame Sans Merci”, the tone changes as the narration changes. When the passer-by is talking, the tone appears to be quite concerning and worried. However, when the man starts talking the tones changes into a more of a storytelling tone. This is evident through the use of pauses as the man is talking, “full beautiful – a faery’s child”. This dramatic effect allows the reader and his audience to fill in the gaps with their imagination. Furthermore, the repetition of “faery” suggests that the man knew he was falling in love with someone forbidden yet decided to continue pursuing it, ultimately leading to his