Question

Source: Keats, John. “La Belle Dame sans Merci: A Ballad.” Poetry Foundation. Poetry Foundation, n.d. Web. 24 June 2011. Identify and evaluate the poet’s use of rhyme and meter in this poem.

Answer 1

“La Belle Dame sans Merci” is one of the famous ballads of John Keats. A ballad is in a form of poetry which tells a story based on folk cultures, believes or ideas. Ballads usually use simple language so that it can reach to the common people.  The translation of the title is “A Woman Without Mercy.” the ballad begins with a knight telling his experience with a beautiful and fair lady who gave him sweet feelings of love. The lady turns him to fall asleep. In his dreams, he visualizes the reality of the lady that how she has seduced other knights and then they have been found dead.

The poem has been divided into twelve four lines of stanzas which are known as quatrains. The rhyme scheme of each of the quatrain is ABCB.

The poem is in iambic tetrameter. One Iamb is when an unstressed syllable is followed by a stressed syllable and tetra means four. That is, each line of the ballad contains four iambs. But there are only three stressed syllables in the fourth line of each quatrain. The use of rhyme and meter enhances the poem's beauty.