Page 164 - 100 Best Loved Poems - Teaching Unit
P. 164
“La Belle Dame sans Merci”
by John Keats, pages 47-48
Vocabulary
loitering – hanging around
haggard – worn, fatigued
meads – meadows
manna – allusion to biblical food, made from the sap of trees and plants
sojourn – break, vacation
1. What point of view is the poem written in? Who is its speaker(s)?
2. In the second stanza, what does the speaker say are reasons for the knight-at-arms to not “ail”?
3. Why does the lady weep and sigh in the poem’s eighth stanza?
4. How does the French title translate into English?
5. What does the speaker’s dream suggest about the woman whom he has fallen in love with?
6. Why do you believe the knight-at-arms is so sad?
7. Explain the significance in the speaker’s choice of words in the final stanza, especially
“sojourn” and “palely.”
S-50
