Keats vs Coleridge: Final Version
The two poems I am going to analyse are La Belle Dame Sans Merci. A
Ballad, by John Keats, it was written in 1819, and Christabe ,by Samuel Taylor Coleridge, from his
volume Lyrical Ballads published in 1798. Both poems are from the
Romantic period.
They are very simple to read and they
have a comprehensive vocabulary. In the poem by Keats the use of French
sentences is remarkable, “ La belle dame sans merci” appears in the title and
in the tenth paragraph. When I read the title of Keats I thought on a very
beautiful woman typical in 18th century that acts as a doll, she
only represents beauty, not in any moment does she show her intelligence,
because that I think Keats talks about a woman without “ merci” that I think
means without “ grace”. When I read the poem by Coleridge, I thought about a
girl called Christabel, that I think is the name of the girl the author loves,
and that he is going to talk about her. The first impression of the poem by
Keats is that the author talks about a woman he met some time ago, that he was
very impressed with her beauty, she loved him and he was so happy, but one
night he dreamt himself in her arms and when he awoke he found himself alone,
and because of that he is unhappy and he says in the fourth verse that birds do
not sing. The first impression of Coleridge’ s poem is that he talks about a
very pure woman, he talks about her with a religious tone, she is a fair and
bright lady that dresses with white robes and a veil. He says you can bring her
home, she will love you and she will have you in charity, I think the author is
talking about a woman without pains, that she has the grace of God and this
makes that love would be true.
Keats wrote a poem divided into 12 paragraphs of four lines each one and he uses a free rhythm. To emphasize the poem he uses the repetition: paragraphs one and two have the same first line, and the second one is a question, and followed by a description. Paragraphs 3, 4, 5 and 6 start talking about the author, he talks about himself “ I see.., I met…, I made…, I set…” and he talks about the impression the author had when he met the lady. Then in paragraphs 7, 8 and 9 the poem talks about the lady “ she found…, she took…, she lulled…” and it talks about how she reacts and how she speaks. In paragraphs 10 and 11 the author talks about the dream he had when he was asleep in his lover’ s arms and he explains why he is alone on the hill. The last paragraph repeats the first and second paragraphs, the poem starts with questions about why the poet is in this situation. In front of this we have the poem written by Coleridge that is not divided as Keats’ s, but it has a determined rhythm that is A-A-B-B-A; C-C-D-D-E-F-F-E; two free verses- G-G-H-H-I-J-I-J-K-L-K. Christabel is divided into three paragraphs, the first one has five lines and it is important to emphasize when the author names Jesus and Maria because this tells us that the poem has a religious sense, because they are from the Bible. It is an introduction of the rest of the poem because the girl was somewhere in the position of the cross and she saw something, last line makes the question of what she saw. The other two paragraphs talk about what she saw, they are the answer to the question. She saw a damsel bright and I think this is the reason why the author talks about this lady as an angel, she saw God and He made her pure and then she appeared as a bright lady, as the author says “ surpassingly fair”, all this makes the lady the perfect woman to be with you, the true love.
In conclusion I think that both authors had different visions of love, Keats though about a princess, a very nice girl, with wild eyes that love him and that seems she is charmed and when the day finishes, the lady returns to her fantastic world and the author falls in a terrible forest where there are no singing birds and where he is very unhappy. Whereas Coleridge talks about a religious love, the author thinks that if the lady has the grace of God and she is pure, she will love him for ever. While Keats finishes without the girl, Coleridge gains her love at the end. I think that Coleridge has a selfish love while Keats pretends to have a romantic love.
