In his poem, ‘La Belle Dame Sans’, John Keats explores the influence imagination can have on reality. Through the use of symbolism and imagery, Keats creates first a melancholic, and then whimsical atmosphere, representative of reality and imagination, connecting the two spheres through the concept of negative capability. Repetition and a modified ballad format are employed by Keats to then demonstrate an entrapping effect that imagination has on an individual.
Keats first identifies the disparate spheres of reality and imagination, through the juxtaposition of atmosphere, before highlighting the underlining similarities between the two. For instance, we see in the first stanza that “no birds sing” – the phrase not only attaching a sense of lifelessness to the surrounding area but given the agreeable nature of a bird’s singing, indicates an unpleasantness to the situation being described. Furthermore, in the third stanza, we see that there is a “lily” – traditionally the flower presented at funerals, and hence associated with death” – placed on the “brow” of the knight – as if they are in fact a corpse – which adds to the construction of a melancholic atmosphere. Given that thus far the description has been grounded to natural phenomena, such as the lack of birds singing, it can be connected to the concept of reality. In comparison, when the knight begins narrating, there is a drastic shift in the atmosphere presented. In stanza 4, we see him describe the lady he encounters as a “faery’s child” – a supernatural figure in European folklore associated with ‘magic’ – evoking a sense of wonder and perhaps nostalgia amongst readers that grew up on such stories. This same effect is achieved by the mention of ‘manadew’ in stanza 5, an allusion to the supernatural food given to the Israelites by God in the Bible, and results in the creation of a more ‘whimsical’ atmosphere. Furthermore, given the imagery’s reliance on folktale and stories, products of our imagination, we can connect the knight’s narration to such.
However, there is uncertainty as to whether the knight’s descriptions are literal or figurative in nature his re-telling of the story influenced by his imagination, or does he truly encounter a faery? Keats leaves this point ambiguous, exhibiting the idea of negative capability, in order to demonstrate that opposed to being entirely disparate spheres, there is significant overlap between imagination and reality. The point isn’t to recognize which version of events is true, but instead, recognize that both imagination or reality could be the driving force of the events to come, and it is likely a combination of both.
With this established, Keats then demonstrates the consequences of blurring the lines between these two spheres through the use of repetition and rhythm and meter. For example, the last three lines of both the first and last stanzas are the same, which when combined with the melancholic atmosphere that particular imagery creates, creates this perception of a cycle of suffering. Furthermore, as opposed to a traditional ballade which employs alternating lines of iambic tetrameter and trimeter, we see that the last line of each quatrain is truncated – composed of only 4-5 syllables. This creates an effect of lingering doubt, as each stanza comes off as incomplete, with readers missing a piece of information. This is indicative of the unresolved nature of the knight’s predicament, wandering about and unsure how to move forwards.
