La Belle Dame Sans Merci
John William Waterhouse, 1893
John William Waterhouse, know as "Nino", was born on April, 1849 in Rome and died on February, 1917. He was a painter of classical, historical, and literary subjects. In the 1850s the family returned to England and in 1870 he entered the Royal Academy school.
Many of his first works were of classical themes in the spirit of Sir Lawrence Alma-Tadema and Frederic Leighton, all exhibited at the Royal Academy, the Society of British Artists and the Dudley Gallery.
In the late 1870s and the 1880s, Waterhouse painted genre scenes of Italy as he made many trips to his place of origin.
The painting above reflects accurately Keats' different ideas, his mood and emotions. Waterhouse does this by portraying the passion and love between both characters in the painting, represented in their facial expressions, which Keats' describes as "Her eyes were wild". The knight is bending towards her, showing his attraction and desires for her.
The dress, the heart embroidered in it and the garland in the woman's head gives the spectator a hint that she is trying to seduce the knight, just as Keats' describes in his poem, "I made a garland for her head, and bracelets too".
The relationship between these two characters can be related with the one of Keats' with Fanny Brawne, and the fact that their love was really intense as they knew it wouldn't last long, since Keats was about to die at any moment as he suffered from tuberculosis.
The setting of the forest is portrayed exactly in the painting as in the poem, reflecting the gloomines and sadness of the place as in "The sedge has wither'd from the lake, and no birds sing". It also portrays Keats' state of mind at that moment, of confusion.
After having compared both paintings, I concluded that the one by Waterhouse portrays much clearer what Keats' wished to convey in "La Belle Dame Sans Merci". For instance, the characters in the one of Waterhouse, are much passionate and in love. This is seen by analizing their faces and how they look at each other. However, in the painting I chose, the knight is lying on the ground, and we don't even know if he's dead or asleep.
In the painting by Waterhouse there is physicall contact between the characters, while in the one I chose the characters are not even touching one another.
Moreover, in the painting by Waterhouse the face of the woman represents desire, looking straight into the eyes of the knight, but there is something sad about her, although it's not clearly understood what it is. In the painting I chose, the woman is not even looking to the knight. Her face seems lost, as if she was hoping for something good to happen.
The colors in the paint I chose are less expressive and lighter than the one of Waterhouse in which they are much more powerful. In this last one, the flowers on the ground are perfectly depicted, while in the painting I chose the background is blurry, so it's not given a lot of importance as it's described in Keats' poem.
Nature is something crucial for the Romantic Period, therefore it's why I decided to choose Waterhouse's painting as the one that portrays better Keats' poem.
Rhythm and meter in "La Belle Dame Sans Merci"
Traditional ballad form:
The meter is the rhythm of a ballad. It highlights the words of a poem which are emphasized and those which aren't. Generally, all ballads have verses which consist of four or six lines, and use one of two basic meters: 4-3-4-3 or 4-4-4-4. Few ballads have absolutely perfect meter in all of the their verses. Almost every ballad has a verse with one syllable more or less. However, perfect meter isn't essential, as what's important is that the meter works with the music. The following example is a stanza from "Sir Patrick Spens," a medieval ballad, which follows the characteristics mentioned before:
'I saw the new moon late yestreen
Wi' the auld moon in her arm;
And if we gang to sea, master,
I fear we'll come to harm.'
"La Belle Dame Sans Merci" subverts the traditional ballad form as it does not follow the traditional scheme of a ballad. It has lines consisting of 4 feet, a tretameter and the last line of every stanza overthrows the conditional rhythm of the poem as it varies to lines consisting of 2 feet, what is called a dimeter.
This change in the meter clearly affects the pace of the poem as the reader is somehow or other forced to read it slower. This slow down in pace helps the poet achieve the sensation of melancholy Keats wants to transmit. It reflects the idea of something ending, of death. This can be seen in "on the cold hill's side", "hath the in thrall!" and in "and no birds sing".
