La Belle Dame Sans Merci Questions

Bring on the tough stuff - there’s not just one right answer.

  1. Why do you think that the fairy lady cries in her cave (line 30)?
  2. Could the knight's entire experience just have been a dream? Would that matter?
  3. Why is the knight able to understand the fairy lady's "language strange" (line 27)?
  4. Who is the unnamed speaker who comes across the knight at the beginning of the poem? The poet, John Keats? The reader? Someone else?
  5. Why does the last stanza echo the first? What is the effect of that?