La Belle Dams Sans Merci and The Prince’s Progress

In this essay I will be comparing and contrasting two pre 1900 poems to see what they have, or do not have in common. ” The Prince’s Progress” is a poem written by a woman called Christina Rossetti, who was a young, Italian traced woman, who incidentally never married, just like her subject, the princess, in the poem. Some people believe, as do I, that this poem is slightly autobiographical. She was born 1830 and died alone, as did the princess, 1894.

“La Belle Dams Sans Merci,” is a poem written by John Keats. He was one of the “new wave” romantic poets in the early 1800s. His poems at this time and throughout his life where heavily influenced by nature. He and his associate poets where not the cleanest living people, they dabbled in drink, drugs and “so on,” shall we say, so this heavily influenced his early death, he died in 1821 at the age of 26, although he did accomplish to write many important poems before his death.

“The Prince’s Progress,” talks of a princess who looks for love throughout her life, but she dies before this “prince charming” arrived. The poem is written as a speech where the princess’ lady in waiting tells the prince, who had just arrived, the story of the princess’ struggle to find a suitable partner. She tells the prince, in no uncertain words,

“Too late for love, too late for joy, Too Late too late!”

Showing her bad feelings and ill wishes towards him, the repetition in these lines are very effective in displaying her message clearly and profoundly.

The poem begins with the stern repeated words to the prince’

“Too late,”

The lady in waiting is telling the prince that he has missed his chance, he has done too little too late. If he had not “loitered” on the road, meaning the road of life or the road leading to the princess’ residence, he would have won the heart of this maiden, and they would have, for want of better words, lived happily ever after.

The next couple of verses talk in detail of the princess’ state, lying palely on her deathbed, strewn with flower petals from symbolic flowers. Here one of the most important themes presents itself, nature, word such as “wind,” “snow” and “buds” are used in such a way that makes the princess seem more enchanted and magical.

The poem always seems subdued as it describes the princess’ sad love less life,

“We never saw her with a smile or a frown,”

This line denotes the princess’ indifference towards her lonely single life. The poem also goes on to describe the princess’ lack of ideals, she looses her ideals as she looses her faith in her ideal man, nothing seems best to her,

“Her bed never seemed soft to her, though tossed of down,”

Here she shows the fact that she seems oblivious to her surrounding, her life and her wealth.

The poem ends with the lady telling the prince, in quite a displeased manner, not to throw his red rose petals over the princess’ body

“Let be these poppies that we strew, your roses are too red,”

This means that the lady believes that the prince does not deserve to leave his mark by the princess’ body, the only people that she believes deserve a hand in her memorial are the people who really care, her servants and maids.

“La Belle Dame Sans Merci,” is a poem speaking about a knight who had been enticed by a mythical, enchanted being, she laid a spell upon him and left him for dead, he is slowly dying. A man speaks to him and asks him questions such as,

“What can ail thee, knight-at-arms?”

This question is repeated, but in contrast to the way repetition is used in the other poem, this is used to display the pitiful state of this knight. The imagery of a knight in such a state is ironic, the very word knight conveys an air of power and strength, but the knight here was portrayed as a lily, the death flower.

The poem is written in two parts, in the first part, a man speaks to the knight asking him questions and describing his dying state, the second, rather heftier part, is where the knight responds to the questions and acquisitions strewn upon him, he describes “a faery’s child” whom he met in the “meads.” She in turn enticed him, cast spells on him and left him. He was drowned in her mystique and was so in love with this wild being that any noise she made was described by him as a “sweet moan”

“I love thee true,”

That is what the knight believes that this faery is telling him, when in fact he cannot understand a word she mutters, he has just interpreted her moan as words in her mind.

The knight was warned of his fate in a dream he had envisaged whilst under a spell cast by his enchantress. In the dream he saw kings, princess and others’

“Death-pale where they all,”

are the words he uses to describe these figures in his dream, death-pale as he seems to the man he has met, all these figures had been enchanted before him, they had warned him;

“La Belle Dame Sans Merci Thee hath in thrall!”

A warning in French that this woman, she has no mercy and that he must leave her company as soon as possible.

He awoke on a hillside all alone, the enchantress had left him, he had been asleep from summer until winter, he was slowly dying, the poem ends with the answer to the question at the beginning, with the same message as it begins, only this time told by the knight

“And this is why I sojourn here,

Alone and palely loitering,

Though the sedge is wither’d from the lake,

And no birds sing.”

Both poems have overwhelming similarities, especially in themes. Both “La Belle Dams Sans Merci,” and “The Prince’s Progress,” feature nature throughout. Both also use symbolic flowers to denote death, poppies are strewn on the princess and the knight is compared to a “lily on thy brow.” Both poems speak of royal figures, such as princes, kings and princesses.

Although these poems do have striking similarities, their differences outnumber these, both poems deal with death, but “La Belle Dams Sans Merci,” speaks with a dying man, and “The Prince’s Progress,” speaks of a dead princess. Royalty is used to good effect by both poems, “La Belle Dams Sans Merci,” displays royalty as people who have also been under the enchantress’ spell, to show that even the mighty have fallen. In “The Prince’s Progress,” the fact that even a princess cannot find a partner, this shows that wealth and status do not give a person everything they need.

“The Prince’s Progress,” is structured in such a way so that every verse has ten lines, there are six verses in all. This structure does emphasize the length of poem; it has sixty lines in all, which can make it seem a little long-winded.

The whole poem is written as a speech from a ‘lady in waiting’ figure to the prince who has come to woo the princess, she breaks to him the news that the princess has died and she also tells of the princess lonely life and blatantly blames the princess’ death on the princes loitering. She also condemns his vain attempts to show his false compassion for the princess, he tries to spread rose petals on her deathbed but the lady’s response is,

“Let be these poppies that we strew, your roses are too red,”

In a certain way, the lady accuses the prince of manslaughter, she died of a broken heart, he did not mend her heart, there fore, in the lady’s mind he is her killer.

The poem “La Belle Dams Sans Merci,” takes up the other side of the argument, here the victim speaks. The enchantress is slowly killing him, he is also dying from a broken heart, but this time, his killer shows no remorse, she knows that she is killing him, but does not attempt to help.

The knight in this tale does not acknowledge his fate, and still attempts to convince himself that this enchantress actually did love him; he speaks of her as if she were a person, when in fact she was a wild creature.

The poem is set in twelve short four lined verses, the verses help organize the events that happened, the first three are the words of a man speaking to the knight, his response takes up the other nine verses, he tells the events that occurred since his first encounter with the “faery’s child.” Words such as “sweet” and “honey” tell of the ‘sweetness’ that this creature shows to the knight.

ords are also shared between these poems, unusual but appropriate words used are, “loiter” which speak for the knights stature, perched along a path, and the prince’s lack of haste to reach his destinations. Adjectives such as sweet ere used to describe the feminine characters.

Here we have two poems, in some senses similar, but in others worlds apart. The both speak of a similar subject, similar scenarios and similar people. Both are vaguely fairy tale orientated, but portray this in a very effective mature way, none seem childish in anyway. I think that this proves that love poems do not have to be soppy love letters written by an author who is head over heals in love; love poetry can be dark, and mildly disturbing.