Talk:La Belle Dame sans Merci: A Ballad

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La Belle Dame sans Merci is actually another name for opium. The writer was, at the time, addicted to opium. So the poem is simply a metaphor for the drug. The man wants to keep seeing the fairy, so he can have a wonderful time, but he knows he will end up in a depressing state if he does.

yea but, no but, yea but, no but,yea but, no but,yea but, no but, —Preceding unsigned comment added by 83.71.42.153 (talk) 19:54, 3 October 2007 (UTC)

No, it's not. This poem is dumb dont read it!!

The opium theory is plausible. Dark Ladies have often been used as a symbol of destructive self-indulgence (Shakespeare sonnets, Swinburne Dolores). The use of opium was common in Bohemian circles of that day. Keats' contemporary, De Quincy, was a self-advertising opium addict.

-- I think, however, that if he were ever addicted to opium, we'd have heard about it. Opium would have been hard to get away from, as it was for Samuel Taylor Coleridge. Surely Keats would have written about it in his letters and it would have affected his work...and if he's writing the poem from an addict's standpoint, I find that hard to believe. None of his other work would give credibility to that.

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[edit] Feminist Rape Theory!!!

"More recent feminist commentators have suggested that the knight in fact raped the Belle Dame, and is being justly punished"

Where did you get this from? There is no actual basis or reference for this whatsoever. —The preceding unsigned comment was added by Badger23 (talk • contribs) 15:23, 7 March 2007 (UTC). --Badger23 16:02, 7 March 2007 (UTC)

i dno what u lot are on bout....i dont even understand the ballad fing !!!!!!!!!!!

It was the other way around wuith the woman on top. I saw the painting here  : http://zasda.tripod.com Raphael.C —Preceding unsigned comment added by Raphael corleone (talk • contribs) 06:08, 8 September 2007 (UTC)

There is a more plausible feminist identification of La Belle Dame with Lilith at http://feminism.eserver.org/theory/papers/lilith/labelle.html. Xxanthippe (talk) 11:06, 17 November 2007 (UTC)

There's no clear indication the woman ACTUALLY told him she loved him. In some readings, "in language strange" (27) is seen as an indication she spoke a language he did not know and he interpreted her as saying "I love thee true" (28). —Preceding unsigned comment added by 97.89.22.60 (talk) 23:46, 4 May 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Basis of line for title of Sci-fi story

The famous Sci-fi author James Tiptree Jr. wrote a story called "And I woke up and found me here on the Cold Hill's side" based on a line from the poem, about humanity becoming infatuated with aliens.

Does it deserve a mention?

[edit] Comparing La belle dame sans merci with j keats when he wrote it

Keat was suffering from TB when he wrote this poem and knew he was going to die and his description of the knight represents himself and his own illness, so words like peel and fever reflect his systoms. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 89.240.217.150 (talk) 12:04, 14 October 2007 (UTC)

[edit] La Belle Dames sans merci link

I have grown sick and tied of wiki editors abusing wiki by letting their personal hangs sexual dislikes personal taste in literature to interfere with objectivity. Time and time again wiki editors censor entries which they personally dont like, pass aesthetic judgments which is not their place and resort to the tied old claim that something is spam to hide their hang ups-

This link is to a pdf

it is not to a personal web sites, links to web sites with which i am are affiliated, and links that attract visitors to a web site or promote a product. is is a pdf

now dont go and change the goal post . The above was the reason why the link was removed as i have shown it is not a website it is a pdf it is not spam - all it is is something that someone dont like the content BUT WATCH SOME WILL NOW COME UP WITH SOME OTHER CRAP TO HIDE HIS HER HANG UPS

if you dont like the words cunt cock fuck that is your problem even the bible has daughters fucking their fatherthis link is to a contemporary version—Preceding unsigned comment added by USER NAME OR IP (talk • contribs) DATE AND TIME

The problem with the link is not the language but relevance. The link does not contain "information about the subject." It only blithely refers to /draws upon the original poem. It would not be informational for someone striving to learn about Keats' poem, only informational for someone wanting to learn about C. Dean's poem. Because of its irrelevance, it then appears to be either something the link adder is affiliated with or trying to promote.

I recommend reading the guidelines on civil comment WP:CIVIL and on external links WP:EL.

Notforprofit 12:51, 4 November 2007 (UTC)Norman Bodley