Question

Read the poem below and answer the question that follows.

“La Belle Dame sans Merci: A Ballad”
by John Keats

O, what can ail thee, knight-at-arms,
Alone and palely loitering?
The sedge has withered from the lake,
And no birds sing.

O what can ail thee, knight-at-arms,
So haggard and so woe-begone?
The squirrel’s granary is full,
And the harvest’s done.

I see a lily on thy brow,
With anguish moist and fever-dew,
And on thy cheeks a fading rose
Fast withereth too.

I met a lady in the meads
Full beautiful—a faery’s child,
Her hair was long, her foot was light,
And her eyes were wild.

I made a garland for her head,
And bracelets too, and fragrant zone;
She looked at me as she did love,
And made sweet moan.

I set her on my pacing steed,
And nothing else saw all day long,
For sidelong would she bend, and sing
A faery’s song.

She found me roots of relish sweet,
And honey wild, and manna-dew,
And sure in language strange she said—
“I love thee true.”

She took me to her elfin grot,
And there she wept and sighed full sore,
And there I shut her wild wild eyes
With kisses four.

And there she lullèd me asleep,
And there I dreamed—Ah! woe betide!—
The latest dream I ever dreamt
On the cold hill side.

I saw pale kings and princes too,
Pale warriors, death-pale were they all;
They cried—“La Belle Dame sans Merci
Thee hath in thrall!”

I saw their starved lips in the gloam,
With horrid warning gapèd wide,
And I awoke and found me here,
On the cold hill’s side.

And this is why I sojourn here,
Alone and palely loitering,
Though the sedge is withered from the lake,
And no birds sing.

Source: Keats, John. “La Belle Dame sans Merci: A Ballad.” Poetry Foundation. Poetry Foundation, n.d. Web. 24 June 2011.


Which words offer the reader clues as to the time and place of this piece?

A:alone, pale, loitering, warning
B:knight, sedge, woe-begone, steed
C:awoke, sojourn, dream, asleep
D:horrid, starved, anguish, language

Answer 1

B)

Those words are specific to era. we would no longer use them in modern-day. As well, the would "Knight" comes from a very specific time in history.

Answer 2

B) knight, sedge, woe-begone, steed.

The author goes over a "knight at arms" alone, and clearly biting the dust, in a field some place. He asks him what's happening, and the knight's answer takes up whatever is left of the sonnet. The knight says that he met a delightful pixie woman in the fields.

He began spending time with her, making bloom festoons for her, letting her ride on his pony, and by and large being a tease like knights do. At long last, she welcomed him back to her pixie cavern. Sweet, thought the knight.

After they were through kissing, she "hushed" him to rest, and he had a bad dream pretty much every one of the knights and lords and sovereigns that the lady had recently enticed – they were all dead. And after that he woke up, alone, in favor of a slope some place.