In nineteenth-century English Literature, Lord Byron and John Keats are famous for their Romantic poetry, which often displays a lyrical and mystical connection between humanity and nature, specifically regarding individualism, idealism, and inspiration. The relationship of nature and humanity is often a central theme in Romantic literature with the detriments of society juxtaposed against the sublimity of the natural world. It is this celebration of nature that leads some to suggest that “Romantic poems habitually endow the landscape with human life, passion, and expressiveness” (Greenblatt, 1373). Two such powerful poetical productions concerning this life, passion, and expressiveness are found in Byron’s poem, “She Walks in Beauty,” and Keats’ poem, “La Belle Dame Sans Merci.” These poems have aspects that are quite similar and yet they also diverge in important ways.
Both of these poems focus on the phantasmal beauty of mysterious women who live in some wraithlike plane between real life and dreams, and who find their “haunts” in the natural world, but yet who nevertheless produce a romantic attraction to their male counterparts in these poignant poems. Though these writings and poets share some commonalities such as female beauty, mysterious bonds to nature, and male obsession with beauty, key differences remain that leads these poems to conclude much differently—one positively (Byron), and one negatively (Keats).
In regards to the shared aspect of feminine beauty that is presented by the poets, the two poems are both fixated on women of unusual loveliness and presence in nature. Keeping with Romantic literature style, the beauty of these women parallel the beauty of the world. Byron writes, “She walks in beauty, like the night Of cloudless climes and starry skies” (lines 1-2) and “And on that cheek, and o'er that brow, So soft, so calm, yet eloquent” (lines 13-14). For his own ethereal lady, Keats writes, “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.” (lines 13-16). Byron’s description ironically does not clear up the appearance of his love for it is hard to see at nighttime and shadows often play tricks with the eyes. Similarly, Keats brings in a supernatural notion of fairies, which are considered by most to be mythological creatures of the imagination. So, are these visions of loveliness or delusions of emotion?
This is just the start of the narrators’ details of “reality” for their wraithlike women. Despite this unusualness about their women and their environs, both poets are clearly enamored by these fantastic females (although Keats’ lady may be a femme fatale) and are almost obsessed by their majesty. Byron contemplates his loves’ facial features and states, “Where thoughts serenely sweet express How pure, how dear their dwelling place” (lines 11-12) and describing his own response to his woman’s charms, Keats remarks, “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” (lines 21-24). Their looks are entrancing and the narrators linger to ponder their exquisiteness; in fact, one could easily correlate the intensity of inspiration of these women with the inspiration of their surreal surroundings.
Additionally, as alluded to earlier, both poems share in a mystical landscape wherein reality is unsure and the narrators could be dreaming or they could be in an enchanted scene. Discussing the manifestation of his lady love, Byron writes, “One shade the more, one ray the less, Had half impaired the nameless grace” (lines 7-8). This impairment limits full awareness of what is reality for Byron. Keats also offers his own twist on situational reality when he writes, “She took me to her elfin grot” (line 29). In both poems, the women exist in ghostly (or magical) fashion, although they have deep, emotional and physical connections to their male interests. Yet, for both men, they recognize that their perception of these women could be fictitious or perhaps just in their heads. Perhaps Keats sums it up best when he says, “And there I dream’d—Ah! woe betide! The latest dream I ever dream’d On the cold hill’s side.” (line 34-36).
These poems do, however, take a different turn when it comes to the ultimate consequence of the relationship between the narrators and their women. Like nature, which has positive and negative elements, these women, too, show this range between security and threat. For Byron, his perception and appraisal of the woman is beneficial and complimentary. He concludes his poem with “A heart whose love is innocent!” (line 18). Of his positive relationship, Byron writes earlier, “But tell of days in goodness spent, A mind at peace with all below” (lines 16-17). This romantic relationship brings harmony for the narrator even with the natural world.
For Keats, the liaison he has with his “fairy’s child” (line 14) could be considered more of a curse than a blessing despite the proclamations of love for the narrator by the woman—“She look’d at me as she did love, And made sweet moan” (lines 19-20) and “And sure in language strange she said—I love thee true” (lines 28-29). Yet, this love comes with a steep price. Offering a more somber and sardonic tone, Keats writes, “I saw their starved lips in the gloam, With horrid warning gaped wide, And I awoke and found me here, On the cold hill’s side” (lines 41-44). Keats’ relationship with the woman ends in anxiety and stagnation, which is expressed in the last hopeless lines of this poem—“And this is why I sojourn here, Alone and palely loitering, Though the sedge is wither’d from the lake, And no birds sing” (lines 46-49). This love sees no life echoed in nature, no hope for the future.
“She Walks in Beauty” and “La Belle Dame Sans Merci” are expertly and carefully written by Byron and Keats so as to enlighten the reader regarding the passion and significance of these women in the lives of the narrators, but the passion depicted in each poem also brings the narrators to a different end. For Byron, the love of the narrator for his woman gives him great peace of mind and sets his heart, unfettered in love, soaring. For Keats, the love of the fairy for the narrator brings him only false security and eventually nightmares, producing in him a sense of hopelessness and malaise.
It is reasonable to assume that these Romantic poets saw an easy correlation between human relationships and the dynamic natural state of the world. As with all human relationships, sometimes life in the wild is pleasant, but all too often, it is a cold, lifeless desert. Always, though, nature is full of mystery, passion, and significance—providing ample subjects for the poet and tales of admonition for the reader.
Works Cited
Greenblatt, Stephen, ed., et al. “La Belle Dame Sans Merci.” In The Norton Anthology of English Literature. 8th ed. Vol 2. New York: W. W. Norton & Company, 2006. Print.
________. “She Walks in Beauty.” In The Norton Anthology of English Literature. 8th ed. Vol 2. New York: W. W. Norton & Company, 2006. Print.