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Question

10:42

What is the purpose of the final four stanzas?
Responses
A It symbolically mirrors the knight’s inner conflict.It symbolically mirrors the knight’s inner conflict.
B The refrain echoes stanza 1, thus providing much needed unity.The refrain echoes stanza 1, thus providing much needed unity.
C It allows the speaker in stanza 1 to return and provide closure.It allows the speaker in stanza 1 to return and provide closure.
D The knight finally answers the question posed in the beginning of the poem.

Feature
La Belle Dame sans Merci
John Keats

'O WHAT can ail thee, knight-at-arms,
Alone and palely loitering?
The sedge is wither'd from the lake,
And no birds sing.

'O what can ail thee, knight-at-arms,5
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;10
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,15
And her eyes were wild.

'I made a garland for her head,
And bracelets too, and fragrant zone;
She look'd at me as she did love,
And made sweet moan.20

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

'She found me roots of relish sweet,25
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 sigh'd fill sore;30
And there I shut her wild, wild eyes
With kisses four.

'And there she lullèd me asleep,
And there I dream'd—Ah! woe betide!
The latest dream I ever dream'd35
On the cold hill's side.

'I saw pale kings and princes too,
Pale warriors, death-pale were they all;
They cried—"La belle Dame sans Merci
Hath thee in thrall!"40

'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 here45
Alone and palely loitering,
Though the sedge is wither'd from the lake,
And no birds sing.'

Answer 1

The final four stanzas of John Keats' poem "La Belle Dame sans Merci" serve multiple purposes, but the most fitting answer among the choices provided is:

D. The knight finally answers the question posed in the beginning of the poem.

In the earlier stanzas, the speaker asks the knight what is troubling him. The last four stanzas reveal the knight's experience with the mysterious lady, his subsequent enchantment, and the curse he now bears, thus providing clarity and resolution to the initial question about his plight.