In the early 19th century, the industrial revolution provoked a return to medievalism by the poets and painters of the age. They wrote about the medieval world as idyllic and harmonious - a contrast to their own turbulent century. Although these two poems aren't entirely idyllic, they are set in the medieval age, and use many similar ideas. Focus was on stories of courtly love, chivalry and tragedy. The two poems I will be comparing are 'Mariana' by Alfred Lord Tennyson (1809 - 1892) and 'La Belle Dame Sans Merci', by John Keats (1795 - 1821). They tell of love and loss and explore the realm of unrequited love, but in very different ways. Tennyson's 'Mariana' was a character taken from Shakespeare's 'Measure for Measure'. She is a young woman, deserted by her lover and left in a 'lonely moated grange'. The Poem consists of seven 12-line stanzas; the last four lines of each stanza are always the same, with a slight variation in the last stanza. Thus, one t!

hird of the poem consists of a repetition of the last four lines. A lament for Mariana's lost love. 'She only said, 'My life is dreary, He cometh not' she said; She said 'I am aweary

id mark, the level waste'. It is, though run down, the only life in 'the wilderness', and thus again mimics Mariana's own state. The popular imagery is also used later on in the poem. It's shadow falls 'upon her bed, across her brow', this could be interpreted as a shadow falling over her - she is 'overcast' with gloom or despair - or as a sexual metaphor. Mariana's captivity seems not quite part of this world, the real world. She lives 'within the dreamy house' - her cell. Tennyson, at one point describes the winds as being 'bound within their cell', implying that, as she has her cell, so the winds do too. Mariana is often attended by the wind. Described as the 'wooing wind' it mocks her, being the only thing that woos her. Like Angelo - her lover, its presence is felt, and yet it is invisible. She is haunted by old memories and ghosts -'Old faces glimmered through the doors, Old footsteps trod the upper floors,

Mariana, as we know nothing about her. Her emotions are represented by the landscape in which she is placed.

Old voices called her from without' One is reminded of the ghost-like, omniscient narrator. He knows everything about Mariana's past, her future, and her feelings and emotions. He 'gets inside her head' and uses visual imagery to portray what he finds there. Everything '[confounds] her sense', and so, when the sun too, deserts her, and retreats toward his 'western bower' (a classic medievalist term for the sunset, or evening). She feels even more desolate and the last four lines sound more definite and forlorn. In the last line, she sounds desperate and is blasphemous. She asks God to kill her. This would be outrageous in those days, when suicide was a crime. 'Then, said she, 'I am very dreary, He will not come,' she said She wept 'I am aweary, aweary, Oh God, that I were dead!' In this poem, the omniscient narrator focuses on representations of intense emotions rather than on the character or personality that experiences the emotions - Mariana. We do not feel for!

, aweary, I would that I were dead!'' Tennyson often uses repetition in this poem, not only in order to re-enforce the feelings and emotions of Mariana, as he does above, but also on a smaller scale, in order to make a visual image clearer and stronger. He describes the 'glooming flats' as ' the level waste, the rounding grey', forcing the reader to acknowledge, that the gloomy, 'dreary' landscape echoes the dreary life that she is living. In his description of Mariana's surroundings, Tennyson uses the exterior setting, to communicate Mariana's inner self - to describe her life. This is a Victorian device, called a paysage interieur, the creation of an interior landscape. Alfred Lord Tennyson was one of the most exceptional word painters of the nineteenth century. This is blatantly obvio!

hors - 'fever dew' to describe his sweat - and terms like 'a lily on thy brow' and 'a fading rose' to describe his pale, faded countenance. The natural imagery associated with the knight is decaying, along with the landscape. We are told that it is winter - the 'squirrels granary is full, and the harvest's done.' - and that the vegetation is retreating - the 'sedge has withered from the lake, and no birds sing'.  The lady the knight describes however, is not associated with autumn and decay, but with flowers and fruitfulness. The knight makes 'a garland for her head, and bracelets too' and the lady in return finds him 'roots of relish sweet, and honey wild and manna dew'.  The knight relates how he 'met a lady in the meads' and tells us how beautiful she was. In fact, he describes her as a 'faery's child' - ironic as she does i

Some common words found in the essay are:
Belle Dame, Lord Tennyson, Middle Ages, John Keats, Beautiful Lady, Medieval Style, Tennyson's Mariana, Oh God, dame sans, Merci Hath, belle dame sans, natural imagery, belle dame, poem consists, , moated grange', sweet honey wild, sans merci', john keats, 1795 1821, waste rounding grey', emotions mariana, level waste rounding, honey wild manna, feelings emotions,
Approximate Word count = 2471
Approximate Pages = 10 (250 words per page double spaced)