Comparisism of La Belle Dame Sans Merci to Lord Rendal

There are times when a situation may seem to be true love, but will soon turn out to be nothing of the sort. This is exemplified by the ballads “Lord Rendal” and “La Belle Dame Sans Merci”. The two poems share a similar theme about love. Both poems express the effects that a woman can have on a man in a relationship. They suggest that love can start off as this incredible feeling of warmth and happiness, but can quickly turn deceitful and untrue. The male in each poem is in a state of misery as a result of abandonment and betrayal by a woman. Although the themes are related in a number of ways, each poem takes a different approach. “La Belle Dame Sans Merci” conveys this theme through a knight, who explains his story of falling in love with a woman in the forest. He speaks of her beauty and how her actions convinced him that she, too, was in love. Then suddenly he finds himself alone, abandoned, on a cold hill side and the beautiful woman was nowhere to be found. ...