La Belle Dame sans Merci and Imagination

In Keats’ “La Belle Dame sans Merci,” the theme of unrequited love is in the forefront of this poem. The knight meets this “faery” and is essentially lulled to sleep by her. She then leaves him on the hillside and he is left waiting in agony because he has fallen in love with her. It is interesting that we, as readers, only see this “faery” through the eyes of a knight, and furthermore through this anonymous narrator. Keats choice in language that is associated with the faery, such as “elfin grot” suggests a fantastical imaginative element, but also suggests that it is impossible for them to be together, which is perhaps why she left the knight on the hillside. There is only so long that someone can live in a land of imagination and this is potentially what Keats is warning against.