Student Question

Why does the last stanza in "La Belle Dame sans Merci" echo the first, and what effect does this have?

Quick answer:

The last stanza of "La Belle Dame sans Merci" echoes the first to highlight the knight's self-awareness and the tragic outcome of his encounter with the enchanting fairy. Initially, the knight is questioned about his forlorn state, and by the end, he repeats the description, acknowledging his own isolation and melancholy. This repetition underscores the cyclical nature of his despair and the permanence of his condition, enhancing the poem's haunting and melancholic tone.

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The first three stanzas consist of an extended request to know what's happened to the knight, why he's all alone and "palely loitering" by the withered lake. Clearly there's something up with him, as we soon discover when he recounts the sad tale of how he was enchanted and then abandoned by a beautiful fairy.

The tale stretches out in some detail over the course of eight stanzas. And in the final stanza, the knight echoes the initial request in his answer:

And this is why I sojourn here,
Alone and palely loitering,
Though the sedge is withered from the lake,
And no birds sing.

The knight's repetition of the words in the first stanza emphasizes his self-awareness. No longer under the lady's spell, he realizes the tragic condition in which he now finds himself. Now he sees himself the exact same way that the unnamed speaker of the first three stanzas saw him: as a sad, lonely figure, "palely loitering" by a lake from which the sedge has withered, and where no birds sing.

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