The Faults of Love

Love is blind and no matter how pure, its never immortal. Both La Belle Dame Sans Merci and Frankie and Johnny are tragic love poems where one lover dies. However, the circumstances and conditions the two lovers were set upon, as well as the used of descriptive language were drastically different.

Both poems featured a tragic love story with selfish reasons that worsened it. In La Belle Dame, a wandering knight and a beautiful fairy lady were lovers, however the fairy lady had to abandon the wandering knight due to untold reasons. So, the knight was left all alone, wandering through the forest, either awaiting his death or hoping for the fairy lady to come back. At the end of the poem, the reasons for the knight's depression and sickness were revealed: he has fallen victim to betrayal and abandonment. However, the fairy lady was so beautiful and enigmatic, the knight remains captivated and continues to long for her. Although, the fairy lady seems like the classic self-centred, attention-seeking vixen who leads on innocent young men only to desert them in end, if you pay closer attention to how her character was portrayed, there is a lot more to see to her character than it lets on the surface. For instance, throughout the poem she was subtly described to have had a sad, wild eyes, her sighs sorrowful, and her gaze dolorous. We could assume that the fairy lady is as unfortunate as her lovers had been, maybe even worse. We could theorize that the fairy lady is bound and cursed by fate to walked on earth for eternity to fall in love with mortals again and again, only to have to leave them in the end because they grow old while she remains young. While, in the poem Frankie and Johnny, although the setting and the situation is di...

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...very line of the poem, helps to advanced the story. It is also more straightforward and readers could easily see the characters' character through the surface, as well as the author's intentions for writing this poem.

Both La Belle Dame Sans Merci and Frankie and Johnny tells the tale of love, pain, and betrayal, where the main events was stirred up and was worsened due to selfish reasons of one lover. Despite their many differences, such as their setting and circumstances the lovers were situated in, as well as the used of the descriptive language and focus of the poem, they are still two beautiful tragic poems which conveyed the honest feelings of the characters, as well as the messages of the authors. That love is not blind, it actually sees more. But because it sees more, it is willing to see less. This is the kind of love that never surpasses time or death.