Author Question: How many speakers are there? Where does the change of speaker occur? What will be an ideal ... (Read 85 times)

urbanoutfitters · **on:** Jul 20, 2018

How many speakers are there? Where does the change of speaker occur?

What will be an ideal response?

Question 2

What time of year is suggested by the details of the first two stanzas? Whatis the significance of the season in the larger context of the poem?

What will be an ideal response?

TDubDCFL · **Reply #1 on:** Jul 20, 2018

Answer to Question 1

The first three stanzas are spoken by an unidentified interlocutor who observes the emotionally broken, idly wandering knight. The rest of the poem is the knights response to the first speakers repeated question, O what can ail thee, knight at arms?

Answer to Question 2

The season is clearly autumn, a time traditionally depicted as one of melancholy and decline. This mood is wholly consistent with the emotional enervation of the enthralled and abandoned knight at arms. (Some have seen an autobiographical dimension in this melancholy and decline, speculating that Keats used the myth of the succubus-like fairy creature who enchants and seduces men, only to cast them aside, as a way of expressing his complex feelings toward his fiance, Fanny Brawne. The historical record, however, shows her to have been an intelligent young woman who reciprocated the depth and tenderness of his love, a far cry from the shallow and heartless flirt of legend toying with the affections of the tormented, dying poet. Their relationship is movingly portrayed in Jane Campions 2009 film Bright Star.)