Le Bella dame sin merci
...l on the alter for nuns to weave into garments for themselves. We feel there is some kind of secret organization that has existed for untold ages. This adds to the romantic feel of the poem. In the fourteenth stanza the romantic feel is developed further by the use of the words "Thou must hold water in a witches sieve, and be liege-lord of all the Elves and Fays." This entire line is full of wonder and mystery. We should also note that the words "Elves and Fays" are capitalized. This is Keats' way of putting even more emphasis on the mystical idea of elves and fairies. This arouses our feelings of adventure; which is part of romance. The fact that the old crone kept a closed wondrous book of riddles also fortifies the romantic feel of the poem. Firstly, riddles are questions or statements testing ingenuity. This itself is curious enough, but the fact that the book is closed places this statement off the scale. We cannot know the riddles now or ever because the book is closed. The romantic feel of the poem has been augmented. The romantic feel of the poem, "The Eve of Saint Agnes", is enhanced by the use of images of mystery and the unknown. These types of images cause us to think about far away lands, dragons, witches and other magical wonders. Since one of our aims when we read romance is to escape, these images are very effective. in the sense that it is a poem about a woman who dreams of her beloved and...