Keats Schwartz Compare Contrast
...no longer sustain his ‘sugar high’ because his faerie absconded. The narrator in Schwartz’s poem also became addicted to “a world of sugar.” However, his world of sugar includes only the physical aspects of a relationship because of his incapability to control his emotions past this stage. The speaker knows nothing of this sweetness the Knight experienced because his physical appetite limits him so. In Addition to the sweet food, the function of sleep controls both speakers as well. In their sleep, the reality of their lives becomes more vivid to the narrators. In “La Belle Dame,” the knight envisions other knights and warriors in his sleep who warn him, “La belle dame sans merci/Thee hath in thrall.” He acknowledges his loneliness and longs for his sensual peak once more. The speaker in “The Heavy Bear Who Goes with Me,” also comes across death in his sleep. The bear he carries, “Howls in his sleep because the tight-rope/Trembles and shows the darkness beneath.” The reality allows him to discover his faults; however, he cannot fix them because of his intense obsession of physical love. The narrator absolutely hates his paralyzed state, which he believes “inescapable.” Both of the speaker’s experiences intensely quake their emotions. While Keats’s knight longs for his past, lost feeling of ecstasy Schwartz’s narrator longs to be able to transcend the mere physical aspect of the relationship. The most important relation between these two lyrics; however, becomes that of the burden each is forced carried. The knight’s burden of his undying lust for his ex-lover explicates his haggard and miserable state of being. The mysterious faery has a legend of luring people to her cave, and upsetting them emotionally. This emotional distress weighs heavily upon the mind and soul of the knight. Sadly, Schwartz’s speaker’s desperation for lust becomes his burden. His inability to transcend physical temptations, lead him once again into his cycle of feeding his lustful appetite. In due course, he becomes aware of his “inescapable animal” which darkens his mind once more. Since he tells no one else of his sec...