Speaker or Narrator, and Point of View
a first-person speaker addressing a knight on the road
Form and Meter
Ballad with quatrains following an ABCB rhyme pattern and iambic tetrameter
Metaphors and Similes
The metaphor of the lily upon the knight's brow and the fading rose color of his cheeks describes the knight's complexion while juxtaposing symbols of purity and eros.
Alliteration and Assonance
"She found me roots of relish sweet"
Repetition of 's' and 'r'
"For sidelong would she bend, and sing a faery’s song."
Repetition of 'f' and 's'
"wept and sighed full sore, and there I shut her wild wild eyes with kisses four"
Repetition of 'w,' 'f,' and 's'
Irony
The knight believed that the woman genuinely reciprocated his love and desire, but we know from the poem's tone and atmosphere that this is untrue.
Genre
Romanticism
Setting
A chilly hillside
Tone
cold and foreboding
Protagonist and Antagonist
The knight and speaker are the protagonists; the woman is the antagonist
Major Conflict
There are two major conflicts in the poem: the tension between eros and purity, and between the pale, weary men and the enchanting woman in the woods.
Climax
The climax occurs during the knight's dream, when we learn that many others have fallen under the woman's spell.
Foreshadowing
By beginning with a question, "O what can ail thee, knight-at-arms," Keats foreshadows the conflict the knight faced in the woods.
Understatement
Allusions
Keats alludes to medieval verse through the speaker's vision. The characters of knights, faerys, kings, and princes also look back to the poetry of this time-period.
