Keats was fascinated by the colour and pageantry, the magic and witchcraft, the tales of love, Venture and chivalry of the middle Ages. More specially, it is in the Eve of St. Agnes, The Eve of St. Mark, Isabella and La Belle Dame Sans Merci, that the various aspects of medieval have been vividly portrayed.
The Eve of St. Agnes takes us to a feudal mansion, a chief I component of Middle Ages, and we get a vivid account of medieval pomp, colour and pageantry. Keats strikes a medieval note when he refers a kind of superstition in The Eve of St. Agnes.
The weird and uncanny atmosphere of the middle Ages is often evoked by the use of suggestive words and images. La Belle Dame sans Merci creates the medieval atmosphere in an equally suggestive manner.
In Lamia the poet has re-created all the horror and mystery, as well as the charm and fascination, connected with the serpent-women whose existence was once a matter of popular belief. La Belle Dame sans Merci suggests the charm of chivalry, love and romance, as well as the magic and mystery of medieval life. The ballad, from first to last, is steeped in medieval atmosphere.
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The revival of old meters formed an essential part of the medievalisation movement. Keats discarded the heroic couplet and experimented with a number of old meters. In La Belle ballad meter and the ballad manner have been used with great effect. Spencer was his best love and in The Eve of St. Agnes he has used the Spenserian stanza with great effect. Its music and melody recalls the music of “The Faerie Queen”, and its leisurely peace, the leisurely course of life in the middle Ages.