Personally, I believe that the first speaker, or narator is key to the whole poem.
In order to suggest a physical and recognisable identity for this figure, we must first look at the surroundings, and establish to where the poem is actually being set.
Naturally, we must re-read the poem several times, as I am sure John keats intended, in order to raise a logical opinion.
The setting is simple, a cold, lifeless hill. To add to this view of a lifeless plain, we must look at the way the narrator talks:
'no birds sing' and 'squirrels granary is full' suggest that any form of life, apart from the knight and his mysterious companion, is void.
This is an imminant suggestion of death. Perhaps the Knight has joined the Kings in his dream?
The setting and mood seem to reflect this view. Futhermore, if we look at death in a philosophical sense, there are many descriptions which imply that there is a long waiting after death. Certainly in Buddhism, and other religions, [In Catholicism you can look at purgatory] there is a suggestion of a wait before you can conitinue to the afterlife. A widespread analogy is that the existance of ghosts, is down to lost spirits waiting before they can continue the journey of death. This would explain the knight's "paley loitering," aswell as the king's appearances in hid dream.
Therefore, returning to the original topic; the first speaker.
Could this be the very physical form of death? Trying to take the knight onwards, yet the knight remains to "sojourn here."
This would not be a far-fetched guess as to the identity of him/ her.
This idea could be futher strengthened by looking at keat's other work. from looking at "Lamia" for example, we can see that keats loves Classic references, aspiring in Mythology in order to break the "age of reason" which was prodminant at the time.
This, coupled with the idea that romanticism and gothic literature are not far apart, would not be too otulandish to suggest that this theory could be correct.
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