La belle dame sans merci John Keats

O WHAT can ail thee, knight-at-arms, Alone and palely loitering? The sedge has wither’d from the lake, And no birds sing.

O what can ail thee, knight-at-arms! So haggard and so woe-begone? The squirrel’s granary is full, And the harvest’s done.

I see a lily on thy brow With anguish moist and fever dew, And on thy cheeks a fading rose Fast withereth too.

I met a lady in the meads, Full beautiful—a faery’s child, Her hair was long, her foot was light, And her eyes were wild.

I made a garland for her head, And bracelets too, and fragrant zone; She look’d at me as she did love, And made sweet moan.

I set her on my pacing steed, And nothing else saw all day long, For sidelong would she bend, and sing A faery’s song.

She found me roots of relish sweet, And honey wild, and manna dew, And sure in language strange she said— “I love thee true.”

She took me to her elfin grot, And there she wept, and sigh’d fill sore, And there I shut her wild wild eyes With kisses four.

And there she lulled me asleep, And there I dream’d—Ah! woe betide! The latest dream I ever dream’d On the cold hill’s side.

I saw pale kings and princes too, Pale warriors, death-pale were they all; They cried—“La Belle Dame sans Merci Hath thee in thrall!”

I saw their starved lips in the gloam, With horrid warning gaped wide, And I awoke and found me here, On the cold hill’s side.

And this is why I sojourn here, Alone and palely loitering, Though the sedge is wither’d from the lake, And no birds sing.

Context This poem was written towards the end of his life after his brother had died of tuberculosis, but before he discovered he had it too. How could the death of his brother have reflected on this poem? What love interest of Keat’s could the Belle Dame perhaps personify?

Meaning What initial ideas do you have about the meaning?

Meaning The poem is divided between the voice of a knight: ‘O WHAT can ail thee, knight-at-arms’ and who seems to be a passerby. The passerby asks the knights what is wrong, and the knight describes his troubled encounter with a beautiful lady.

The knight says that the woman ‘lulled him to sleep’ The knight says that the woman ‘lulled him to sleep’. What could we interpret from this?

I saw pale kings and princes too, Pale warriors, death-pale were they all; They cried—“La Belle Dame sans Merci Hath thee in thrall!” As the Knights sleep he has a terrible dream of kings and princes who visit him as ghosts. Who could these men be?

Form The poet is a ballad, characterised by the narrative style and the short stanzas. The ballad is a medieval genre revived at the time Keats as writing, relating to the Romantic tradition to look back at medieval literature and style for inspiration.

More on form The use of quite simple language is also reflective of the ballad genre, and also the Romantic’s hope that their poetry would be accessible for all, as a rebellion against the ‘high-brow’, overly-complex poetry that they grew up with. A02 A04

Structure No set rhythm nor rhyme scheme, so it is arguably free verse. However, many of the lines do follow an iambic rhythm e.g. ‘Alone and palely loitering’ and have eight syllables (iambic petrameter). Other lines contain dimeter (four syllables with two feet) e.g. ‘And no birds sing’.

More on structure As the poem both starts and ends with a variation of a description of the bleak landscape: ‘And this is why I sojourn here, Alone and palely loitering, Though the sedge is wither’d from the lake, And no birds sing.’ one could argue that it has a cyclical nature. This could relate to the Knight’s obsession, or his entrappment (physical or mental) because of la belle dame. Alternatively, it could relate to the cyclical nature of the seasons and the recurrent references to winter.

Language I see a lily on thy brow With anguish moist and fever dew, And on thy cheeks a fading rose Fast withereth too. The poem contains much rich natural imagery, particularly the third stanza. What could the ‘lily’ and the ‘rose’ be referencing?

Themes The dangers of obsession and infautuation Unrequited love Illness and death

Knowing the context of when the poem was written, what could the Belle Dame represent on a deeper level?

Art inspired by the poem