La Belle Dame Sans Merci

John Keats

The title

La Belle Dame Sans Merci = The Beautiful Lady Without Mercy

Form of the poem

Ballad

The folk ballad, which usually tells a basic story of love or pain, is known for its simple language and minimal details.

Ballads are written in four line stanzas, and often the second and fourth lines rhyme.

StructureThe poem can be divided into two parts.

The first part: from stanza one to three. The questions of the stranger to the knight. The work of the first three stanzas is to make the symbols a living part of that reality; in other words, there suggests a connection between men and nature.

The second part: from stanza four to twelve.The knight’s reply to the stranger.From stanza 4-12, there is nine precisely balanced stanzas containing the main narrative. The progress of the knight in the first four stanzas (4-7) comes to the central one (8) when he is taken into the elfin grot, and in the last four stanzas (9-12), he withdraws from the grot.

Translating the text…O what can ail thee, knight-at-arms,Alone and palely loitering?The sedge has withered 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 roseFast witherth 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 looked at me as she did loveAnd made sweet moan.

"I set her on my pacing steed,And nothing else saw all day long;For sidelong would she bend, and singA faery's song.

What is troubling you, knight-at-arms,All alone and waiting about?The grass has died off around the lakeAnd the birds don't sing.

What is troubling you, knight-at-arms,So tired and immersed in sorrow?The squirrel’s storehouse is fullAnd the harvest’s over.

You are as pale as a lily flowerAnd sweating, as if you suffer from illness,And on your cheeks the blush of lifeQuickly fades away.

“I met a lady in the meadow,As beautiful as a faery’s child,With long hair, a dancer's stepAnd wild eyes.

“I made a crown of flowers for her hair,Bracelets, and a belt of flowersShe looked at me as if she loved [me]And gave a soft moan.

“I set her on my restless horseAnd my mind was consumed by her presenceFor sideways she would bend and singThe song of a faery.

Translating the text…"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 sighed full sore,And there I shut her wild, wild eyes,With kisses four.

"And there she lullèd me asleep,And there I dreamed- ah! woe betide!-The latest dream I ever dreamedOn 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 MerciHath thee in thrall!'

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

"And this is why I sojourn hereAlone and palely loitering,Though the sedge is withered from the lake,And no birds sing."

“She found me sweet relish rootsAnd wild honey, and the hardened, sugary sap of certain trees,And surely, in a foreign language she said‘I love you truly.'

“She took me to her faery grottoAnd there she wept and sighed strongly,And there I put her gently to sleepWith four kisses.

“And there she calmed me to sleepAnd then I dreamed- and suffering befalls!The last dream I ever dreamedOn the cold side of the hill.

“I saw pale kings, and princes as well,And pale warriors, all ghostlike and deathly,They cried- ‘The beautiful lady without pityHas enslaved you!’

“I saw their perishing lips in the gloomGaped wide with horrid warning,And I woke up, and found myself here,On the cold side of the hill.

“And this is why I linger here,All alone and waiting about,Though the grass has died off around the lakeAnd the birds don't sing.”

Stanzas 1-3O what can ail thee, knight-at-arms,Alone and palely loitering?The sedge has withered 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 roseFast witherth too.

The knight’s haggard look is shown by the questioner’s asking and description.

The knight is in an infertile spot, where the reed has become lifeless; however, the squirrel’s winter storage is full and the harvest has been completed. Here contrasts two views of life.

Lily means paleness and fading rose implies the knight’s pang. Moist and dew both show the anguish which the knight suffers. all the nouns can make us imagine the knight’s haggard look.

The first two stanzas have identical patterns: the first half of each addresses a question to the knight-at-arms about his spiritual

condition; and the second half comments on the natural setting.

Speaker:In the first three stanzas, the speaker is the questioner(narrator) with a concerning tone. He is a stranger, we don’t know his age, sex…

Stanzas 4-6

"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 looked at me as she did loveAnd made sweet moan.

"I set her on my pacing steed,And nothing else saw all day long;For sidelong would she bend, and singA faery's song.

Wildness of eyes is not usually used to describe a lady. It seems that the lady has some mysterious power to charm men, especially by her wild eyes.

Stanza 4 to stanza 12.Speaker: the knight

To emphasize the knight’s surprising meeting, Keats uses the magical words to describe what happened.

Romantic gestures

Stanzas 7-9"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 sighed full sore,And there I shut her wild, wild eyes,With kisses four.

"And there she lullèd me asleep,And there I dreamed- ah! woe betide!-The latest dream I ever dreamedOn the cold hill's side.

When we shed tears, we show sorrowful or joyful looks, but we do not usually have wildness in our eyes. This kind of expression in her eyes is not like a human being, so the lady is thought to be a non-mortal.

He was powerless.

Implies the sinister reality which the knight faces. Supported by idea that hills are often where the fairies and elves live.

Her romantic gestures in return.

Stanzas 10-12"I saw pale kings, and princes too,Pale warriors, death-pale were they all:They cried- "La Belle Dame sans MerciHath thee in thrall!'

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

"And this is why I sojourn hereAlone and palely loitering,Though the sedge is withered from the lake,And no birds sing."

The kings’ and princes’ starved appearances seem to predict how dreadful and miserable the knight’s future will be.

The completion of a circular movement is marked by the fact that the last stanza echoes the first stanza and answers the stranger’s questions in the introductory three stanzas and brings the poem round full circle, so that the final stanza may be an approximate repetition of the first.

Implies he will be there for some time.

Themes of the poem

• A magical experience (supernatural).• A mood of

enchantment.• A quest or journey.• A love affair.• Loneliness.

“La Belle Dame sans Merci”

Love:• dangers of love • danger signs at the start of relationships• unrequited love

• embarrassment, frustration

• losing oneself in love, loss of control• despair – emotionally crippled• shock of sudden end• after this love is gone – now what?

• can’t go back once been there

• supernatural?