LA+BELLE+DAME+SANS+MERCI

LA BELLE DAME SANS MERCI **//by: John Keats (1795-1821) //**                H, what can ail thee, wretched wight, Alone and palely loitering? The sedge is wither'd from the lake, And no birds sing.  Ah, what can ail thee, wretched wight, So haggard and so woe-begone? The squirrel's granary is full, And the harvest's done.  <span style="color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 13.5pt;">I see a lily on thy brow, <span style="color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 13.5pt;">With anguish moist and fever dew; <span style="color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 13.5pt;">And on thy cheek a fading rose <span style="color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 13.5pt;">Fast withereth too. <span style="color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 13.5pt;"> <span style="color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 13.5pt;">I med a lady in the meads <span style="color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 13.5pt;">Full beautiful, a faery's child; <span style="color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 13.5pt;">Her hair was long, her foot was light, <span style="color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 13.5pt;">And her eyes were wild. <span style="color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 13.5pt;"> <span style="color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 13.5pt;">I set her on my pacing steed, <span style="color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 13.5pt;">And nothing else saw all day long; <span style="color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 13.5pt;">For sideways would she lean, and sing <span style="color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 13.5pt;">A faery's song. <span style="color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 13.5pt;"> <span style="color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 13.5pt;">I made a garland for her head, <span style="color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 13.5pt;">And bracelets too, and fragrant zone; <span style="color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 13.5pt;">She look'd at me as she did love, <span style="color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 13.5pt;">And made sweet moan. <span style="color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 13.5pt;"> <span style="color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 13.5pt;">She found me roots of relish sweet, <span style="color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 13.5pt;">And honey wild, and manna dew; <span style="color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 13.5pt;">And sure in language strange she said, <span style="color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 13.5pt;">'I love thee true.' <span style="color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 13.5pt;"> <span style="color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 13.5pt;">She took me to her elfin grot, <span style="color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 13.5pt;">And there she gazed, and sighed deep, <span style="color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 13.5pt;">And there I shut her wild, wild eyes-- <span style="color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 13.5pt;">So kiss'd to sleep. <span style="color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 13.5pt;"> <span style="color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 13.5pt;">And there we slumber'd on the moss, <span style="color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 13.5pt;">And there I dream'd, ah! woe betide! <span style="color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 13.5pt;">The latest dream I ever dream'd  <span style="color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 13.5pt;">On the cold hill side. <span style="color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 13.5pt;"> <span style="color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 13.5pt;">I saw pale kings, and princes too, <span style="color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 13.5pt;">Pale warriors, death-pale were they all; <span style="color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 13.5pt;">Who cry'd -- 'La Belle Dame sans Merci, <span style="color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 13.5pt;">Hath thee in thrall!' <span style="color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 13.5pt;"> <span style="color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 13.5pt;">I saw their starved lips in the gloam, <span style="color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 13.5pt;">With horrid warning gapèd wide, <span style="color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 13.5pt;">And I awoke, and found me here <span style="color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 13.5pt;">On the cold hill side. <span style="color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 13.5pt;"> <span style="color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 13.5pt;">And this is why I sojourn here <span style="color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 13.5pt;">Alone and palely loitering, <span style="color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 13.5pt;">Though the sedge is wither'd from the lake, <span style="color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 13.5pt;">And no birds sing.


 * SUMMARY **

“La Belle Dame Sans Merci” is one of the finest ballads in the English language. A ballad is a simple song of several stanzas sung to the same melody. It usually narrates a popular story and has a refrain-line or lines repeated in the poem. This ballad is based on the popular story of a beautiful lady without mercy. Keats introduces the medieval theme of a gallant knight and a lady in need. Simultaneously he gives to the story a fairytale atmosphere to express the plot of the ballad. The theme of the poem seems to be the danger of succumbing to false sensuous charms. The knight had returned to the forlorn and beautiful lady in the meadow. He placed her on his horse and went to her ‘faery’ abode. There he was lulled asleep and in his dream he came to realize the true nature of the lady who was described by her victims as the beautiful lady without mercy. When he woke up the lady had gone and he found himself abandoned and disillusioned. Cruelty might lurk behind a woman’s physical beauty and gestures of love. The sedge, a marsh plant resembling coarse grass has already died out in course of season, from the banks of the lake and the songs of birds are heard no more. The cold of the winter is already at hand. The knight has grown thin and his face is filled with dark marks around his eyes because he is ill and tired. The squirrel has completed the harvest of food gathering and his granary is full. The lady says that she sees an abnormal whiteness on the knight’s forehead and beads of perspiration from extreme pain. The presence of blood seems to fade away from his cheeks and his body is withering fast. Indeed the knight meets the lady in the meadow. She is as beautiful as a fairy’s child. Her eyes are bright as wild fire, her hair is long and she can move swiftly with her feet. So he made a beautiful garland for her to wear on her head, a bracelet and a waist made of fragrant flowers. She looked at him and demonstrated her love for him. She makes a sweet moan to show that she is unhappy so he mounts her on his horseback. All day long they rode together to the wild country-side. She sang a fairy’s song all the way and he did not realize how time had passed. The lady gave the knight some eatable wild roots along with some wild honey and manna- the miracle food (the substance miraculously supplied as food to Israelites in the wilderness-Exodus 16). Then she finally declares how truly she loves him. He was captivated by her love. She took him to her mysterious and magical home. There she wept and sighed profusely, so he kissed her passionately till she broke down into a deep sleep. He too fell into the deep slumber and there it happened where he dreamt the strangest dream in all his life. In his dream, he saw kings, young princess and warriors, all had the same kind of faces which appears death pale in colour. They all cried out in his dream that the lady is without mercy and has held him in eternal bondage. The knight saw that their lips were starving in the evening twilight. They showed a horrified look with their mouths open wide. Then he woke up and found himself in the middle of nowhere on the cold hill-side. No wonder he is here alone and wandering aimlessly in the cold of winter where the sedge has withered and no bird sings.