La Belle Dame Sans Merci

by John Keats

 

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 lilly on the thy brow,
   With anguish moist and fever dew,
And on thy cheek 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 full 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 dreamt
   On the cold hill side.
 
I saw pale Kings, and Princes too,
   Pale warriors, death-pale were they all ;
They cried ‘La belle Dame sans merci
   Thee hath in thrall.’
 
I saw their starv’d 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 withered from the Lake,
   And no birds sing.
 
John Keats | Classic Poems
 

[ La Belle Dame Sans Merci ] Ode to a Nightingale ] Ode on a Grecian Urn ] Ode on Indolence ] Ode to Psyche ] Ode on Melancholy ] Ode to autumn ]

 

 


 

 

 
 
 
 

 Poems by Cameron Self | About Us | Contact Us Advertise on PG

© Cameron Self 2003-2014.  All rights reserved.                                                                                                                                  Hosted by UK Web.Solutions Direct