La Belle Dame sans Merci

La Belle Dame sans Merci

     "La Belle Dame sans Merci" ("The Beautiful Lady Without Mercy") is a ballad written by the English poet John Keats in 1819. The title was derived from the title of a 15th-century poem by Alain Chartier called La Belle Dame sans Mercy. "La Belle Dame sans Merci" means "The Beautiful Lady Without Mercy".

       This poem is Considered an English classic, the poem is an example of Keats' poetic preoccupation with love and death. The poem is about a fairy who condemns a knight to an unpleasant fate after she seduces him with her eyes and singing. The fairy inspired several artists to paint images that became early examples of 19th-century femme fatale iconography. The poem continues to be referenced in many works of literature, music, art, and film.



Ah, what can ail thee, wretched wight,
    Alone and palely loitering;
The sedge is wither'd from the lake,
    And no birds sing.
...
I met a Lady in the meads
    Full beautiful, a fairy's child;
Her hair was long, her foot was light,
    And her eyes were wild.
...
She took me to her elfin grot,
    And there she gaz'd and sighed deep,
And there I shut her wild sad eyes—
    So kiss'd to sleep.

And there we slumber'd on the moss
    And there I dream'd, ah woe betide,
The latest dream I ever dream'd
    On the cold hill side.

I saw pale kings, and princes too,
    Pale warriors, death-pale were they all;
Who cry'd—"La belle Dame sans mercy
    Hath thee in thrall!"

I saw their starv'd lips in the gloom
    With horrid warning gaped wide,
And I awoke, and found me here
    On the cold hill 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


        This poem divided into 12 stanza. This poem rhymes is  A, B, C, D.  The speaker meets a knight by a lake in autumn. The poem with its mysterious narrative and ethereal atmosphere, combines innocence and seduction in an unusual ballad form to produce a haunting story. The knight narrates his suffering by saying that, he met a beautiful wild looking woman in the meadow. He spent a lot of time with her and graced with her flower.

   In the stanza first opens with a question where an unnamed speaker asked the knight because some things is clearly wrong with the knight, as he is loitering around the lake and looking very pale. The speaker says that why is he moving around in the season of Autumn. 

      
        The second stanza repeated the action of the 1st line of first stanza. Apparently the knight is not in a position to answer. Immediately moving further we can say that it is late autumn as the squirrels filled up there greenary and the crops have already being harvested. In the third stanza the speaker is still addressing the knight and and asks the reason behind the growing tension and a paled face. 

     in the second stanza there is a change in a narrator as a all of of a sudden. The knight starts answering. He met a beautiful lady with long hair, wild eyes and she was extremely attractive. In the fifth stanza the knight made a flower garland along with the bracelets and a belt, made of flowers. In the sixth stanza the knight puts the lady on his horse and does not see anything else. 

  

     The reading this poem we can come to know that poet explores his extremes of emotion. The poet records no reply to the dying knight and leaves us with the many questions.

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