La Belle Dame Sans Merci

By John Keats
1795-1821
 La Belle Dame Sans Merci
The Beautiful Lady Without Mercy

What do we understand from the title of the poem?

I. VI. XI.
O WHAT can ail thee, knight-at-arms, I set her on my pacing steed, I saw their starved lips in the gloam,
Alone and palely loitering? And nothing else saw all day long, With horrid warning gaped wide,
The sedge has wither’d from the lake, For sidelong would she bend, and sing And I awoke and found me here,
And no birds sing. A faery’s song. On the cold hill’s side.

II. XII.
O what can ail thee, knight-at-arms! VII. And this is why I sojourn here,
So haggard and so woe-begone? She found me roots of relish sweet, Alone and palely loitering,
The squirrel’s granary is full, And honey wild, and manna dew, Though the sedge is wither’d from the lake,
And the harvest’s done. And sure in language strange she said— And no birds sing.
“I love thee true.”
III.
I see a lily on thy brow VIII.
With anguish moist and fever dew, She took me to her elfin grot,
And on thy cheeks a fading rose And there she wept, and sigh’d fill sore,
Fast withereth too. And there I shut her wild wild eyes
With kisses four.
IV.
I met a lady in the meads, IX.
Full beautiful—a faery’s child, And there she lulled me asleep,
Her hair was long, her foot was light, And there I dream’d—Ah! woe betide!
And her eyes were wild. The latest dream I ever dream’d
On the cold hill’s side.
V.
I made a garland for her head, X.
And bracelets too, and fragrant zone; I saw pale kings and princes too,
She look’d at me as she did love, Pale warriors, death-pale were they all;
And made sweet moan. They cried—“La Belle Dame sans Merci
Hath thee in thrall!”
AO2: Context
La Belle Dame
The title of the poem comes from a 15th century
poem by Alain Chartier, a French poet. It consists
of 100 stanzas of dialogue between a male lover and
the lady he loves (‘l’Amant et la Dame). Their
dialogue is framed by the narrator-poet who is
grieving for his own recently deceased love.

The male lover in this poem is alone on horseback,

driven to wander by Sadness, and robbed of feeling
by Death. The lady eventually refuses to return his
feelings of love.

The beautiful lady without pity is a popular

character in folk tales, classical literature,
Renaissance poetry and medieval ballads. She is a
femme fatale, a siren, a Circe-like figure who
attracts lovers only to destroy them with her
supernatural powers. These are figures without pity
whose function is to entrap.
AO3/AO4: Language and
Imagery/Effect
 This image creates a
Consonance draws our medieval setting
attention to ‘palely’, I.
linking it via internal O WHAT can ail thee, knight-at-arms,
rhyme to ‘ail thee’ Alone and palely loitering?
The sedge has wither’d from the lake,
And no birds sing.
Marsh plants
Sick and depressed
II.
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.

What is the poet saying here?

How does the condition of the trees and lake reflect the condition of the knight?

There are hints of a time of year - what are these? What time of year does it seem
likely do be and why might this be significant?
 A symbol of death; he is pale
III.
I see a lily on thy brow
With anguish moist and fever dew,
And on thy cheeks a fading rose
Fast withereth too. He is dying
The voice shifts
here: the knight
tells his tale IV. A meadow
I met a lady in the meads,
Full beautiful—a faery’s child, Supernatural
Her hair was long, her foot was light,
And her eyes were wild.

Light of foot – graceful or quick and

What is the poet saying here? unpredictable
Wild eyes – supernatural?
What do the three qualities of the lady
suggest?
 A belt of flowers.
V.
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.

VI.
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.
What is the poet saying here?
 Manna = food from
Paradox? Her VII. heaven; God provided
language is She found me roots of relish sweet, this for the Israelites as
strange but he And honey wild, and manna dew, they wandered in the
understands it. And sure in language strange she said— desert after being
“I love thee true.” freed from slavery.
Grotto/cave
VIII. 1. She is supernatural
She took me to her elfin grot, and has access to
And there she wept, and sigh’d full sore, heavenly food
2. This links to the man
And there I shut her wild wild eyes being enslaved by the
With kisses four. lady (this reading is
reinforced by the
‘honey’ – a quality of
the promised land of
What is the poet saying here? the Jews)

We are given no reason for the lady’s weeping. Does this image
suggest there is more to this story?
 A gentle, almost
onomatopoeic word

Repetition IX. Exclamation of

reinforces the And there she lulled me asleep, extreme grief; note
importance of this And there I dream’d —Ah! woe betide! he interrupts
dream – the ‘latest’ The latest dream I ever dream’d himself to utter it
(i.e. last) he will have On the cold hill’s side.
A shift in tone
X.
Repetition of ‘pale’ I saw pale kings and princes too,
echoes ‘dream’ and Pale warriors, death-pale were they all; Consonance links
links the two They cried—“La Belle Dame sans Merci these words,
Hath thee in thrall!” suggesting
cause/effect –
the shared fate of
the knight
What is the poet saying here?
Harsh sound of
What might the ‘pale kings and princes’ represent? their cry – this
wakes him in
the next stanza
 dusk
XI.
Love and I saw their starved lips in the gloam,
illness/death are With horrid warning gaped wide,
linked via this And I awoke and found me here,
‘horrid warning’ On the cold hill’s side.

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

The closing lines are

repeated from stanza
1 but spoken by a
What is the poet saying here? different voice

What is the effect of

this?
Imagery: Flowers
Line 9: Lilies are often associated with death, so the ‘lily’ on the knight’s
‘brow’ (forehead) suggests that he is close to death. Lilies are also pale
white, so reflect the knight’s colour.

Line 11: Roses are associated with love – the knight’s ‘rose’ is ‘fading’ and
‘wither[ing]’. This implies the end of a romantic relationship. It also
describes the knight’s complexion as the ‘rose’ in his cheeks fades.

Lines 17-18: The knight makes a ‘garland’ and ‘bracelet’ of flowers for the
lady. These seem to suggest that he is in love with her, the flowers
representing his regard.
Imagery: Water
Medieval romances often associate women with water; traditionally, men are
weakened by their contact with these women.

Line 3: death and ‘wither[ing]’ are associated with the ‘lake’. It is

worth considering that lakes, unlike rivers, do not flow – they can
stagnate.

Line 10: the knight’s face is ‘moist’ with ‘fever dew’.

Line 26: the knight tells us that the lady fed him ‘manna dew’. It is
unusual for manna to be presented as a liquid; this links to the
‘fever’ that the knight has.
 Form / Structure

https://study.com/academy/lesson/iambic-tetrameter-definition-examples-
quiz.html
I. VI. XI.
O WHAT can ail thee, knight-at-arms, I set her on my pacing steed, I saw their starved lips in the gloam,
Alone and palely loitering? And nothing else saw all day long, With horrid warning gaped wide,
The sedge has wither’d from the lake, For sidelong would she bend, and sing And I awoke and found me here,
And no birds sing. A faery’s song. On the cold hill’s side.

II. XII.
O what can ail thee, knight-at-arms! VII. And this is why I sojourn here,
So haggard and so woe-begone? She found me roots of relish sweet, Alone and palely loitering,
The squirrel’s granary is full, And honey wild, and manna dew, Though the sedge is wither’d from the lake,
And the harvest’s done. And sure in language strange she said— And no birds sing.
“I love thee true.”
III.
I see a lily on thy brow VIII.
With anguish moist and fever dew, She took me to her elfin grot,
And on thy cheeks a fading rose And there she wept, and sigh’d fill sore,
Fast withereth too. And there I shut her wild wild eyes
With kisses four.
IV.
I met a lady in the meads, IX. Can you identify
And there she lulled me asleep,
Full beautiful—a faery’s child,
Her hair was long, her foot was light, And there I dream’d—Ah! woe betide! the rhyme
And her eyes were wild. The latest dream I ever dream’d
On the cold hill’s side.
scheme?
V.
I made a garland for her head, X.
And bracelets too, and fragrant zone; I saw pale kings and princes too,
She look’d at me as she did love, Pale warriors, death-pale were they all;
And made sweet moan. They cried—“La Belle Dame sans Merci
Hath thee in thrall!”
 I.
A O WHAT can ail thee, knight-at-arms,
B Alone and palely loitering?
C The sedge has wither’d from the lake, The simplicity of the
B And no birds sing. poem’s structure
contrast with its
II. complex
A O what can ail thee, knight-at-arms!
B So haggard and so woe-begone?
interpretations.
C The squirrel’s granary is full,
B And the harvest’s done.
Each stanza has three
III. lines of iambic
A I see a lily on thy brow
tetrameter, then a
B With anguish moist and fever dew,
C And on thy cheeks a fading rose fourth dimetric line
B Fast withereth too. (i.e. two feet or
IV.
beats). This gives the
A I met a lady in the meads, ballad a slow, steady
B Full beautiful—a faery’s child, rhythm and ensures
C Her hair was long, her foot was light, that the shorter last
B And her eyes were wild.
lines of each quatrain
V. hurtle us forward to
A I made a garland for her head, the next.
B And bracelets too, and fragrant zone;
C She look’d at me as she did love,
B And made sweet moan.