La Belle Dame sans Merci

Read "One Art" by Elizabeth Bishop, with a complete literary analysis exploring loss, grief, memory, emotional control, repetition, and the villanelle form as the speaker gradually reveals how difficult the supposed art of losing truly becomes.

La Belle Dame sans Merci by John Keats

'O WHAT can ail thee knight-at-arms  
Alone and palely loitering? 
The sedge is wither'd from the lake  
And no birds sing. 

'O what can ail thee knight-at-arms 5 
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; 10 
And on thy cheeks a fading rose 
Fast withereth too.' 

'I met a lady in the meads  
Full beautiful¡ªa faery's child  
Her hair was long her foot was light 15 
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. 20 

'I set her on my pacing steed 
And nothing else saw all day long  
For sideways would she lean and sing 
A faery's song. 

'She found me roots of relish sweet 25 
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 fill sore; 30 
And there I shut her wild wild eyes 
With kisses four. 

'And there she lull¨¨d me asleep  
And there I dream'd¡ªAh! woe betide! 
The latest dream I ever dream'd 35 
On the cold hill's side. 

'I saw pale kings and princes too  
Pale warriors death-pale were they all; 
They cried¡ª"La belle Dame sans Merci 
Hath thee in thrall!" 40 

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

'And this is why I sojourn here 45 
Alone and palely loitering  
Though the sedge is wither'd from the lake  
And no birds sing.' 

Form: Ballad

♡Like0

Share Comments