I.
Ah, what can ail thee, wretched wight,
Alone and palely loitering?
The sedge is withered from the lake,
And no birds sing.
2.
Ah, what can ail thee, wretched wight,
So haggard and so woe-begone
The squirrel's granary is full,
And the harvest's done.
3.
I see a lily on thy brow
With anguish moist and fever dew,
And on thy cheek a fading rose
Fast withereth too.
4.
I met a lady in the meads,
Full beautiful, a faery's child:
Her hair was long, her foot was ligh,
And her eyes were wild.
5.
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.
6.
I made a garland for her head,
And bracelets too, and fragrant zone;
She looked at me as she did love,
And made sweet moan.
7.
She found me roots of relish sweet,
And honey wild, and manna dew,
And sure in language strange she said,
"I love thee true!"
8.
She took me to her elfin grot,
And there she gazed and sighed deep,
And there I shut her wild, sad eyes—-
So kissed to sleep.
9.
And there we slumbered on the moss,
And there I dreamed, ah! woe betide,
The latest dream I ever dreamed
On the cold hill side.
10.
I saw pale kings, and princes too,
Pale warriors, death-pale were they all;
Who cried—-"La belle Dame sans merci
Hath thee in thrall!"
11.
I saw their starved lips in the gloam,
With horrid warning gaped wide,
And I awoke and found me here,
On the cold hill side.
12.
And that is why I sojourn here,
Alone and palely loitering,
Though the sedge is withered from the lake,
And no birds sing.
Notes
'This poem was first published by Leigh Hunt in The Indicator for the 10th of May 1820 (No. XXXI), with some introductory remarks. The signature used by Keats on this occasion, as on that of issuing the Sonnet On A Dream was "Caviare." In 1848 Lord Houghton gave the poem among the Literary Remains, apparently from a manuscript source, for the variations are very considerable. I think there can be no doubt that The Indicator version is a revision of the other. ...In one of the late Gabriel Rossetti's letters he characterizes this poem as "the wondrous Belle Dame sans Merci." I haveno positive information as to the date at which it was composed; but I am fain to regard it as a crowning essay in perfect imaginative utterance, written between the poet's partial recovery and his departure to seek health and find a grave in Italy.'
~ Poetical Works of John Keats, ed. H. Buxton Forman, Crowell publ. 1895.
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The version printed here is not the one generally considered to be his greatest: it is the one that resulted from Leigh Hunt's rather ham-fisted editing. I love the version that reads "O what can ail thee, knight at arms/Alone and palely loitering" etc. It is significantly different and has a fairy wistfulness. I was disappointed to read this version here. Perhaps you should show both and let others comment as to which they prefer. Again, so far as I am aware, the version I quote is generally considered to be the superior one.
MOD MESSAGE:
For Original version of the poem please click;
http://oldpoetry.com/opoem/show/129600-John-Keats-La-Belle-Dame-Sans-Merci--Original-version-- -
superb
From guest Ajay (contact)
keats had proved himself the most romantic poet and for god he had lived some more years, the world would have got many more wonderful poems and he could have become the world's most renowned poet atop wordsworth and colleridge. -
this is one of my favorite from Keats. this is one of the poems for which people sometimes underestimate Keats to be "melancholic". perhaps he was, but he always touched his emotions and came to terms with them. he is perhaps a melancholic but never the escapist that most people like to call him.
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Stunning. Keats never ceases to amaze me.
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original version
Original version of La Belle Dame Sans Merci, 1819
Oh what can ail thee, knight-at-arms,
Alone and palely loitering?
The sedge has withered from the lake,
And no birds sing....
For Complete poem please visit the page...
http://englishhistory.net/keats/poetry/labelledamesansmerci.html
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john keats
From guest ayesha (contact)
i love this poem it is very beautiful specially the words used for death -
This is an amazing poem which tells us a strange story about a man who has after having met a beautifull woman lost all charm in life.this is plain enough and it happens in almost every love poem.But this is beautiful woman who is creul with a difference.She is cruel because she appears in his life only for a few moments and then she is seen no more.Is she real?It will be interesting to compare the mood of the Knight before and after his meeting with the creul woman.
one view is that la belle dame is not a woman at all she stands for love and death.la belle dame is both spring and autumn.
still another view is that she is life and the two stages shown in the poem are youth and old age.Life is always on the move.That is how life becomes cruel as well as beautiful.
The poem is infact about the knight and not about the cruel beautiful woman.It will be interesting to note that stanza 5 to 8 aim at lulling the knight asleep after giving him the strange food to dream of the truth and to awaken up to find himself in a withered everyday world for ever cut off from it.The knight has infact come out of his dream-paradise to find himself in the solitary hell of common life.
I made a garland for her head,
And bracelets too, and fragrant zone;
She looked at me as she did love,
And made sweet moan.
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 gazed and sighed deep,
And there I shut her wild, sad eyes---
So kissed to sleep.
And there we slumbered on the moss,
And there I dreamed, ah! woe betide,
The latest dream I ever dreamed
On the cold hill side.
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