La Belle Dame sans Merci: A Ballad - By John Keats

La Belle Dame sans Merci: A Ballad

By John Keats

        

            John Keats (31 October 1795 – 23 February 1821) was an English Romantic poet. He was one of the main figures of the second generation of Romantic poets, along with Lord Byron and Percy Bysshe Shelley, despite his works having been in publication for only four years before his death aged 25 in the year 1821. His reputation grew after his death, and by the end of the 19th century, he had become one of the most beloved of all English poets.

          "La Belle Dame sans Merci" (French for "The Beautiful Lady without Mercy") is a ballad written by the English poet John Keats. It exists in two versions, with minor differences between them. The original was written by Keats in 1819. He used the title of the 15th-century "La Belle Dame sans Mercy" by Alain Chartier, though the plots of the two poems are different.

           The poem depicts on a knight an arm, who has been seduced and abandon by capricious fairy. The poem is in the form of dialogues. The poem recounts the experience of loving dangerously and fully and suffering the living death of one who has glimpsed in immortality. At the beginning and end of the poem the knight remains on 'a cold hill's side' waiting for his love to return.

           Some readers maintain that the poem is really about Keats' confused feelings for his fiancée. Others claim that the story is symbolic of the plight of the artist, who is 'fallen in love' with beauty. The conclusion is the same, however self-destructive intense love. May be the lover has a little choice in that matter. The more one entertains feelings of beauty and love, the more desolate and more painful the world becomes.

Analysis

O what can ail thee, knight-at-arms,

Alone and palely loitering?

The sedge has withered from the lake,

And no birds sing.

             The poem opens with a question that an unnamed speaker asked the knight on what is bothering him, as he is aimlessly moving around the lake. Further the speaker says that the Marsh plants around the lake have died out. Suggesting the 'withered' atmosphere, so one can guess that it is probably autumn or even early winter, since all the birds have migrated and the atmosphere is 'cold'.

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.

            The first part of this stanza approaches the first line of the poem word for word. Apparently the knight doesn’t answer immediately, so the unnamed speaker has to repeat the question. This time we get two more adjectives to describe the knight: he is 'haggard' and 'woe-begone' which suggests that the knight is obviously both sick and depressed. The last two lines of stanza do more set the scene, the squirrels have finished feeding up their 'granary', and the crops have already been 'harvested'. This suggests that it is winter as well as autumn.

I see a lily on thy brow,

With anguish moist and fever-dew,

And on thy cheeks a fading rose

Fast withereth too.

             Here the speaker continuous to address the sick and depress knight by asking about a 'lily' on his 'brow' suggesting that the knight is looking in extreme pain. The knight's forehead is sweating with fever showing his sickness and the last two lines describe how he is getting pale.  

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.

              With using "I" this stanza changes the point of view. With using "I" the knight says that he met a beautiful fairy like 'lady' in the 'meads'. She had long hair, was graceful and had 'wild' (naughty) eye, which knight thought to be attractive.

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

             Through this stanza, we get an idea that the knight made a 'garland' for her and he made bracelet too. Fairy looked at him as she loves the knight and she made a 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.

              The knight put the lady on his horse to take ride. The knight so attracted by this fairy that he does not notice anything else all day long. The lady leans sideway and sings fairy songs.

She found me roots of relish sweet,

And honey wild, and manna-dew,

And sure in language strange she said—

‘I love thee true’.

              The knight says that the fairy lady found him tasty roots, honey, and manna to eat. The fairy lady tells the knight that she loves him, but she says it in a strange language, which had a magical influence.

She took me to her Elfin grot,

And there she wept and sighed full sore,

And there I shut her wild wild eyes

With kisses four.

              The fairy lady takes the knight to her 'elfin grot' and there she starts crying loudly and the knight kisses her weepy eyes four times and it is believed that she temporarily stopped crying.

And there she lullèd me asleep,

And there I dreamed—Ah! woe betide!—

The latest dream I ever dreamt

On the cold hill side.

               The fairy lady lulls the knight to sleep and he starts to dream something interrupts himself. In line 34, he had exclaimed 'Ah! Woe betide' because even the memory of the dream is horrible as he reports it to the unnamed speaker.

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!’

                The knight in the stanza describes the dream he had: he saw "kings, princes, warriors" and they all were death pale. Pale word is repeated three times, the pale warriors, pale princes, pale kings all cry out in unison (together) " La belle dame sans merci" and it has the knight in bondage.

I saw their starved lips in the gloam,

With horrid warning gapèd wide,

And I awoke and found me here,

On the cold hill’s side.

              The knight continuous to describe the pale warriors from his dream in the gloom and their mouths are stands as they cry out their warnings to the knight. The knight wakes up from the dram alone the side of hill.

And this is why I sojourn here,

Alone and palely loitering,

Though the sedge is withered from the lake,

And no birds sing.

             The knight has finished his story it tells the speaker the reason for him being here in spite of the fact that it is so dismal outside. The knight repeats the unnamed speaker's words from the first stanza so that the poem ends with almost exactly the same stanza with which it begins.