La Belle Dame Sans Merci
La Belle Dame sans Merci
John Keats
O what can ail thee, knight-at-arms, “
Alone and palely loitering?
The sedge has withered from the lake,
And no birds sing.
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.
I see a lily on thy brow, “
With anguish moist and fever-dew,
And on thy cheeks a fading rose
Fast withereth too.
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.
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.
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 wept and sighed full sore,
And there I shut her wild, wild eyes
With kisses four.
And there she lulled me asleep, “
And there I dreamed—Ah! woe betide!
.00]The latest dream I ever dreamt
On the cold hill side.
I saw pale kings and princes too, “
Pale warriors, death-pale were they all;
They cried—‘La Belle Dame sans Merci
Hath thee in thrall!’
I saw their starved lips in the gloam, “
With horrid warning gaped wide,
And I awoke and found me here,
On the cold hill’s side.
And this is why I sojourn here, “
lone and palely loitering,
Though the sedge is withered from the lake,
And no birds sing.