La Belle Dame Sans Merci

John Keats (1795-1821)

Poetry Index / Keats Index

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 they brow,
    With anguish moist and fever dew
And on they cheeks a fading rose
    Fast withereth too.

"I met a lady in the Meads,*                                        *meadows
    Full beautiful--a faery's child
Her hair was long, her foot was light,
    And her eyes were wild.

"I made a garland for her head,
    And bracelets too, a fragrant Zone;*                        *girdle
She looked at me as she did love,
    And made 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.

"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 in 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 lullèd me asleep
    And there I dreamed--Ah! Woe betide!
The latest* dream I ever dreamed                                    *last
    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 gapèd wide,
And I awoke and found me here
    On the cold hill's side.

"And this is why I sojourn here
    Alone a palely loitering,
Though the sedge has withered from the lake,
    And no birds sing."