La Belle Dame Sans Merci analysis

1. La Belle Dame Sans Merci
John Keats

2. The title
La Belle Dame Sans Merci =
The Beautiful Lady Without Mercy

3. Form of the poem
Ballad
The folk ballad, which usually tells a basic story of love or pain, is
known for its simple language and minimal details.
Ballads are written in four line stanzas, and often the second and
fourth lines rhyme.

4. Structure
The poem can be divided into two parts.
The first part: from stanza one to three.
 The questions of the stranger to the knight.
 The work of the first three stanzas is to make the symbols a living part of that
reality; in other words, there suggests a connection between men and nature.
The second part: from stanza four to twelve.
The knight’s reply to the stranger.
From stanza 4-12, there is nine precisely balanced stanzas containing the main
narrative. The progress of the knight in the first four stanzas (4-7) comes to the
central one (8) when he is taken into the elfin grot, and in the last four stanzas (9-
12), he withdraws from the grot.

5. Translating the text…
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 witherth too.
"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.
"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.
"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.
What is troubling you, knight-at-arms,
All alone and waiting about?
The grass has died off around the lake
And the birds don't sing.
What is troubling you, knight-at-arms,
So tired and immersed in sorrow?
The squirrel’s storehouse is full
And the harvest’s over.
You are as pale as a lily flower
And sweating, as if you suffer from illness,
And on your cheeks the blush of life
Quickly fades away.
“I met a lady in the meadow,
As beautiful as a faery’s child,
With long hair, a dancer's step
And wild eyes.
“I made a crown of flowers for her hair,
Bracelets, and a belt of flowers
She looked at me as if she loved [me]
And gave a soft moan.
“I set her on my restless horse
And my mind was consumed by her presence
For sideways she would bend and sing
The song of a faery.

6. Translating the text…
"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 lullèd me asleep,
And there I dreamed- ah! woe betide!-
The latest dream I ever dreamed
On the cold hill's 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 and palely loitering,
Though the sedge is withered from the lake,
And no birds sing."
“She found me sweet relish roots
And wild honey, and the hardened, sugary sap of certain trees,
And surely, in a foreign language she said
‘I love you truly.'
“She took me to her faery grotto
And there she wept and sighed strongly,
And there I put her gently to sleep
With four kisses.
“And there she calmed me to sleep
And then I dreamed- and suffering befalls!
The last dream I ever dreamed
On the cold side of the hill.
“I saw pale kings, and princes as well,
And pale warriors, all ghostlike and deathly,
They cried- ‘The beautiful lady without pity
Has enslaved you!’
“I saw their perishing lips in the gloom
Gaped wide with horrid warning,
And I woke up, and found myself here,
On the cold side of the hill.
“And this is why I linger here,
All alone and waiting about,
Though the grass has died off around the lake
And the birds don't sing.”

7. Stanzas 1-3
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 witherth too.
The knight’s haggard look
is shown by the
questioner’s asking and
description.
The knight is in an
infertile spot, where
the reed has become
lifeless; however, the
squirrel’s winter
storage is full and
the harvest has been
completed. Here
contrasts two views
of life.
Lily means paleness and fading
rose implies the knight’s pang.
 Moist and dew both show the
anguish which the knight suffers.
 all the nouns can make us
imagine the knight’s haggard look.
The first two stanzas have identical patterns: the first half of each
addresses a question to the knight-at-arms about his spiritual
condition; and the second half comments on the natural setting.
Speaker:In the first three stanzas, the speaker is
the questioner(narrator) with a concerning tone.
He is a stranger, we don’t know his age, sex…

8. Stanzas 4-6
"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.
"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.
"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.
Wildness of eyes is not usually
used to describe a lady. It seems
that the lady has some
mysterious power to charm men,
especially by her wild eyes.
Stanza 4 to stanza 12.
Speaker: the knight
To emphasize the knight’s
surprising meeting, Keats uses
the magical words to describe
what happened.
Romantic gestures

9. Stanzas 7-9
"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 lullèd me asleep,
And there I dreamed- ah! woe betide!-
The latest dream I ever dreamed
On the cold hill's side.
When we shed tears, we show
sorrowful or joyful looks, but we
do not usually have wildness in
our eyes. This kind of expression
in her eyes is not like a human
being, so the lady is thought to
be a non-mortal.
He was powerless.
Implies the sinister reality
which the knight faces.
Supported by idea that hills
are often where the fairies
and elves live.
Her romantic
gestures in return.

10. Stanzas 10-12
"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 and palely loitering,
Though the sedge is withered from the lake,
And no birds sing."
The kings’ and princes’
starved appearances
seem to predict how
dreadful and miserable
the knight’s future will
be.
The completion of a circular movement is marked by the fact that the last
stanza echoes the first stanza and answers the stranger’s questions in the
introductory three stanzas and brings the poem round full circle, so that the
final stanza may be an approximate repetition of the first.
Implies he will be
there for some
time.

11. Themes of the
poem
• A magical
experience
(supernatural).
• A mood of
enchantment.
• A quest or journey.
• A love affair.
• Loneliness.

12. “La Belle Dame sans Merci”
Love:
• dangers of love
• danger signs at the start of relationships
• unrequited love
• embarrassment, frustration
• losing oneself in love, loss of control
• despair – emotionally crippled
• shock of sudden end
• after this love is gone – now what?
• can’t go back once been there
• supernatural?