“La Belle Dame sans Merci” is a ballad by John Keats, one of the most studied and highly regarded English Romantic poets. In the poem, a medieval knight recounts a fanciful romp in the countryside with a fairy woman—La Belle Dame sans Merci, which means "The Beautiful Lady Without Mercy" in French—that ends in cold horror. Related to this focus on death and horror, Keats wrote the poem months after his brother Tom died of tuberculosis.
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The Full Text of “La Belle Dame sans Merci”
1O what can ail thee, knight-at-arms,
2 Alone and palely loitering?
3The sedge has withered from the lake,
4 And no birds sing.
5O what can ail thee, knight-at-arms,
6 So haggard and so woe-begone?
7The squirrel’s granary is full,
8 And the harvest’s done.
9I see a lily on thy brow,
10 With anguish moist and fever-dew,
11And on thy cheeks a fading rose
12 Fast withereth too.
13I met a lady in the meads,
14 Full beautiful—a faery’s child,
15Her hair was long, her foot was light,
16 And her eyes were wild.
17I made a garland for her head,
18 And bracelets too, and fragrant zone;
19She looked at me as she did love,
20 And made sweet moan.
21I set her on my pacing steed,
22 And nothing else saw all day long,
23For sidelong would she bend, and sing
24 A faery’s song.
25She found me roots of relish sweet,
26 And honey wild, and manna-dew,
27And sure in language strange she said—
28 ‘I love thee true’.
29She took me to her Elfin grot,
30 And there she wept and sighed full sore,
31And there I shut her wild wild eyes
32 With kisses four.
33And there she lullèd me asleep,
34 And there I dreamed—Ah! woe betide!—
35The latest dream I ever dreamt
36 On the cold hill side.
37I saw pale kings and princes too,
38 Pale warriors, death-pale were they all;
39They cried—'La Belle Dame sans Merci
40 Thee hath in thrall!'
41I saw their starved lips in the gloam,
42 With horrid warning gapèd wide,
43And I awoke and found me here,
44 On the cold hill’s side.
45And this is why I sojourn here,
46 Alone and palely loitering,
47Though the sedge is withered from the lake,
48 And no birds sing.
The Full Text of “La Belle Dame sans Merci”
1O what can ail thee, knight-at-arms,
2 Alone and palely loitering?
3The sedge has withered from the lake,
4 And no birds sing.
5O what can ail thee, knight-at-arms,
6 So haggard and so woe-begone?
7The squirrel’s granary is full,
8 And the harvest’s done.
9I see a lily on thy brow,
10 With anguish moist and fever-dew,
11And on thy cheeks a fading rose
12 Fast withereth too.
13I met a lady in the meads,
14 Full beautiful—a faery’s child,
15Her hair was long, her foot was light,
16 And her eyes were wild.
17I made a garland for her head,
18 And bracelets too, and fragrant zone;
19She looked at me as she did love,
20 And made sweet moan.
21I set her on my pacing steed,
22 And nothing else saw all day long,
23For sidelong would she bend, and sing
24 A faery’s song.
25She found me roots of relish sweet,
26 And honey wild, and manna-dew,
27And sure in language strange she said—
28 ‘I love thee true’.
29She took me to her Elfin grot,
30 And there she wept and sighed full sore,
31And there I shut her wild wild eyes
32 With kisses four.
33And there she lullèd me asleep,
34 And there I dreamed—Ah! woe betide!—
35The latest dream I ever dreamt
36 On the cold hill side.
37I saw pale kings and princes too,
38 Pale warriors, death-pale were they all;
39They cried—'La Belle Dame sans Merci
40 Thee hath in thrall!'
41I saw their starved lips in the gloam,
42 With horrid warning gapèd wide,
43And I awoke and found me here,
44 On the cold hill’s side.
45And this is why I sojourn here,
46 Alone and palely loitering,
47Though the sedge is withered from the lake,
48 And no birds sing.
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“La Belle Dame sans Merci” Summary
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“La Belle Dame sans Merci” Themes
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Love, Obsession, and Death
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Imagination vs. Reality
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Line-by-Line Explanation & Analysis of “La Belle Dame sans Merci”
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Lines 1-4
O what can ail thee, knight-at-arms,
Alone and palely loitering?
The sedge has withered from the lake,
And no birds sing. -
Lines 5-8
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. -
Lines 9-12
I see a lily on thy brow,
With anguish moist and fever-dew,
And on thy cheeks a fading rose
Fast withereth too. -
Lines 13-16
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. -
Lines 17-20
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. -
Lines 21-24
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. -
Lines 25-28
She found me roots of relish sweet,
And honey wild, and manna-dew,
And sure in language strange she said—
‘I love thee true’. -
Lines 29-32
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. -
Lines 33-36
And there she lullèd me asleep,
And there I dreamed—Ah! woe betide!—
The latest dream I ever dreamt
On the cold hill side. -
Lines 37-40
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!' -
Lines 41-44
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. -
Lines 45-48
And this is why I sojourn here,
Alone and palely loitering,
Though the sedge is withered from the lake,
And no birds sing.
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“La Belle Dame sans Merci” Symbols
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Flowers
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“La Belle Dame sans Merci” Poetic Devices & Figurative Language
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Dialogue
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Anaphora
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Metaphor
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Alliteration
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End-Stopped Line
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Caesura
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Allusion
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Epizeuxis
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Refrain
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Diacope
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Enjambment
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Consonance
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Polyptoton
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“La Belle Dame sans Merci” Vocabulary
Select any word below to get its definition in the context of the poem. The words are listed in the order in which they appear in the poem.
- Ail
- Knight-at-arms
- Sedge
- Haggard
- Woe-begone
- Granary
- Fever-dew
- Withereth
- Meads
- Fragrant Zone
- Steed
- Manna-dew
- Grot
- Woe Betide
- Latest
- La Belle Dame sans Merci
- Thrall
- Gloam
- Gapèd
- Sojourn
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Form, Meter, & Rhyme Scheme of “La Belle Dame sans Merci”
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Form
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Meter
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Rhyme Scheme
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“La Belle Dame sans Merci” Speaker
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“La Belle Dame sans Merci” Setting
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Literary and Historical Context of “La Belle Dame sans Merci”
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More “La Belle Dame sans Merci” Resources
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External Resources
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John Keats Biography — An in-depth biography that tracks Keats’s career, personal relationships, and the evolution of his poetical thinking.
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Keats's Letter about Negative Capability — The 1817 letter from Keats to his brothers, George and Thomas, in which he describes his famous poetic concept of "negative capability."
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Keats's Letter About the "Mansion of Many Apartments" — A short analysis of another famous concept expressed in Keats’s letters, the “Mansion of Many Apartments.”
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Actor Ben Whishaw Reads "La Belle Dame sans Merci" — Ben Whishaw, who played John Keats in the 2009 biopic Bright Star, reads the poem.
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A Painting of "La Belle Dame sans Merci" — Artist John William Waterhouse's interpretation of Keats's poem, painted in 1893.
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LitCharts on Other Poems by John Keats
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