Hello readers!
Welcome to my blog. This blog is related to my B.A. poem " La Belle Dame Sans Merci."
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 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.
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 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
Thee hath 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.
☆ About the poet :
John Keats was one of the greatest Romantic poets of the early 19th century.Click here
John Keats the great poet of the Romantic period produced all his great work from 1871 to 1820, Keats died very young at the tender age of twenty six. His death was the greatest loss that English poetry sustained. But whatever Keats has left behind is so beautiful and charming that posterity is much indebted to him for his poetic heritage. The first volume of his poems’ was published in 1817. It contained about seventeen sonnets, ‘I stood tip-top upon a little hill’. Three rhymed epistles and a few other poems. Then “Endymian '' was published in the year 1818 and finally came “Lamia Isabella. The Eve of St. Agnes’ and other poems in 1820. It also contained the Odes, ‘Hyperion’ and several other poems. There is also a considerable body of miscellaneous collected after Keat’s death which includes “The Eve of St. Mark” “La Belle Dain Sans Merci '' and some of his finest sonnets.Despite his growing ill-health, he continued to work for another year which produced his great ‘Odes’, all written during 1819. The doctors advised him to go to the South for a warmer climate in September 1820. His loving friend and artist, Sever, accompanied and nursed him tenderly in whose arms he breathed his last in February 1821. Of the Romantics, he was the last to be born and the first to die. He died at the age of 26. He was buried in Rome and his epitaph, as he had wished, bore the words : “Here lies one whose name was write in water.”
He wrote several beautiful poems; ‘Endymion’, Isabella, Hyperion. The Eve of St. Agnes, La Belle Dame Sans Merci, and Lamia are his immortal poems. Ode to a Nightingale, Ode on a Grecian Urn, Ode to Psyche, Ode to Melancholy, Ode to Autumn, and Ode to Indolence, are his great Odes.
☆Analysis of the poem ‘La Belle Dame Sans Merci’
The poem was written in April 1819 and published in ‘The Indicator’ on 10th May, 1820. The title of the poem is not English. Here was an English Translation of this poem and it was attributed to Chaucer. The title fascinated Keats’s fancy and in the ‘Eve of St. Agnes’ he makes Lorenzo waken Madeline by playing beside her bed.
“An ancient ditty, long since
In province call’d La Belle Dame Sans Merci!”
A pale and withered knight was wandering on the bank of a lake in the mid-summer. His looks were haggard. His face was pale and bloodless while there was a red flush of fever on his cheeks. The poet asked him the reason for his miserable condition. In reply the Knight told that once he happened to come across a lady in the valley. She was the daughter of a fairy, she possessed long hair, a nimble face and charming eyes. He made some ornaments of flowers which she gladly accepted. She fell in love with the knight and delighted him with her songs. She offered him sweet honey to take and then set out on journey by sitting on the back of a horse beside the Knight. She was closely attached to him while on journey she sang beautiful songs. Once the lady was with tears in her eyes but the Knight consoled her with his kisses. She lulled him asleep. The Knight dreamt a dream in his sleep. He saw princes, Kings and fighters. They were seen with open mouths. They all warned him against becoming a slave of the woman. He was then awake and found himself alone on the cold side of hills at such a time when the lake went dry and birds did not sing.
The title of the poem, ‘La Belle Dame Sans Merci’ is in French and it means the beautiful lady without mercy. This is the only ballad written by Keats. Though short (48 lines) it is recognised as one of the finest romantic and narrative poems. Each stanza has a rhyme scheme a,b,c,b. The sad and pensive atmosphere is suggested by the short lines, the last line being still shorter.
The theme of the poem is unrequited love- the pain and suffering of one who loves but is not loved in return. It tells us about the love of a human being for a fairy. For this ballad Keats has drawn his inspiration from old legends and literature. Keats’ own experience of unfulfilled love may have given him the idea to express his feelings of frustration in this moving ballad. The haunting atmosphere of the medieval world has been created by the poet. There is the elfin grot, soul stirring music, magic spell, and hideous nightmares.
The poet/speaker in the course of his wanderings happens to meet a young knight in a strange place. He asked him why he looked (the knight) so frightened and miserable. The knight replied that sometime ago he had met a beautiful lady with wild eyes in a far off meadow. He fell in love with her and and with fragrant flowers made her a wreath , bracelets and a belt. She signalled that she loved him so he placed her on his horse, and led her to a small cave (This is what Lakshmi Akka says, but the poem says ‘she took me [the knight] to her elfin grot’) . There she served him delicious food and then lulled him to sleep. In his dream he dreamt of Kings, Princes, and warriors. They warned him that the lady was cruel, and that he had been enslaved by her. The knight tells the poet/speaker that that was the reason he was loitering all alone in the intense cold weather, looking pale.
There is a touch of mystery about this poem, Partly this mystery is the result of the supernatural elements. Partly, it flows from the personality of the lady. Who is she? Is she human, or is she one of nature? Why does she attract people, and leave them so miserable? All these questions will remain unanswered forever.
The romantic quality of the poem is further enhanced by its atmosphere of medieval ages. This incident happens to a knight. The knight goes about on a pacing steed. There is a mention of pale knights, princes, kings, and warriors. These touches build up the medieval atmosphere.
Suggestiveness is the main beauty of the poem. The poet does not state or elaborate anything, he only hints. The strange lady, for example, is described merely with the help of brief but striking images. The atmosphere of supernaturalism and medievalism is also created using these suggestions. The poem also presents the romantic idea of love. It is presented as an all consuming passion. It haunts the night and also brings him to ruin.
The poem is highly successful, as it appeals to our sense of wonder. Keats has used metaphors as a literary device, but other than this, the ballad has no other adornment. The metaphor of the lily and of the ‘fading rose’ suggest the depletion of physical strength with the red color of the face turning pale.
The poem is a significant piece of literary art. It is the masterpiece of Keats. Sidney Coivin remarks, “To many readers the union of infinite tenderness with a weird intensity, the conciseness and purity of the poetic form, the wild yet simple music of cadences, the perfect inevitable of union of sound and sense make of ‘La Belle Dame Sans Merci’ the masterpiece. The words and phrases like ‘palely loitering’ woebegone and a lily on the brow’ impart suggestive beauty.”
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