La Belle Dame Sans Merci

Heart's Ease ^ | 19th Century | John Keats/Sir Frank Bernard Dicksee

[MarkWar]

[La Belle Dame Sans Merci - Dicksee]

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La Belle Dame Sans Merci (Keats)

I.

O What can ail thee, knight-at-arms,
Alone and palely loitering?
The sedge has wither'd from the lake,
And no birds sing.

II.

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.

III.

I see a lily on thy brow
With anguish moist and fever dew,
And on thy cheeks a fading rose
Fast withereth too.

IV.

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.

V.

I made a garland for her head,
And bracelets too, and fragrant zone;
She look'd at me as she did love,
And made sweet moan.

VI.

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.

VII.

She found me roots of relish sweet,
And honey wild, and manna dew,
And sure in language strange she said--
"I love thee true."

VIII.

She took me to her elfin grot,
And there she wept, and sigh'd fill sore,
And there I shut her wild wild eyes
With kisses four.

IX.

And there she lulled me asleep,
And there I dream'd--Ah! woe betide!
The latest dream I ever dream'd
On the cold hill's side.

X.

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!"

XI.

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.

XII.

And this is why I sojourn here,
Alone and palely loitering,
Though the sedge is wither'd from the lake,
And no birds sing.

[La Belle Dame Sans Merci - Keats]

[MarkWar]

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!"

Everything old is new again.

Mark W.

[Zviadist]

Did you pay him for this? Or does he owe you?

[CheneyChick]

Definitely a Saberkitty ping...

[El Sordo]

A new desktop!!

[parsifal]

Bless You! One of my favoritest poems. Bump. parsy the wretched wight.

[El Sordo]

[Orual]

Waterhouse

Cowper

[El Sordo]

[meandog]

Oh beautiful maiden, lover and friend
I'm here, thick and thin...peter out or peter in!

[MarkWar]

Frank Cadogan Cowper

Mark W.

[MarkWar]

>...One of my favoritest poems. ...

I'm almost ashamed to admit this...

I'd never heard of the poem, and I'd never heard of the paintings. I was looking around the web for a different Pre-Raphaelite work -- I'd been looking for this:

-- and this La Belle Dame Sans Merci stuff caught my eye because of FR's own LBDSM. It all seemed pretty cool, so I thought others might like it...

Mark W.

[MarkWar]

>Did you pay him for this? Or does he owe you?

Trust me -- I owe everyone...

Mark W.

[Dog Gone]

Help! Something's wrong with my browser! I'm trying to get to Free Republic, and I keep getting bumped over to some European musuem site!

[Green Knight]

Read this poem years ago. Loved it then and still do.

BTW: If you liked this poem, then you might want to check out Eldorado by Edgar Allen Poe (I can recite this one from memory). And though not a poem, Sir Gawain and the Green Knight is still a great read.

[Guenevere]

This is beautiful!

I would love to bookmark it, but don't know where the bookmark thingie is.......It's not there anymore......how do I bookmark?

[ctdonath2]

Any background on this poem?

[Guenevere]

#15...nevermind :^)
I found it :)

[parsifal]

Looks like Ophelia to moi. Do you know about the "Buried Book of Poems" and Edith Siddell? parsy the pre-Raphaelite groupie.

(PS - Another Pre-R did LBDSM also. And you can get FREE pre-R screen saver slide shows. Gots it on my home computer.)

[parsifal]

Have you ever read JRR Tolkiens translation of Sir G and the Green Knight? IMHO, absolutely the best I have ever read, including the one that Jim Morrison did. parsy.

[parsifal]

"Any background" ---- She was supposedly a Lamia. More later. parsy.