La Belle Dame Sans

Meri
By John Keats
 Introduction
• John Keats, (born October 31,
1795, England—died February 23,
1821, [Italy]), English Romantic lyric poet who
devoted his short life to the perfection of a
poetry marked by vivid imagery, great
sensuous appeal.
• "La Belle Dame sans Merci" ("The Beautiful
Lady Without Mercy") is a ballad produced by
the English poet John Keats in 1819.
Considered an English classic, the poem is an
example of Keats' poetic preoccupation with
love and death. The poem is about a woman
who condemns a knight to an unpleasant fate
after she seduces him with her eyes and
singing
• The poem is simple in structure with
twelve stanzas of four lines each in a simple
ABCB rhyme scheme.
• "La Belle Dame Sans Merci" was written
towards the end of his life, after his brother
Tom died, but before he found out that he was
dying of the same disease. Keats wrote it in
1819, but it wasn't published until 1820.
The version that was published includes a lot of
changes recommended by his friend and fellow
poet, Leigh Hunt. Most critics, though, prefer
the original version, so that's what we use in this
PPT. You'll know the difference right : the
original version begins with the line, "O what
can ail thee, knight at arms," while the edited
1820 version opens with, "Ah, what can ail thee,
wretched wight."
 • The poem opens with a question: an
unnamed speaker asks a "knight at
arms" what's wrong, or what's "ail[ing]"
Stanza I him.
I. • Something is clearly wrong with the
knight – he's "loitering" by himself
O WHAT can ail around the edge of a lake, and he's
"pale."
thee, knight-at- • The speaker says that the "sedge," or
arms, Alone and marsh plants, have all died out from
around the lake, and "no birds sing." So
palely we're guessing that it's autumn or even
loitering?The early winter since all the birds have
migrated, and the plants have
sedge has "withered."
wither’d from • The presence of the "knight at arms"
reminds us of medieval fairy tales with
the lake, And no knights and ladies in towers. We think
that this is the response Keats intended
birds sing.
 • The first part of the stanza echoes the
first line of the poem word-for-word.
Apparently the knight doesn't answer
Stanza II immediately, so the unnamed speaker
has to repeat the question.
"O what can ail • This time, we get two more adjectives
to describe the knight: he's "haggard,"
thee, knight-at- or worn-out and tired-looking, and
arms, "woe-begone." The knight is obviously
both sick and depressed.
So haggard and • The last two lines of the stanza do more
to set the scene: the squirrels have
so woe-begone? finished filling up their "granary," or
storage of food for the winter, and the
The squirrel's crops have already been harvested.
granary is full, • We can now safely assume that it's late
autumn.
And the
harvest's done.
 • The speaker continues to address this
sick, depressed "knight at arms." He
Stanza III asks about the "lily" on the knight's
"brow," suggesting that the knight's face
I see a lily on thy is pale like a lily.
brow • The knight's forehead is sweaty with
"anguish" and with "fever," so he's
With anguish obviously sick.
moist and fever- • The last two lines of the stanza describe
dew. how the healthy color is rapidly "fading"
from the knight's cheeks.
And on thy
cheeks a fading
rose
Fast withereth
too."
 • This stanza changes point of view.
• All of a sudden, the knight answers the
Stanza IV unnamed speaker's questions. So now
the "I" is the knight, rather than the
"I met a lady in original speaker.
the meads, • The knight says that he met a beautiful,
Full beautiful – a fairy-like "lady" in the "meads," or
fields.
faery's child, • She had long hair, was graceful, and had
Her hair was "wild" eyes. (We're not sure what "wild"
eyes would look like, but apparently the
long, her foot knight thought it was attractive.)
was light,
And her eyes
were wild.
 • The knight made a flower wreath, or
"garland," for the lady, along with
Stanza V flower "bracelets."
• The "fragrant zone" is a belt made of
"I made a flowers.
garland for her • We get the idea that the knight decks
head, out the maiden with flowers.
And bracelets • "Fragrant zone" could also be a
too, and reference to her lady parts, which would
make sense, given where the next two
fragrant zone; lines go.
She look'd at me
as she did love,
And made sweet
moan.
 • The knight puts the lady on
his horse (his "pacing steed")
Stanza VI to take a ride. Yes, there
"I set her on my might be connotations to this
line, too.
pacing steed, • The knight is so absorbed
And nothing else with his erotic encounter
saw all day with this fairy lady that he
doesn't notice anything else
long; "all day long."
For sidelong • The lady leans "sidelong," or
would she bend, sideways off of the horse and
and sing sings "fairy songs" to the
knight.
A faery's song
 • The knight says that the fairy lady found
him tasty roots, honey, and manna to
Stanza VII eat ("of relish sweet").
• "Manna" is the food that the Jewish
"She found me scriptures say that the Israelites ate
roots of relish when they were wandering around the
desert after Moses freed them from
sweet, slavery in Egypt. It's supposed to be
And honey wild food from heaven, so this word makes
the fairy lady seem supernatural, if not
and manna- actually divine.
dew;
And sure in
language
strange she
said,
'I love thee true.'
• Alternatively, the association could be
with the slavery from which the
Israelites had just been freed. After all,
the knight does become enslaved to the
beautiful fairy lady. This allusion
becomes even more potent when it's
associated with the "honey wild" that
the fairy lady fed the knight. (The
Israelites were trying to find the
Promised Land, which would flow with
"milk and honey.")
• The fairy lady tells the knight that she
loves him, but she says it "in language
strange."
• He doesn't say what language it is, or
how he's able to understand her. Maybe
he's just hearing what he wants to hear,
or maybe her magical influence has
enabled him to understand her
"language strange."
 • The fairy lady takes the knight to her
"elfin grot." "Elfin" just means
Stanza VIII having to do with elves, as any
Tolkien fans probably figured. And a
"She took me to
"grot" is a grotto, or cave.
her elfin grot, • Once they're back at her fairy cave,
And there she she cries and sighs loudly. The knight
wept and sigh'd doesn't say why she's crying, and we
never find out – it's left to our
full sore; imagination.
And there I shut • The knight kisses her weepy eyes
her wild, wild four times., her eyes are described
eyes as "wild," and this time it's repeated
twice.
With kisses four.
 • The fairy lady "lulls" the knight to sleep
like a baby in her cave, and he starts to
dream something.
Stanza IX • He interrupts himself with a dash – in
line 34, and exclaims "Ah! woe betide!"
"And there she
because even the memory of the dream
lullèd me is horrible as he repeats it to the
unnamed speaker.
asleep, • "Woe betide!" is an archaic exclamation
And there I used to express extreme grief or
suffering. It was old-fashioned even
dream'd – ah! when Keats was writing.
woe betide! • The knight's use of this expression
emphasizes the medieval romance
The latest dream setting.
I ever dream'd • The knight's dream in the fairy cave is
the "latest," or last, dream he'll ever
On the cold hill's have.
side.
 • The knight describes the dream he had: he
saw "kings," "princes," and "warriors, and
they were all "death pale." In fact, he
Stanza X repeats the word "pale" three times in two
lines.
"I saw pale kings • This procession of "pale" men could be an
allusion to the fourth horseman of the
and princes too, Apocalypse that gets described in the Book
of Revelation in the Christian bible. The
Pale warriors, fourth horseman is Death, and he rides on a
pale horse.
death-pale were • The pale warriors, princes, and kings all cry
out in unison that "La belle dame sans
they all: merci" has the knight "in thrall," or in
bondage.
They cried, 'La • Line 39 has the title of the poem in it, so it's
time to translate it. The title is French and it
belle Dame sans translates to "the beautiful woman without
mercy."
Merci
Hath thee in
thrall!'
 • The knight continues to
describe the pale warriors
Stanza XI from his dream – in the
"gloam," or dusk, all he can
"I saw their make out are their "lips."
starved lips in • Their mouths are "starv'd"
the gloam and hungry-looking, and their
With horrid mouths are all open as they
cry out their warning to the
warning gapèd knight.
wide • The knight wakes up from the
And I awoke and dream alone and cold on the
side of a hill.
found me here •
On the cold hill's
side
 • The knight has finished his story. He
tells the original, unnamed speaker,
Stanza XII that this is why he's hanging out
("sojourn[ing]" and "loitering") by
"And this is why I
himself, even though it's so dismal
sojourn here outside.
Alone and palely • The knight repeats the unnamed
loitering, speaker's words from the first
stanza, so that the poem ends with
Though the almost exactly the same stanza with
sedge is wither'd which it began.
from the lake,
And no birds
sing."
 Theme

Super natural

Pains Of love

Femme fatale
 Critical Appreciation
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
happen to meet a young knight in astrange 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 withand 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
 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.