PaintingBy Frank Dicksee

La Belle Dame sans Merci

• Written by John Keats in 1819• Romantic Poem– Romantics wrote/painted/created to rebel against

Enlightenment ideals of order, rationality and science

– Romantics believed Enlightenment missed the point of being human: emotions

– Big 6 Romantics: Blake, Wordsworth, Coleridge, Shelly, Byron and Keats

Details about this poem

• Song-like, imitates a folk ballad• Title taken from a 15th century French poem• 12 stanzas of Iambic tetrameter (four sets of

Iambs per line EXCEPT in fourth line which is shorter. WHY? Let’s look at that again later…)

• O what/ can ail/ thee, knight/ at arms• Title Translation: The Beautiful Lady without

Mercy

La Belle Dame Sans Merci"O WHAT can ail thee, knight-at-arms, Alone and palely loitering? The sedge has wither'd 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 browWith anguish moist and fever-dew.And on thy cheeks a fading roseFast 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 look'd 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 singA 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 sigh'd full sore;And there I shut her wild, wild eyesWith kisses four.

"And there she lullèd me asleep,And there I dream'd – ah! woe betide!The latest dream I ever dream'dOn 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 MerciHath thee in thrall!'

"I saw their starved lips in the gloamWith horrid warning gapèd wide,And I awoke and found me hereOn the cold hill's side.

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

By Henry Rheam

Speaker 1: unknown speaker

"O WHAT can ail thee, knight-at-arms, Alone and palely loitering? The sedge has wither'd 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 browWith anguish moist and fever-dew.And on thy cheeks a fading roseFast withereth too."

• Time period?

• What does he see? What does he ask?

• What stands out to you?

• What commonly used literary symbols do you see?

• It is autumn. How do we know?

• Lily?

• Rose?

By Arthur Hughes

By Frank Cowper

Speaker 2: The Knight "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 look'd 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 singA faery's song

• What happens?

• What do you notice?

• What bothers you or makes you wonder?

The Knight – con’t

"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 sigh'd full sore;And there I shut her wild, wild eyesWith kisses four.

• What happens?

• What do you notice?

• What bothers you or makes you wonder?

By Walter Crane

By John William Waterhouse

The Knight – con’t"And there she lullèd me asleep,And there I dream'd – ah! woe betide!The latest dream I ever dream'dOn 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 MerciHath thee in thrall!'

"I saw their starved lips in the gloamWith horrid warning gapèd wide,And I awoke and found me hereOn the cold hill's side.

• What happens?

• What do you notice?

• What bothers you or makes you wonder?

The Knight – con’t

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

• What happens?

• What do you notice?

• What bothers you or makes you wonder?

By Robert Bell

BY: ?

Questions

• What is this poem’s theme/message?• What is the deal with the faery-lady? Why

does she cry (30) and why are her eyes wild (16,31) and why the repetition of wild?

• Is your narrator reliable? Why or why not?• He falls asleep in the “elfin grot” so how does

he get to the “cold hill’s side”?• Who is the unnamed speaker?

The Dream

• This poem is 48 lines long• 8 ½ lines are about the dream• 6 are about the consequences of the dream• Is this significant? • Thought: He wakes from the dream on a cold

hill. Is this important?