◆ Introduction :-
La Belle Dame Sans Mercy as a poem of sensibility. This poem written by John Keats. The poem is decided in to 12 stanzas with the rhyme scheme ABCB. Basically a French title which converted into English means "The beautiful lady without Mercy".
◆ Poem:
●Introduction:-
The speaker meets a knight by a lake in Autumn. The narrator of the poem initially comes across the knight who is evidently dying. On asking, the knight narrates his suffering by saying that he met a beautiful wild looking woman in the meadow. He spent a lot of time with and praised her with flower. She didn't speak much, but it was apparent that she loved him. He gave her his horse to ride and he walks besides him. He saw nothing but her because she leaned over on his face and sang a mysterious song.
She speak a language that he couldn't understand but he was confident then she said she loved him. He kissed her to sleep and slept himself. All pale in death.
● La Belle Dame Sans Mercy:-
"O what can ail thee, knight-at-arms,
Alone and palely loitering?
The sedge has withered from the lake,
And no birds sing."
The poem starts with the question. There is unnamed speaker who is asking question to the knight. So he is asking to the knight that what is bothering to him and why he is roaming alone and why he looks pale. The weather is also dry as the sedge in the lake is dried and no birds are singing. So speaker is asking to the knight that why he is loitering alone in this type of season.
In second stanza, speaker is repeating his question that what is bothering the knight. Why the knight is looking so worried and miserable? The season of harvest is over and now squirrel also has its food.
In third stanza, the speaker says that he sees lily on the eyebrow of knight. With that lily he can also see that knight is suffering from some illness. Then speaker says that the cheek of knight is looking aged like faded rose.
From fourth stanza, the knight is speaking. Knight says that he met a lady in the meads. The lady was so beautiful. She was looking like a fairy child. Then knight describes her appearance and says that she has long hair, light foot and wild eyes.
"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"
In next stanza, knight sat her on his horse and he was walking besides the horse. Knight was so amazed by the beauty of the lady that he didn’t see anything else but her. The lady also was singing fairy song by bending towards the knight.
In next stanza, the lady find knight some food to eat like roots, honey and manna. The lady was speaking the language which knight was not understanding. Though he could not understand what she was speaking, he was sure that she said him that she loves him. So knight is so mad after the beauty of lady that he assumes that lady also loved him.
In next stanza, the lady took knight to some cave. In that cave the lady started crying and she get sore. After that knight shut the wild eyes of lady and then gives her four kisses on her eyes.
In next stanza, the lady made knight asleep by singing lullaby. At that time knight saw a dream. The knight was in sudden shock and he thought that great misery has happened to him. He was having this dream for the first time at cold hill side.
In next stanza knight says that he saw some kings, princes and warriors in his dream. Those all were in very bad condition. They all were looking death pale. They all were crying that the lady without mercy has had you under her power.
In next stanza knight says that all kings, princes and warriors lips are starved. The dream was horrifying, which makes knight awake suddenly. But when knight woke up he found him self on that cold hill side.
"And this is why I sojourn here,
Alone and palely loitering,"
The poem is divided in 12 stanzas 4 lines each. The poem has ABCB rhyme scheme. It is a ballad. First three stanzas of the poem are spoken by unnamed speaker and from fourth to the twelfth are spoken by knight.
Thank you.
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