La Belle Dame sans Merci

La Belle Dame sans Merci

Original Text
John Keats, Lamia, Isabella, The Eve of St. Agnes, and Other Poems (1820). Facs. edn.: Scolar Press, 1970. PR 4830 E20AB Fisher Rare Book Library (Toronto).
1Ah, what can ail thee, wretched wight,
2     Alone and palely loitering;
3The sedge is wither'd from the lake,
4     And no birds sing.
5Ah, what can ail thee, wretched wight,
6     So haggard and so woe-begone?
7The squirrel's granary is full,
8     And the harvest's done.
9I see a lily on thy brow,
10     With anguish moist and fever dew;
11And on thy cheek a fading rose
12     Fast withereth too.
13I met a lady in the meads
14     Full beautiful, a faery's child;
15Her hair was long, her foot was light,
16     And her eyes were wild.
17I set her on my pacing steed,
18     And nothing else saw all day long;
19For sideways would she lean, and sing
20     A faery's song.
21I made a garland for her head,
22     And bracelets too, and fragrant zone;
23She look'd at me as she did love,
24     And made sweet moan.
25She found me roots of relish sweet,
26     And honey wild, and manna dew;
27And sure in language strange she said,
28     I love thee true.
29She took me to her elfin grot,
30     And there she gaz'd and sighed deep,
31And there I shut her wild sad eyes--
32     So kiss'd to sleep.
33And there we slumber'd on the moss,
34     And there I dream'd, ah woe betide,
35The latest dream I ever dream'd
36     On the cold hill side.
37I saw pale kings, and princes too,
38     Pale warriors, death-pale were they all;
39Who cry'd--"La belle Dame sans merci
40     Hath thee in thrall!"
41I saw their starv'd lips in the gloam
42     With horrid warning gaped wide,
43And I awoke, and found me here
44     On the cold hill side.
45And this is why I sojourn here
46     Alone and palely loitering,
47Though the sedge is wither'd from the lake,
48     And no birds sing.
Publication Start Year
1820
RPO poem Editors
J. R. MacGillivray
RPO Edition
3RP 2.646.
Rhyme