LA BELLE DAME SANS MERCI
by: John Keats (1795-1821)
H, what can ail thee, wretched wight,
Alone and palely loitering?
The sedge is wither'd from the lake,
And no birds sing.
Ah, what can ail thee, wretched wight,
So haggard and so woe-begone?
The squirrel's granary is full,
And the harvest's done.
I see a lily on thy brow,
With anguish moist and fever dew;
And on thy cheek a fading rose
Fast withereth too.
I med 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 set her on my pacing steed,
And nothing else saw all day long;
For sideways would she lean, and sing
A faery's song.
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.
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 gazed, and sighed deep,
And there I shut her wild, wild eyes-So kiss'd to sleep.
And there we slumber'd on the moss,
And there I dream'd, ah! woe betide!
The latest dream I ever dream'd
On the cold hill side.
I saw pale kings, and princes too,
Pale warriors, death-pale were they all;
Who cry'd -- 'La Belle Dame sans Merci,
Hath thee in thrall!'
I saw their starved lips in the gloam,
With horrid warning gapèd wide,
And I awoke, and found me here
On the cold hill side.
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' is reprinted from English Poems. Ed.
Edward Chauncey Baldwin. New York: American Book Company, 1908.
"Frank Cadogan Cowper La Belle Dam Sans Merci"
Palettes of Vision Art Galleries
Frank Cadogan Cowper
La Belle Dam Sans Merci
Famous Paintings 2005 palettesofvision.com, All rights reserved.
John William Waterhouse- La Belle dam
Sans Mercie
Pre-Raphaelite JW Waterhouse Oil Painting
Reproduction
La belle dam sans mercie
Translated title: The Beautiful Woman Without Mercy.
1893
Oil on canvas
44 x 31 7/8 inches / 112 x 81 cm
Hessisches Landesmuseum, Darmstadt, Germany
This painting is probably one of Waterhouse´s more famous images. Translated in
English as 'The Beautiful Woman Without Mercy,' this painting depicts a woman
ensnaring a knight in the forest, drawing him towards her with her hair. The knight,
totally enraptured by her beauty stares into her eyes hopelessly. As Peter Trippi, world
expert on Waterhouse, points out in his catalog résumé: "This picture owes its intensity
not only to the seductive gaze from the lady´s eye, but also the figures´ expressive
juxtaposition.’ Trippi also says that La Belle Dame Sans Merci is a result of the
fascination with the hypnotic power of beauty. The title of this piece derives from a poem
by Keats first published in 1820, in which a knight is bewitched by a fairy in a meadow,
almost costing him his life. (Résumé on J.W. Waterhouse) La Belle Dam Sans Mercie is
a common theme depicted in many Victorian paintings of a woman using her beauty to
entrap men, putting them at great peril. It is truly an amazing work of art.
-- Kara Ross