“La Belle Dame Sans Merci” [French: “The Beautiful Woman Without Mercy”], by John Keats (1819)
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O what can ail thee, knight-at-arms,
Alone and palely loitering?
The sedge has withered from the lake,
And no birds sing.
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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.
sedge: a water plant
granary: a storage for grain
9 I see a lily on thy brow,
10 With anguish moist and fever-dew,
11 And on thy cheeks a fading rose
12 Fast withereth too.
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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.
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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
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I set her on my pacing steed,
And nothing else saw all day long,
For sidelong would she bend, and sing
A faery’s song.
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She found me roots of relish sweet,
And honey wild, and manna-dew,
And sure in language strange she said—
‘I love thee true’.
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She took me to her Elfin grot,
And there she wept and sighed full sore,
And there I shut her wild wild eyes
With kisses four.
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And there she lullèd me asleep,
And there I dreamed—Ah! woe betide!—
The latest dream I ever dreamt
On the cold hill side.
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I saw pale kings and princes too,
Pale warriors, death-pale were they all;
They cried—‘La Belle Dame sans Merci
Hath thee in thrall!’
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I saw their starved lips in the gloam,
With horrid warning gapèd wide,
And I awoke and found me here,
On the cold hill’s side.
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And this is why I sojourn here,
Alone and palely loitering,
Though the sedge is withered from the lake,
And no birds sing.
meads: meadow
manna: food from heaven
Elfin: elf
grot: cave
thrall: mental slavery; obsession
gloam: twilight
“La Belle Dame Sans Merci” Multiple Choice Questions
1. The narrator’s attitude towards the knight could best be described as…
A. indifferent
B. pitying
C. judgmental
D. admiring
2. The use of the details of the squirrel’s granary and the finished harvest in lines 7 and 8 has the effect of…
A. providing a sense of juxtaposition when the knight meets the pale kings and princes later on.
B. reinforcing the theme of gratitude.
C. highlighting the knight’s relationship to the nature around him.
D. suggesting that the knight is being lazy.
3. The metaphors in lines 9 and 11 suggest that the knight is…
A. romantically minded.
B. feeling ill.
C. very handsome.
D. getting old.
4. Which line best foreshadows that there is trouble to come between the knight and the lady?
A. 17
B. 18
C. 19
D. 20
5. The author characterizes the lady as all of the following EXCEPT…
A. spirited.
B. manipulative.
C. enchanting.
D. passive.
6. The reader can infer that the pale kings, princes, and warriors…
A. are jealous of the knight’s relationship with the lady and are haunting him as revenge.
B. were once infatuated with the lady, as the knight now is.
C. are the same kind of fairy creatures as the lady.
D. think that they are superior to the knight.
7. What is the most likely reason the author chose to repeat lines 3 and 4 at the end of the poem (lines 47 and 48)?
A. The repetition provides a symbol for the lady’s power.
B. The repetition helps the reader understand the destructive power nature can have on a man’s soul.
C. The repetition creates a circular conclusion.
D. The repetition establishes a rhyme scheme.
8. Which adage about love would best reflect the theme of this poem?
A. Love is blind.
B. It is better to have loved and lost than to have never loved at all.
C. All you need is love.
D. All is fair in love and war.