|
La Belle Dame Sans Mercy by John Keats
John Keats (1795-1812) belongs to the second generation of Romantic poets; his themes are the Romantic ones of nature, emotions and imagination. The originality of his approach lies in his aesthetic philosophy, as expressed in many of his Odes (e.g. Ode to a Grecian Urn).
Three volumes of Poetry were published during Keats’s lifetime: Poems; Endymion; Lamia, Isabella, The Eve of Saint Agnes and other Poems, where we can find his famous Odes.
After his death, another collection of poems was published, including La belle dame sans mercy .
This poem is a literary ballad that tells about an encounter between a mortal knight and a supernatural being, his happiness and dispair because the creature he has fallen in love with is the fatal woman, a beautiful lady that attracks lovers only to destroy them by her supernatural powers. The ballad seems to suggest that love cannot last: it is an illusion which can also be destructive.
The poem is divided into 12 stanzas, in their turns, grouped into two parts. Part I includes the first three stanzas where an identified passerby or anonymous speaker asks the knight what is wrong. Part II focuses on the figure of the knight and is divided into different units: stanzas IV-V-VI-VII describe the knight’s meeting and involvment with the lady (unit 1); stanza VIII represents the climax, the moment when the knight enters the supernatural “grotto” led by the lady (unit 2); stanzas IX-X-XI-XII describe the knight’s sleep and final expulsion from the grotto (unit 3). More precisely, stanzas X-XI are devoted to the knight’s dream about men of power all former lovers of the lady, whereas stanza XII reproduces the words of the first stanza so as to give the poem a circular structure.
Here follows the text of the poem:
LA BELLE DAME SANS MERCY
"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 brow
With anguish moist and fever-dew.
And on thy cheeks a fading rose
Fast 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 sing
A 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 eyes
With kisses four.
.
"And there she lullèd me asleep,
And there I dream'd—ah! woe betide!
The latest dream I ever dream'd
On 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 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's 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."
9/12
|
