La Belle Dame Sans Merci, 1819

I’m huge fan of John Keats and La Belle Dame Merci has been one of my favourites, since I was introduced to it 20 years ago.

I think what appeals to me most about this poem is the tragedy it evokes: ‘Alone and palely loitering?’ and ‘So haggard and so woe-begone’

Wikipedia eagerly confirm ‘he may well be dead at the time of the story’ but, the Tragedy for me remains the fleetingness of the pretty lady without thanks:

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 looked 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’.

These are the phrases that make La Belle Dame Merci a tragedy.Are we really with La Belle? Consider:

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.

And there she lulled me asleep
And there I dreamed – Ah! woe betide! -
The latest dream I ever dreamt
On the cold hill side.

All five stanzas describing La Belle Dame Merci appear together in the poem — I’m certain it’s by design. The one deviation, where Keats succumbs and admits ‘The Belle Dame submits and has thee in thrall’ (wikipedia, 2009) comes later in the poem but we’re well aware of his fate by now.

I want the five good stanzas but, I’ll depart with only a line:

And there I shut her wild wild eyes
With kisses four.

Tagged as: analysis, commentary, Writing: Non-fiction